Name: Karen Andinus-Flect
Occupation: Project Manager at SeaLeft Software
First Appearance: Cubes semimonthly strip #1

Bio:
Karen is the project manager at SeaLeft Software. It's her job to make sure everyone else knows what they're supposed to be doing and are actually doing it. This flamingo handles her job with a grace that belies its difficulty.

In addition to her strong work ethic, Karen has been developing an increasing interest in environmental concerns and new age readings, encouraged by her green-minded parents Charlene and Douglas Andinus. She finds much spiritual revitalization in the reading of the tarot for herself, though is still too self conscious to perform it for others.

Karen met famous Sharkspearean actor Gareth Flect at a party at Club Posh. The two hit it off right away and started dating.

Karen was always nervous about her relationship with Gareth, seeing him having such a large female fanbase for his acting career. Gareth proved himself to Karen and proposed at a lakeside cabin. After some last minute soul-seaching, Karen accepted. The two were married a year later.

At Karen's wedding, her friend and general manager, Honey Klim, revealed the role she had played in connecting Karen and Gareth. Karen was initially surprised and taken aback but became appreciative of Honey's efforts. Karen made sure to involve all her friends in her wedding.

Behind-the-scenes:
The original concept for Karen was that she would be an octopus instead of a flamingo. This came from the idea that she would need multiple arms to deal with all the different aspects of a project management job. A few test sketches showed that this design wasn't practical in an office setting. It was too difficult fitting all the arms in, and drawing an octopus sitting in a chair never worked quite right.

Karen's original last name Andinus was not determined until her character design switched from an octopus to a flamingo. The name Andinus comes from Phoenicopterus Andinus, the species name of a type of flamingo found in the high Andes in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina.

Karen and Gareth's relationship started only as background "filler" for Hot Dog issue #3. There had been no intention to develop it beyond that, but the propsect of exploring new ideas in that direction was too good to pass up. After nearly five years of showing bits and pieces of their relationship the two were finally married.