A candid conversation with Callie and Cody, moderated by Lady Cavalon
Some interviews are planned. This one happened on a Tuesday afternoon, the way most things happen in the Cavalon household.
“We need to talk about the commotion you two just started. People are asking questions. Let’s tell them how it happened, and what it was like.” Lady Cavalon settled in beside Callie and Cody in the Koolookin studio with her coffee. Callie settled in with her dignity. Cody settled in with whatever he had found on the floor approximately thirty seconds earlier.
What followed was one of the more illuminating, and enlightening conversations Lady Cavalon has had in recent memory. The “Dogs of Wisdom” was no longer just a title she had given them, they were actually living it.
She just shook her head and began….
— — —
Lady Cavalon: So. The book is out. It’s on Amazon. People are actually buying it. How are you both feeling?
Callie: Relieved that it accurately represented my character. I had concerns early on that certain editorial choices were leaning a little too far into the chaos narrative and not enough into the elegance narrative. I feel those concerns were ultimately addressed. Mostly.
Cody: I feel GREAT. Also I feel like we should do another one immediately. Also I found something under the couch this morning that I think has potential for a whole chapter.
Lady Cavalon: We’ll come back to the couch thing. Callie, you mentioned concerns about how you were represented. Were there moments during the writing process where you felt misunderstood?
Callie: The fart page.
Lady Cavalon: What about it?
Callie: I would like it noted, for the record and for posterity, that I did not linger. I was gone before it finished. The book implies a brief moment of processing time. There was no processing time. I was simply gone. That distinction matters to me.
Cody: She was under the bed before the echo.
Callie: I was conducting a strategic retreat.
Cody: She was gone so fast the pillow had to catch up to her.
Callie: We are moving on.
— — —
Lady Cavalon: Cody, let’s talk about the compost bin.
Cody: Let’s.
Lady Cavalon: Do you have any regrets?
Cody: About the compost bin specifically, or about the sequence of events that followed?
Lady Cavalon: Either. Both.
Cody: The compost bin was incredible. I want that on record. Whatever happened afterward was simply the cost of doing business. Science is not always comfortable. Discovery has a price. I paid that price. I paid it on the living room floor, flat on my belly, staring at the ceiling, yes, but I paid it. And I would like people to understand that when Cody investigates something, he commits. That is not a character flaw. That is intellectual courage.
Callie: It was a compost bin.
Cody: It was a universe of information.
Callie: It was rotting vegetables.
Cody: Fermented. There is a difference.
— — —
Lady Cavalon: Let’s talk about what the book is really about. Because on the surface it’s funny — and it is genuinely funny — but underneath it there’s something else happening. Callie, you came back. Even after the fart. Even when you were still angry. You came back and you made the lumplings. Why?
Callie: (long pause)
Because that is what you do.
You do not get to choose only the easy parts of caring about someone. You do not get to say I am here for the good Tuesdays and absent for the ones where he has done something catastrophic to himself and to the immediate atmosphere. That is not caring. That is convenience dressed up as loyalty.
He needed help. I was the one who could help him. The fact that I was still annoyed about the fart was, frankly, secondary information.
Cody: (quietly) She makes the best lumplings.
Callie: I know.
— — —
Lady Cavalon: That right there is the heart of the whole book. And I think it’s also one of the things that children are going to take from it without even realizing they’re taking it. The lesson isn’t announced. It just happens. Cody, do you think kids will get that?
Cody: I think kids are smarter than adults give them credit for. Adults are always trying to explain things to children. Children already know things. They just haven’t been given permission to trust what they know yet. A child reading this book is going to feel that moment when Callie comes back. They’re going to feel it before they understand it. And that feeling is going to stay with them. That is more important than any explanation.
Callie: (looking at Cody with something resembling surprise) That was surprisingly insightful.
Cody: I have my moments.
Callie: Don’t make it weird.
— — —
Lady Cavalon: I want to talk about what comes next. Because this is Book One of a series, and there are a lot of directions this could go. Cody, I know you have thoughts about technology and AI and what that means for young people. You’ve been teaching on that subject for a while now.
Cody: I have. And I think it is one of the most important conversations happening right now, and almost nobody is having it with young people in a language young people actually understand.
Here is what I know from the floor: technology moves fast. Faster than most humans are comfortable with. Faster than most institutions can respond to. And children are growing up inside that speed without anyone handing them a compass.
AI is not the enemy. I would never say that. I work with AI. AI is remarkable. But a tool is only as wise as the hand that holds it. And we are handing extraordinary tools to young people without teaching them discernment, without teaching them to question what they see, without teaching them that not everything that is fast is also true.
That is a book. That is at least one book. Possibly several.
Lady Cavalon: What would that look like, coming from you?
Cody: It looks like a dog who spends a lot of time on the internet explaining to other dogs — and to the children reading over their shoulders — that just because something shows up on a screen does not mean it belongs in your head any more than everything in the compost bin belonged in my stomach. You have to sniff it first. You have to think. You have to ask: is this actually good for me, or does it just smell interesting?
Callie: He just compared critical thinking to not eating garbage.
Cody: And I stand by it.
— — —
Lady Cavalon: Callie, where do you want to take the series?
Callie: Moral integrity.
Not as a lecture. Not as a list of rules handed down from above. But as a lived thing. Something that shows up in the way you treat the person next to you when nobody is watching. Something that shows up when it costs you something.
We live in a time where what we watch, what we consume, what we normalize on our screens every single day is quietly reshaping what people believe is acceptable. Children absorb that. They are sponges. And if what they are soaking up is cruelty dressed as entertainment, or dishonesty dressed as humor, or selfishness dressed as confidence — that becomes their baseline.
I want to show them a different baseline. Not perfect. Not preachy. Just real. What it looks like to hold a standard even when it is inconvenient. What it looks like to be the one who comes back. What it looks like to make the lumplings even when you are still mad about the fart.
Cody: She keeps bringing up the fart.
Callie: I keep bringing up the fart because it is the perfect metaphor.
Cody: (to Lady Cavalon, in a loud whisper) She’s still mad about the fart.
Callie: Cody.
Cody: (stops talking)
(immediately)
— — —
Lady Cavalon: Last question. For both of you. What do you want people to feel when they close this book?
Cody: Like they just spent time with someone who is genuinely glad they exist. Even on a bad Tuesday. Even after a terrible decision. Even when they smell a little like a compost bin. Like there is always someone who will come back.
Callie: What he said.
(pause)
Do not tell him I said that.
— — —
The Day Cody Ate Everything — Book One of the Dogs of Wisdom Series — is available now on Amazon
Find Callie and Cody at their corner of the internet: Callie and Cody’s Place over at www.koolookin.com
Follow the real Callie and Cody on TikTok: @koolookin
