Hello again all you wonderful Alacrites! The art team has been hard at work, as usual, to provide you with another round of monthly items for you to enjoy!

Monthly Shop:
Bat Roost (Kittybot)
Cave Entrance Background (Kittybot)
Clouded Yellow Butterflies (Wysper)
Fawn Plush (Nyctra)
Ferns (Xylax)
Forest Path Background (Xylax)
Ground Fog (Wysper)
Nurse Log (Nyctra)
Proud Pheasant (Moriarty)
Ruby Rose Barrette (Wysper)
Scattered Foliage (Xylax)
Steller's Jay (Nyctra)
Wild Gyromitra Mushroom (Wysper)
Willow Vines (Nyctra)
Wolf companions (Carni)
Mangrove Forest Background (Xylax)

Main Shops:
Beach Ball (Wysper)
Beach Background (Kittybot)
Crashing Waves (Kittybot)
Happy Hydrant Chew Toy (Xylax)
Meaty Bone (Xylax)
Red Panda Dye (Xylax)
Sand Bucket (Moriarty)
Sand Castle (Nyctra)
Flying Seagull (Moriarty)
Evening Fog Background (Xylax)

Morning Mist Background (Xylax)



The Upgrade Item this month is the Bandana of Maturity (by Carni), which does the opposite of our previous Bandana of Youth. This new bandana will allow you to equip it to any puppy under 4 months of age and make it "grow up" to reveal their adult image!

Our Donation Item this month is the Fox Cub, which is a very special item that must be used wisely! The Fox Cub eliminates the rebreedable restriction on a female while equipped. Use this item with care, however, and don't fall into puppy milling habits by constantly breeding a female. Be a responsible breeder and use this special item reasonably. :}

As promised, to make up for missing July in order to fix our monthly release schedule, the Super Bag is available as an Upgrade Only free item.



Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you'll enjoy everything the art team has worked to provide for you!



**ADDITION** Due to a bug in the user and dog log records, they will ALL be deleted and restarted at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Beauty Shows have been released! Can be found under "Life" dropdown list on the layout. Help sections will be added for this feature soon, for now, here's the dets!

Basics may create one show per day and upgrades two, for both account types it is free. You simply set the theme of the show (type it in text, anything you like! "christmas", "easter", "natural husky", "scary", "crazy") You earn $50 after judging the show.

5 entrants are allowed per show, only one dog per account per show. It costs $100 to enter, and if you win you win $350. It costs 10 energy per dog to enter but you may enter unlimited amounts.

After 5 entries occur, the creator gets a message notification to judge the show and must judge within 2 days by midnight else a random winner will be chosen.

You may view all the other entries to the show on the show page, all players including dog owners and show creator are hidden to avoid bias.

Please tell us what you think of the new feature! In addition, you should get a heads up we're thinking off adding a "save state" for dog images so you can simply hit "back to save state" to re-dress the dog in the manner it was before when you saved the state, this way dressing/undressing for shows is not such a hassle. What do you guys think of that?



The artists have also been hard at work to provide our main shops with wonderful banners, so be sure to show your appreciation!



Hardcore Pups - Carni (dog) and Xylax (background)

The Scenic Route - Xylax

Squeeky Cleen - Carni (dog lines) and Wysper (dog colors and background)

T'riffic Toys - Nyctra

Dyes 4 Dogs - Nyctra

Gnashers - Kittybot

Decore Galore - Moriarty and Xylax (minor tweaks)

Trials-

I heard high level TP dogs weren't worth trialing anymore due to awful payouts and losing money half the time in trialing. Trialing rewards have been seriously adjusted and they go up the higher you can go in levels. ;) To even it out a bit though, lower levels (just the first level) will make slightly less money, so you may have to invest to get there! Please try trialing again those high level dogs, I promise it's worth your time!

New Rule Implementation

Thanks to a suggestion by BridgetteandJosh, a rule has been made that no art may be criticized on the site by staff or players unless specifically requested. The saying "say something nice or nothing at all" is a big one here at Alacrity, and this is to avoid hurt feelings. If you're an artist and don't agree with this rule, simply ask for criticism! If it is asked for, we still ask you be polite. Thank you for your cooperation.

First and foremost, I wanted to thank everybody who applied for the vacancies in our Newbie Helper department. We received so many awesome applicants that you did not make our decisions easy! We will be keeping your applications on file in case we need to call on more Newbie Helper additions in the near future :)

Let's take a moment to congratulate the five newest members to the Newbie Helper team!
Stacy (#101)
Kaitie (#9885)
Ehm (#93)
Jackdaw (#12605)
Cord (#5983)

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Next, I wanted to let you all know that your voices have been heard when it comes to the Rare Item Bone Exchange (this can be found on the Bone Exchange Page). The gamble was just a bit too great and the payouts often were disappointing. Well, lovely Alacrites, you may fret no more!

We've completely revamped the rare item exchange and it now awards a much larger variety of prizes, including past monthly bags, as well as much more valuable items. I encourage you all to go and try a roll of the dice, see what you get... but not before me! ;)

As always, thank you all for making up the most wonderful community around!