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HAVE SOME SUGAR IN YOUR SMOOTHIE
Sugar to Fireflii, Tru and Furiouswolf for continuing to make charts for the Monthly Outcomes thread since they joined the thread team back in 2014! What a run; y'all really do the community an indispensable service!
Sugar to aurel arcanum for being so supportive!! When they're around, it's always a good time. Bless your kind soul!! ❤
Sugar to aurel arcanum for always being so kind, understanding, and silly!
Sugar to GenericGadget for being such an awesome person! Sugar to ☆Wystana☆ for her impeccable vibes ✨
Sugar from the CSN staff to Lostlovebirdz for showing up for our community engagement efforts. We appreciate your participation and comments they really help keep up motivated! ♡
Thanks to JK341 for this beautiful seasonal piece!
CHICKEN SMOOTHIE HIGHLIGHTS
Halloween has just passed and now we’re settling into the rest of the Autumn season! While our Halloween event did start a little later than usual this year, it was well worth the wait as the pets and items we received were above and beyond. A huge thank you to all the staff that worked hard to make it happen! The advent event is looming close ahead, so November is a month to relax and recoup after all the chaos! Additionally, we’ve been able to see a new set of items in the store: a set of zodiac-inspired accessories for horses, one for each sign! Codex has done an incredible job designing them, as per usual. Interestingly enough, we seem to have also gotten a litter of horses that also look suspiciously... astrological? We’re excited to see how they grow! (Editor’s Note: The growths have confirmed the horses are Zodiac themed!)
For the holiday season, we will be doing a few shorter articles We look forward to coming back refreshed after the holiday season is over with more in-depth news!! As always, thank you for reading the CSN.
CS FUN FACT
Did you know that the C$ store actually used to have a mascot? It was removed long ago, in 2011, and hasn’t been talked about much since. Additionally, it seems no staff have officially spoken on why it was removed, so for now, it remains a mystery...
The original artwork for them was drawn by CS user Lawliet, who did an amazing job!
TRADE NEWS
This month the forums have been abuzz with thousands of swap, trade, and buy requests for the Halloween event that is now finished! There were so many absolutely stunning designs this year, so a decent few pets have entered the high demand territory!
This year’s banner pets are all high in demand, they are the flame-engulfed foxes. However, the blue/purple (blurple) variant of this fox is particularly in demand as it’s the final banner pet to be released, and is generally owned by the least amount of users. However, when it comes to low-chance drops, nothing is rarer than the EPPS Butterfly Wolf also known as the Orange Caterpillar. This caterpillar has been searched for endlessly, and on the day of release, the trades for it were nearing the value of an old rare in overpay! Luckily, the demand seems to have slowed, but we predict it will likely be a rare outcome.
Additionally, the skeleton patterned Malk Fox is in high popularity, reminding us a little of the surge in popularity of the fae foxes, which share the same lines. We’ll be keeping a close eye on its demand to see if it shares that same demand surge. Overall, there were so many incredible designs made that every pet was well loved; this was an amazing Halloween!
ART NEWS
We’ve decided to shift directions for this month’s art news and focus on another beautiful art form: writing!
BlueEyedKite has taken to art forums expressing that writing is a generally undervalued art form on the site, pointing out that there is no writing competition forum, or very many other comps at all! They run contests with multiple prompts to choose from, allowing you to write about whichever prompt speaks to you. And if you really don’t connect with any, they cycle out once the next contest starts so there will always be more opportunities.
comfypxl has been running a writing competition, “Story Sprouts,” that refreshes every single month! That means they’re frequent, with new prompts, new prizes, and with lots of opportunities to write new things! It’s very cool to see a writing competition that cycles out monthly and we’re looking forward to seeing the growth and traction on this topic as time progresses.
In a recent shock as well, official CS writing competitions have returned! With this month’s judge being Spaceinmyhead, and a store pet up for grabs, we’ll be excited to see the entries that come out of this We’re so happy to see it back!
Overall, it’s great to see that writing is slowly coming up to a resurgence on CS, as most can agree that it’s generally underrated on the site. It’s incredible to see users taking notice of that and doing something about it out of the kindness of their heart!
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA
WHO IS ZEENA?
Zeena is currently an Admin Assistant who is integral to helping CS users with whatever they may need help with! Being on the site since 2009, she’s become a very familiar face around, and was incredibly helpful along the way to her current position. We at the CSN are excited for her interview!
How did you discover Chicken Smoothie?
I found CS through a website called Furry Paws, way back in 2009! I remember playing around on there when I got a random private message asking if I was someone with a similar username on a site called Chicken Smoothie. At that point I had no idea what they were talking about and decided to check it out. After seeing it was a cute pet collecting game, I signed up and the rest is history!
How did you become a CS Staff Member?
So I've applied quite a few times in the past for various roles; it took me 7 applications before I was accepted! I mostly applied for RP Mod since I really enjoyed roleplaying and writing stories back then, so that felt like the best role for me. Even though I wasn't selected to join the team then, I figured I'd keep applying anyway and see what happens When I applied in late 2017, I applied for all the Mod roles that were open at the time, though I was probably most active in the general forums at that point I was so surprised when I ended up being selected for the Global Moderator role! I was super excited when I saw the PM from Sorren inviting me to the team; even now I still can't believe I was chosen, but I'm still so grateful for it! I was then promoted to Admin Assistant about 2 years later in 2020 and have been in this role ever since c:
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA, CONTINUED
What was the shift from Global Mod to AA like?
It was definitely a learning curve As a GM you have a much larger team and can discuss with one another on how to handle things, and if you're stuck you can send things up to AAs for assistance As an AA, you're given a lot more responsibility with a much smaller team, and you ultimately make a lot more decisions on your own Personally I find the GM work tougher since there's a lot more involvement and time-consuming tasks such as searching through links, giving warnings and dealing with reports/tickets with a lot of users involved The AA work is more relaxed but there's a lot more investigation going into every ticket to ensure the person asking for the account is indeed the owner We mostly help with account-related inquiries and other smaller admin duties, though we do get the occasional ticket that's a bit more handson I do still dabble in the GM and other moderator reports when I have time, but I definitely enjoy my role as an AA It’s always rewarding when someone logs into their account for the first time in years thanks to your help!
You're actually the first AA we've interviewed! Could you take us through what a day in your work looks like?
For sure! So to clarify the role a bit since there's usually confusion on what we actually do, AA's are basically Global Moderators with some Admin powers We don't actually do anything Admin-related when it comes to making rules, maintaining the site or updating things of that nature The 'Admin' part of the role is powers to help with account situations while the 'Assistant' part is helping free Admins from smaller tasks so they can focus on the more important tasks/tickets/etc The majority of our work is in the ticket queue since that's where we get the account inquiries and that's the main focus of our role We also deal with any of the tougher situations that moderators can't quite handle or need further action to be taken on, though typically those kinds of situations aren't super common We also see if there's any pesky spambots we need to get rid of, and more recently, if our archivist is away/unavailable we can assist with updating the archive Otherwise we help out with other help tickets at the various Mod levels by offering advice and just generally assist with anything the team needs help with c:
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA, CONTINUED
Being that you’ve been a member since 2009, and have also been a staff member for around 6 years, do you still “play” CS? How has becoming a staff member changed that experience, if at all?
I do still actively play CS! My main goal is for a complete collection one day, but lately I spend the majority of my time just trying to keep up with the monthly outcomes! I do also try to play forum games and post around in the CS discussions or animal topics when I get the chance to Being staff hasn't really changed how I play CS, but it has given me the opportunity to give ideas and suggestions to the artists and to contribute to CS in that way I still remember being able to create my first CS pet design for the staff litter and I thought it was the coolest thing to be able to be a small part of CS. I'm no artist so it’s such an awesome feeling being able to collect my own designs and see others doing the same!
Speaking of you being a member since 2009, how have you seen the site change?
I think the biggest change I've noticed has to be with how pet values are perceived. I've never been good with trading values myself but it’s interesting to see how the values have changed over time. From minor changes in tiers to some guides no longer in fashion and occasionally new ones being made. I also think the addition of new linearts over time has been fun to see. Regarding the community itself, it feels like the community has grown up together in a way. The types of discussions hosted on CS aren't quite the same as they were before, at least from my perspective there seems to be more overall maturity. There's also been a shift towards instant chatting like on Discord compared to using the forums to communicate. Overall, the site itself hasn't changed much over the years and I'm actually glad for that, I like that CS is always consistently itself. If you haven't been around for a while, you know you'll come back to essentially the same site you left, which I feel is nostalgic in a way.
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA, CONTINUED
What is your favorite pet that you’ve designed?
I think this one has to be my favourite, it was so much fun to design and I think the colours really worked well to make a natural scene!
How about a favorite that you haven’t designed?
Oooh this is a tough question! Honestly there's so many I adore, I especially love the Lion and Western Dragon linearts in general, but if I had to choose, this would be my favourite! I love African Wild Dogs and this litter brings me back to when I joined CS and adopted my first pets (April 2009!), so it’s quite nostalgic for me on top of being my favourite animal c:
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA, CONTINUED
Tell us a little bit about your custom, Kali!
Kali is my AWD OC I created in 2010 when I was actively roleplaying on a website called WolfQuest I purposely asked Nick if he could adjust her birthdate to be in 2010 (June 26th to be exact) since that was the day I created my roleplay website and is essentially her birthday I ran a canine-based pack roleplay with about 200+ people so it was decently active and was a lot of fun (and work) to run! I ended up closing it down a few years later when life became a bit too hectic, but a lot of Kali's story/history was taken from the actual roleplay itself. Kali is one of three OC's I've made, which were all for roleplaying purposes back in the day, but nowadays I just use their artwork on various websites for avatars/signatures/etc.
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA, CONTINUED
Tell us about yourself!
Oh boy! Well I'm currently studying veterinary medicine and will be completing that very soon (exams are right around the corner!!), so I'll officially be a doctor come December! It's been such a journey trying to get into vet school and then actually finishing it; there were a lot of days that turned into extremely long stressful nights, but the things I've done so far I honestly wouldn't trade for anything I've had such amazing opportunities from working with Lions, Caracals, Vultures, Rhinoceros and a bunch of other wildlife to doing a solo surgery on a horse and helping a calf be born So, needless to say, it’s been a dream come true! Becoming a vet has been a big part of my life for quite a few years now, so I'm sadly only used to being able to talk about that lol, but besides school I spend most of my free time horseback riding and going on hikes and other adventures with my friends I don't have any pets right now as my dog passed away earlier this year, but I am planning on potentially getting a puppy next year or the year after depending on how things go! c:
We've got two interviews with CS equestrians back to back! Do you want to share a bit of your experience with horseback riding?
I've been horseback riding for a long time, probably around 16 years now! I started off riding Western which was actually a mistake, lol. I told my parents I wanted to do horseback riding and they signed me up to the closest equestrian center to my house thinking all riding was the same. So I learned how to do western for a bit, mostly just walk/trot/circle the barrel slowly, but eventually that place closed down so I ended up moving to a different area instead where I started English Hunter-Jumper! I did that for many years and even did competitions. I was never really a fan of the jumping but adored the flat work. My instructor there moved to his own barn a few years in where he opened his own equestrian school and taught Saddleseat so I followed him there and switched over to Saddleseat which I absolutely loved! I went on to perform in a major show in Saddleseat which was probably the peak of my riding career, lol. I unfortunately had to give it up a few years after that since I was busy with university. When I started school to become a vet, I picked it up again, but just leisure riding at this point. I'm quite interested in potentially learning endurance so that might be my next riding discipline I try out!
AN INTERVIEW WITH: ZEENA, CONTINUED
If you had to give all players one piece of advice, what would it be?
Hmm, I'd probably say just to play the game the way you want to regardless of what others say. At the end of the day, CS is a small space on the internet and the whole point of games is to spend time enjoying them. If you want to collect hundreds of the same pet or if you'd rather try to collect them all, go for it! Do what makes you happy c:
WHO SHOULD BE INTERVIEWED NEXT?
Whether it's staff members, a well-known artist, or a CS creator in some way, suggest users in our suggestion form! This can be found on our main forum thread. Thanks to comfypxl for this adorable dressup!
GAMES GALORE
WORDS:
BATS
BONES
CANDY
COSTUME
GHOST
GRAVEYARD
HALLOWEEN
HORROR
JACKOLANTERNS
LIGHTSONLIGHTSOFF
MONSTERMASH
NIGHT
PUMPKINS
SCARY
SHIVERS
SKELETONS
SPINE
SPOOKY
TRICKORTREAT
VAMPIRE
GAMES GALORE
PUZZLE
CLUES: Across Down
3: Which CS holiday just finished?
5: What color of caterpillar had the highest demand in this past event?
7: What is the name of our interviewee’s custom?
9: What was removed from the C$ Store in 2011?
1: Which CS Member hosts the writing competition known as “Story Sprouts?”
2: Who is our newest advertiser partner? Hint: Holiday related!
4: Who did we interview this month?
6: How many ghosts do you have to find in this newsletter?
8: What was the most recent store item set based on?
10: How many times did our interviewee have to apply to CS Staff before being hired?
Aries:
March 21 - April 19
Gemini:
MONTHLYHOROSCOPE
It’s a good time to spruce up and rebrand your digital profile flaunt a new avatar, rework your forum signature, update your trade rules, or even try a new username!
Taurus:
If you find yourself in the habit of doing things that no longer resonate with you, find ways to peacefully let them go
May 21 - June 21
Leo:
It’s time to explore new hobbies or pick up old ones you’ve been wanting to return to! Did you hear CS’s Writing Competition is back? Give it a shot!
July 23 - August 22
Libra:
This month you’ve got a magnetic pull about you; set clear trading goals, and you might just find a dreamie making its way to you at last
It’s a great time to let your imagination run wild hop on the Oekaki boards to play and create art simply for the sake of it.
September 23 - October 23
Saggitarius: If you’ve been feeling burnt out, it’s time to step back from demanding site activities and try something that feels more meditative.
November 22 - December 21
Aquarius:
We’re entering a new Age of Aquarius! It’s your time to shine and dazzle, but remember your radiance will serve as a beacon to others; wield that power with care
April 20 - May 20
Cancer:
June 22 - July 22
Virgo:
August 23 - September 22
Scorpio:
October 24 - November 21
October’s over! Time to set your nostalgia aside, along with any grudges you might be nursing, and focus on moving forward
You’ll be less receptive to small talk or superficial interactions than ever, so it might be time to take a break from trading.
Happy birthday! If you were experiencing a creative rut, it’s time to dig yourself out of it by working on something you find empowering and grounding
Capricorn: That Oekaki canvas that has been sitting in your drafts? It’s time to work on it!
December 22 - January 19
Pisces:
November is a good time to dream big! Set a lofty goal and step outside your comfort zone in its pursuit…it’ll pay off in due time.
To become a featured supporter, you have to have a CSN stamp in your CS signature! To find out more information on how to do that, visit the main CSN forum thread.
Circle causticsugar
♥ mizu
Meepish
Mrs.Shiro.Tora
AlpinePasserine zeta1002 piepinkpony
Dark Wolfe p2iimon minifun990
Naruto Uzumaki fizzlesox
FauxFeather
Fofi:]
Katarak
Cade ion
Lostlovebirdz oakhearted axelandria
Vividant coffee.berry beckyx191 kijauni
Jaguarstar
Turo0
Undyne-the-fish
ADS:
Check out come cool features in our community, officially affiliated with the Chicken Smoothie News!
WE’RE ON DISCORD!
The CSN has partnered with CSDS! A lot of our users have requested we open a Discord Server, but with the creator of the CSN having already created CSDS, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to create a second server So now, within CSDS, you can get pings for new articles and updates, discuss with others, and more!
LGBTQ+CSPRIDEPETCOLLECTION!
Come and see an ever growing collection of LGBTQ+ CS pets! Find pets who can represent you, and maybe learn about some new identities along the way :)
SYLVEON’SADOPTIONCENTRE
Its an adoption center for all players to gain free pets! Its limited to two per day and once a month there are raffles for pets that are worth Rare+!
DAINTERSEXPRIDEPOUND
+da intersex pride pound+, a place to adopt, interact with others, and have fun! lets go pride!
PERCYJACKSONFANCLUB
Calling all Percy Jackson fans! If you love the Percy Jackson books or show, this fanclub is for you!
YOINKGROUP
Yoink group is a monthly giveaway I run with monthly doubles! It goes for 2 weeks or until I run out of pets, so come yoink!
CD’SPWYWARTSHOP
Check out CD's PWYW Art Shop! It has free slots available from time to time, and offers that'll be going around!
OMGSR,UR,ANDSTOREPETCOUNT
This thread is to help users gauge how many pets it roughly takes to turn an "OMGSR" to an "ER" and to possibly help see which outcomes are more rare The thread does not represent site-wide numbers, but we hope to help alleviate some of the pains with trading OMGSR, UR, and old store pets.
AFTERTHERACES
After The Races welcomes you to our rehoming centre, where retired racing Greyhounds await their next adventure!
CHICKENSMOOTHIESECRETSANTAS
Enjoy Secret Santa events? Join the official Chicken Smoothie Secret Santas!
HOW DO I GET ON THIS PAGE?
To get an ad here and become a CSN affiliate, you need to fill out an application on our home page! You can learn more details there as well.
