Username: DogLife.
Name: Candie
Gender: Female
Gender for breeding: Female
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Candie is a country girl who works the earth and creates different sweet treats for sale at her farm house café. Like the sweets she loves to make, Candie comes sugar coated on the outside, with happy smiles and a gorgeous way of holding herself. As a result she gets along well with most Viscets and animals, there are very few who could find something negative to say about the happy go lucky female. Candie is a naturally bouncy and over excitable character, she is always on the move and doing something, be it milking the cow, herding the sheep with her border collie Cocoon kneeing pastry for a new pie. Many of the male Viscets flirt with the young orphaned lass, as she seems almost perfect: sweet, kind, giggly and hard working, a female who would be obedient and work in the way the male wants. Plus, she is easy on the eyes.
Outside the sugar coated cover, this lass has a hard nutty centre, she is tough and needs no sappy male telling her "he'll keep her safe. Despite her easy going world, Candie refuses to take any nonsense from anyone, she is strong and blatantly rejects the males that fall down at her feet, knowing that the one is out there (she may also pretend to hate sloppy romance, but she reads it and loves romance really!) If Candie was a chocolate, she would have a chocolate outer coating and a caramel and nut centre: sweet with a tough interior.
The only reason Candie has a hard centre is the loss of her parents at the age of 10 and 15. She lost her mum at a young age of ten to an accident in the city, playing heavily on her dislike of smoke and bustling streets. She then lost her father, who was her entire world, at the age of fifteen, when she needed him most. Their deaths caused Candie a lot of grief and pain, she is more sensitive and guarded because of it. Her parents were her life and her love, she has that tough interior to protect herself from more pain. At the age of eighteen, her loss still makes her cry herself to sleep, but her beloved dog and her trinkets from her parents keep her warm.
Candie may seem like an easy going lass, but she is still lost inside, looking for someone who will relight the love that she lost with her mother and father. A chocolate with caramel and a hazelnut indeed!
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The night was full of one ringing sound, my screams as they echoed around my room. I couldn't remember the exact parts of my dream, I never could. But I knew one thing. I had seen my dad die. There came a bang at the door as I sobbed, looking up through glassy eyes at Dad, as he ran to my side. He caressed my mane softly, pulling me into his arms, where I buried my head in his chest. He smelt of strawberries and summer, just like always. We lived on a farm with loads of animals, and Dad was setting up a cafe downstairs, so he often smelt of some sweet desert or another. My tears dampened his fur as I snuggled close, feeling the motion of his body as he moved from crouching on the floor to sitting on my bed.
"It's alright lil' pup. It's alright." He murdered, rocking me back and forth. "Come on. Let's get you a drink."
A few minutes later I was sitting on the battered old sofa in the dining area, as Dad made me a chocolatey drink. Passing the mug to me, I cradled it close, feeling the warmth of the drink seeping into my fur.
"The same old dream, huh pup?"
I nodded, shivering. The dream of Dad being killed varied, but it was more or less the same recurring plot. I'd been having it ever since Mama died a year ago. "I hate it. I wish it would go away and Mama would come back." Tears pricked, but I blinked them away.
"I know, pup. I know." Dad looked just as sad. Then he smiled. "I know what she'd say though."
"What?"
"Don't let 'em win. Come on, let's have a treat."
Dad reached for the fridge, pulling out a pint of his homemade Neapolitan ice-cream. His grin made me laugh, he looked my age like this. I sat on one of the stools, watching as he reached into the cupboard for small box. Now I was really laughing.
"Dad, why are we havin' ice-cream and cookies at three in the mornin'?"
"Its nightmare ice-cream!" He laughed. "It's literally a family tradition, pup. Grandma did it for me, so now I'm doin' it for you. We need a pint of the cream, and seein' as ol' Neapolitan is yer favourite, we're having it! And cookies yer favourite treat, we'll have both!"
I was really laughing now, as Dad gave me two cookies and a large scoop of ice-cream. Neapolitan was my favourite, I loved the vanilla mixed with strawberry and chocolate. The cookies were double-chocolate, and the big gooey kind. I moved the ice-cream in the middle and took a bite around smiling.
"Neapolitan Cookie Ice-Cream Sandwich! That's my girl!" Dad cheered.
"Candie's famous desert!" I laughed.
"A new favourite?"
"Yeah! From... now"
I still have it now, when things get tough. My Dad showed me how to be happy that night, it's a comfort I eat still.
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"Up and at 'em Coco!" I called to the brown speckled border collie at my feet. "Café opens in thirty and I need fruit and milk!"
She barked excitedly as I pulled on my ice-cream dog sweater my dad had brought me a few years ago. It was warm and the last gift I ever got from him, and I missed him dearly. I now ran the family farm with the help of my three year old pooch, and the café Dad had planned for so long was up and running at last. The wind nipped at my nose as I trudged to strip the bushes of the last winter berries, I would have to start importing now, and to collect the milk from the couple of cows who grazed on the frosted grass. The world looked like a frozen crystal, and again pain stabbed my heart. Dad had loved winter. As well as the cows and Coco, I was the proud owner of one horse, three sheep, six chickens and one goat, who was a mischief maker. I sold a small percentage of milk, cheese and eggs separate to the café job, but the main bulk of the business came from my home made delicacies and sweet drinks.
"Hell, it's cold!" I called out as I stepped into the fire warmed kitchen. Coco proceeded to shake, the sniff the oven where I had a batch of fruit cookies cooking. "Move yer muzzle silly girl! You'll get burnt!" Coco then sneezed loudly and walked away in an offended manner, while I laughed. I loved my dog so much. It wasn't long until the morning visitors came in, smiling and petting my pooch. "Mornin'!"
"Mornin' lass. You open for business?"
"You know I am! What do yer fancy?"
They looked at each other for a moment. "Three teas, some of yer fruit 'n but loaf and some cookies of the day please, lass."
"Sure! Take any table you like, I'll be with you in a mo!"
When I was running the café, I always felt like my dad was with me. He had loved making hearty loaves of bread, delicious melt in your mouth cookies and experimenting with teas. I set a kettle of tea up to boil, took the cookies of the oven and put the bread in for a moment to warm it up. "Here you go! Three teas, half a dozen cookies and a few slices of bread!"
"Thanks Candie, looks amazing."
I moved back into the kitchen area, looking into the fridge. A pint of Neapolitan ice-cream looked at me, and a laugh bubbled in my throat. Ever since the nightmare ice-cream night, Neapolitan ice-cream and cookies had been my comfort food. Now, I scooped a bit into my mouth, smiling down at Coco's swishing tail. I pulled her into a hug. "That's my girl." I was always going to be my Dad's girl, no matter what. And I hoped he looked down with pride on me.
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