It’s been quite the week here at the Cryptidery! Somehow, all the shriles got loose
Since shriles are the grungles’ only natural predator, we’ve isolated the grungles in a smaller enclosure. They’re not happy about it, but it’s the best way to make sure they are all accounted for and there are no more shrile infiltrations. We have a caretaker or two in there with them at all times, doing their best to distract them from the situation with instruments and games. Hopefully we can get them back to their usual enclosure soon.
The shriles are uniquely suited to hunt the grungles. They look very similar, allowing them to infiltrate a grungle troupe unnoticed. They have smaller ears 
, no tail paddle 
and duller colours, but these are all differences the grungles can easily overlook because of their colour blindness and bad vision. It can be hard for even humans and caretakers to tell the difference between the grungles and the shriles when they’re up in the trees 
and not in brightly lit areas. Up close, however, the shriles can be a little unsettling. At first, it looks like they have mouths similar to the grungles, but if you see them eating or baring their teeth, you’ll immediately realize you’re looking at a shrile. That grungle-like mouth is just for show. Their actual mouth is huge, seeming to split their head in two, and unlike the grungles, the shriles have sharp, pointed teeth 
.
Once a shrile has successfully infiltrated, it will try to lure individual grungles away so it can eat them without the rest of the troupe noticing. At first, this is easy to do. Show a grungle a toy 
or a game and they’ll happily follow you. However, once the grungles notice that members of their troupe are going missing, they will become stressed 
and be less willing to leave the rest of the troupe. Often the shrile will then move on to a different troupe before the grungles identify 
them. If the grungles find the shrile before it moves on, they’ll gang up on it, using their paddle tails and armored fists to drive it out of their territory. This can result in injuries 
or even death for both the shriles and the grungles, so making sure the shriles and grungles stay separated is important to keep both species safe.
The shriles are hard to catch, though. It didn’t take Mohammed long to patch up their enclosure, and he’s working on some permanent modifications to hopefully avoid this in the future. But so far there’s only one shrile back in the enclosure, the one that Nushi escorted back from the grungle enclosure last week. There have been sightings of others, but so far we haven’t managed to catch them.
As far as we can tell, they’re all still in the building. Jose has been setting traps, and the caretakers who are small enough are climbing through the air vents looking for them.
Wei and their team have also been out looking for signs of shriles around town, just in case. If you live in or around Cacheclee and see a creature matching the shriles’ description, let us know, don’t approach it. There’s a link on the homepage that says “Have you seen something strange?”, you can always use that link to report sightings of any creature. Draven will also pass along any messages sent via social media.
I did spot one in the space octopus 
enclosure, but we weren’t able to catch it in time. I suppose the good news is that the space octopus ate something other than a sunflower, but it won’t be getting any more shriles if I can help it.
Hopefully the shriles will all be back where they belong soon.
Maria
off on Nushi after sneaking in the back door 
to avoid me last week. He really doesn’t like confrontation. 
code violation waiting for him on my desk, and I can’t wait to see his face 
when I drop it in front of him. He hates paperwork so much 
When he opens it he’ll realize that I already filled it all out, it’s just waiting for his signature. But seeing his momentary panic 
is going to be so satisfying.
, he can do the desk work 
that comes with them! But I was already on edge after weeks of worrying about Jose and the octopus, and Nushi unfortunately got the brunt of my frustration 
. So now Nushi is avoiding me too. I’m sure I’ll find her in the grungle enclosure if I need her, but I’ve been giving her space for now.
octopus
since it got back. For the first few days it was just hiding in its play structures, getting extremely aggressive whenever anyone came near. I tried bringing in a bunch of new toys to calm it down, but nothing was working. I finally brought in a vase of flowers 
, hoping some bright colours or new smells or something might interest it. Unsurprisingly, it tried to eat the flowers. Space octopuses 
. Then, after days of acting aggressively, it calmly suctioned itself to the window of its enclosure and just hung there for a while. Now seems unwilling to eat anything but sunflowers 
from other creatures’ meals, fruits 
and vegetables 
, and various scraps from Mohammed’s woodpile 
. I tried feeding it “people food” 
that we had lying around. I even tried arranging yellow 
vegetables to look like a sunflower with sunflower seeds in the middle. The octopus showed no interest. It just responded by getting aggressive 
to figure out why it likes sunflowers so much so I can try and entice it to try other foods again.
is going straight to voicemail. This isn’t out of the ordinary for him, though. Once he was gone for three months
He gets so caught up in his so-called “adventures” that he forgets to even check in… or charge his phone 
I swear, if I have to send Wei and their team after him again…
Or at least one more week 
But the space octopus’ abilities make it difficult to know when “too soon” is. If we wait too long, it will be hard to track the octopus or Jose. They could be anywhere 
The octopus uses the resulting blast to propel itself out of the atmosphere 
Sometimes it misfires. No one’s perfect. But once it succeeds in getting enough momentum to achieve lift-off, it will curl itself into its helmet. This will protect it from the heat as it leaves the atmosphere.
, a slight miscalculation could send it off into nothingness, with no way of returning. But the space octopus seems to navigate effortlessly. When it decides to land on a planet, it will slingshot around a nearby planet 
or moon 
to put itself in a decaying orbit and curl into its helmet for protection again. We aren’t sure if it knows where it will land when it does this. But it leaves a large crater 
wherever it lands, and has to wait for its helmet to cool off before it can start to explore the planet. This is usually the best time to try and capture it.
is definitely an important factor. Maybe I should talk to Wei… No. I should wait. Jose is good at what he does. He’ll find his way back. I just wish he would check in once in a while.
of it.
, with a note saying that it’s finally fixed
and went to my favourite enclosure. I’m sure you can guess which one it is. It is our mascot, after all. The space octopus! 
… I might spoil my favourites a bit. There are play structures built on every surface, so it can be hard for a full-sized person to navigate, but space octopuses, like earth octopuses, are very intelligent. They need to be entertained if they are going to be kept in captivity.
today. They also decided it was best to give the octopus the helmet so they didn’t have to wear suits while cleaning. And when they couldn’t find it afterward, they figured they would just come back and get the helmet later, since they had to wait for the atmosphere to return to normal anyway. Of course, they both swear the entrance to the enclosure was closed and locked 
the whole time.
Some of our regular visitors have been telling me for years that we need a website. It only took a global pandemic and a year of no visitors for us to slow down and figure it out! 
We’ve got a few new arrivals that I’m sure we’ll be sharing with you soon. It seems like it might still be a while before we can have visitors, though 
. So this website will be a way for us to stay connected with you, and share with a much wider audience than our little local community!
) that you can colour if you wish. These will be released monthly on the 15th.
Check out the 