#most of my pets at this point are rescues from over the years. my cat is my fav buddy. Left behind for being too “mean” and old. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

luboy7rt · 1 month

Text

What Animal Team Ghosts Would Randomly Bring Home To You (Headcanons)

(Remember This is just what I (My headcanons), enjoy reading!)(Could be seen as Platonic, Romantic?) (GN Reader) (Elias, Hesh, Logan, Keegan, Merrick, and Kick)

Elias Walker:

- Elias has.. habits. He brings home a lot of different animals throughout the years, Riley being the permanent house/military dog.

- Elias has definitely brought home any animal he thinks needs rescuing, one day it will be a cat, the next a little bird, then next a little mouse that needed saving from a mousetrap. You cannot stop this man, he has a mission in just rescuing animals as a unsuspecting side gig to being a literal military commander. (I like to think he's a animal lover, even if it's a ‘secret’)

- You point out a stray dog or cat? That's his now, (if the animal will allow it and wants to come with), Hesh and Logan have gotten used to their father bringing home random animals “...Can we even keep that, Dad?” Hesh would ask every time if it was a random animal that shouldn't be a pet. “Why Not.” Would be Elias's answer every. Damn. Time.

- Elias would also ensure to tell you, Hesh, Logan, to not touch the more aggressive or ‘spicy’ animals he brings home, basically makes sure you all respect the animals and ensure the animals wouldn't hurt you three.

- If any of the animals he brings home are ‘unfit’ To be around kids (yes, he still calls Hesh and Logan kids, and maybe even you too if you have that type of relationship) he would find a good animal shelter, sanctuary or a good home for the animal.

- Why do Hesh and Riley have a good relationship? Elias taught Hesh how to train Riley, ensuring that Hesh would always know Riley has his back, having Riley around brought a sense of security to Elias as he felt like his boys could be cared for by Riley even if he wasn't around.

- Elias would give a deep chuckle with a half smile as he walks through the front door, spotting you as he carried a small bird in his hands, he would offer a hello, and show you the small baby bird he was now keeping due to finding it injured in the driveway.

- Basically most people go to this man when they find a random animal, because somehow Elias is always good at knowing what animal, the species and what the hell is wrong If there is something wrong. Everytime Elias is asked about his knowledge, “Documentaries are nice, you should watch them. Maybe then you can learn something for once” He would respond by accidentally being brutal.

- “Do you feel comfortable? Or should I find a better home for this little guy?” Elias Would ask you, Hesh, and Logan every time he brings home a new random animal, the house has become a farm at this point. You want an animal? As long as you know how to care for it and it wants to or can be around? fine by Elias, do your research and show him you can care for it, and he'll make it happen.

- Yes, you have random animals cuddling up to you in the middle of the night, is it one of the cats? Or could it be the tortoise that Elias has had for years? Or maybe it was just Riley, you'll be in for a surprise if you left your door open.

David Hesh Walker:

- Hesh would bring home lizards, just imagine him coming home with a few baby lizards in his arms, Riley having one on his snout with wide eyes.. the dog was very steady in slowly creeping behind Hesh as to not drop the little lizard across his snout and head.

- “Oh, Hey..! didn't realize you were home” Hesh would sheepishly admit, as he adjusted the lizards in his arms, trying to get them to stop climbing everywhere. “...Surprise..? No welcome home..? Alright”

- If you don't like the lizards? He'll put them back outside, leave a little bowl of water incase they need it.. Poor Riley would waddle after Hesh, having lizards all over him, trying to walk but being so careful not to hurt any of them.. Riley ends up bringing the lizards in the house, Hesh laughing if you freak out.

- If you do like lizards? He'll put one on your shoulder or head, bonk. There you go, you got your own little guy.

- Your house gets taken over by lizards, Hesh doesn't find it funny after he found one in the washroom at 2AM the next morning, if you have a fear of lizards? Good luck, you scream? Hesh will come to save you, but Riley likes the damn lizards and keeps bringing them inside accidently and it becomes a big mess. Hesh apologizes about fifty times for it.

- “..This might be a little problem” Hesh would mutter as you smack or elbow his stomach, he would wince a bit and be grumbley he couldn't ‘tame’ wild lizards like his father could, awkwardly rubbing his hair as he would pat your shoulder and promise to deal with it.

- It took three weeks. Three weeks to get all the lizards out of the house, and Hesh only kept one bigger lizard, which he built a cage for and now cares for as it had a small injury.

- He gives a soft smile, and a tilt of the head, like a 'I did it' face, in the end, you both are relieved that the lizards are no longer all over your home.

Logan Walker:

- Logan brought home a large frog, well like a large overweight bullfrog, No questions asked, No answers given as he just plopped it in front of you. Like a silent, I brought you this.

- If you like the bullfrog? You can keep it, Logan would buy a big enclosure for her, and silently look proud of his work, he would feed, care and love this frog like it's his damn firstborn. Even takes photos to send to you, Elias, and Hesh. ‘Look at my frog. ignore she's a bit big, we are working on it'. Texts little updates about this frog every week.

- If he can't care for it? He’ll expect you to, please care for this man’s frog. You don't have to pick it up if you don't want to but feed her for him when he's away if you are still around the house.

- Logan would randomly just plop the frog on you (if you don't mind), frog on your head, frog on your shoulder, frog in your hands, frog on your stomach.. He would just randomly plop her on you, and smile.

- If you don't like the frog, he will give her to Elias for safe keeping, willing to just visit his frog but wanting to keep the peace between you two.

- Logan likes frogs, if he finds one interesting enough he will just catch it to show it off to you, a rare smile playing on his lips as he lets the frog poke their head out of his hand to show you. Like Logan is quietly and silently asking if you love the frog as much as he does. If you don't, that's alright, he'll find something else to randomly bring you as presents.. Logan always gently puts the frogs he catches back where he finds them.

- Frog catching was definitely a hobby, one Hesh got him into when they were young children. Hesh may have 'forgotten' about the competition about frog catching between them but Logan would never.

- Logan actually tries to start this competition with you, who could catch the most frogs? If you don't want to? That's alright, he'll show off the frogs from a decent way away. If you do? Get prepared to get dirty, this is war, mud was on both of your clothes, as you two had looked for frogs for hours and who do you think would win?

Keegan Russ:

- Keegan isn’t scared of many things in life, so when he brings home a large snake? Wrapped around his neck like it wouldn't hurt him, as he causally walks into the apartment, a wild snake around his neck.. You might be a bit hesitant as it's about 3AM, and Keegan just got home.. with a random big snake.

- Keegan gives a head nod as he put the snake down on the couch.. Like it wouldn't just slither off around the apartment, Keegan puts his hands on his hips, and glances at you before glancing back at the snake. “I have a pet.”

- Yeah, that's all he said to you, do you like snakes? If you are chill with it, Keegan's chill, Keegan will buy a large enclosure for the big guy and ensure he's well fed.

- If you don't like snakes..? Or are scared of them, Keegan will ensure the snake is kept in a large enclosure, and wouldn't take him out around you. But he does keep him, and nurses the snake up to full health again.

- Keegan would slowly get the snake used to his and your presence, feeding him well so there was no accidents, slowly getting the snake used to you both and making sure to do a tad bit of research about this species to ensure he doesn't fuck up.

- “Put this on” Keegan would say with a straight face and a quiet chuckle as he put the large snake around your neck, his hand not leaving but staying between you and the snake's head, and would tease you if you were scared.. but if you got to scared he would take the snake back and keep him away from you. Keegan wouldn't apologize but would make it up to you for scaring you.

- You always see Keegan with this snake, attempting to scare either Logan or Hesh, whoever was closest to him, maybe even put the snake in Kick's bed, having had ensured the other man had no weapons to hurt Keegan's beloved snake... But also giving Kick the scare of his life.

Merrick:

- Merrick brings home a small baby squirrel, holding her in his gloved palm, as she was covered in dirty rainwater, and oil. Merrick had just returned from a long mission, still wearing his gear as he accidentally woke you up at around 4AM.

- He would apologize quietly as if trying to make up for the fact he woke you up and asks you to start a little bath in the sink for the little squirrel.

- Merrick was a bit quieter in the morning, as he sat by the kitchen sink, not even taking off his gear, you both would gently clean off this baby squirrel.

- If you don't want to keep her, Merrick would be alright with that, very understanding as he would end up bringing her to a vet for them to figure out what to do.

- If you do want to keep her, Merrick would nod and do his best to ensure the squirrel would be happy and cared for. Merrick would pat your shoulder or head as a thank you, and find a nice spot to put the little squirrel, ends up just making a small bed in an old shoe box.

- Merrick ends up training the squirrel to bring him any amount of dollar bills, Merrick would grin when the squirrel would pass him a five dollar bill and give her lots of headsets and snacks. Merrick would give You a smug I told you I could do it look.

- You two end up having this squirrel for a long while, oh you're cooking something? Watch out Ms.Squirrelly might run past and try to steal your ingredients, you want five minutes alone in the shower, Squirrelly is outside the shower waiting for you, you leave the groceries out? Guess who ate them already.

- Ms. Squirrelly is very loved by all, even if she does steal money. She's a little thief, but Merrick adores her, and yes he keeps that money to buy you or Ms.Squirrelly a nice gift.

Kick:

- When Kick walks Into the house carrying a goat, what do you do when it screams bloody murder when she sees you? Kick was very straight faced as he looked at you, holding her up as if to show you nothing bad happened.

- Kick stole a goat. Who knows where he got the poor girl from, Kick wouldn't give You any details, he just walks into the house and puts the goat down in the kitchen, asking her to shut up as he put a plate of fruit in front of her.

- When you ask what the hell, or why he just shrugged as explains he found her alone while doing a test fly with a helicopter, claiming he just found her and took her home.. He basically just kidnapped a goat from who knows where.

- Kick and the goat don't even get along, she will follow him and you around, but the moment shes alone with Kick? she screams, she just makes the worse screeching noises around him, like he hates this man.. But she doesn't leave even if You give her the chance to.

- Yeah, the goat vibes with you, but it seems like Kick and her just despise each other, like if one of them are in a room, and the other walks in? One of them will end up leaving.

- Kick regretted taking the goat in, he dislikes loud things.. and this goat is loud, she hates him, and she makes sure to ‘tell’ Kick. Kick will look at you with a straight face.. every time, it just makes it funnier.

- You don’t really have much of a choice, unless it is necessary this goat won’t leave, Kick has tried. She just randomly pops back up in the backyard and you both have to keep her.

- The only time Kick and this goat get along is when Kick gives her food or ‘fights’ her, play fighting a goat, basically Kick has ran out of ideas but it makes the goat shut up for a while.

65 notes · View notes

hellenhighwater · 1 year

Note

Hi Hell, congrats on the exciting foster kitten news!

I just applied to adopt a kitten and had my interview for her today. The woman seemed most interested in convincing me of how terrible dry food, traditional litter (she preferred clay), and tap water is for cats. She said the carbohydrates and ingredients were terrible for their kidneys, the dust in litter is bad for their lungs, and the chlorine in water is harmful. I have a 12 year old cat named Scipio who has been using those things all his life, and now I feel guilty and scared for his health. He seems perfectly healthy to me but she said “cats are stoic.” What do you use with the Tiny Terrors? Is she extreme?

Well, I'm not a vet, so the actual answer is that your cat should be getting what their doctor recommends. But I've had those conversations with people before, and I can give my two cents--just take it with a grain of salt.

So...it's basically always true that you can spend more money on fancier 'health' options and there is, to some extent, benefit to the pricier choices. But there's a point at which that benefit is pretty minimal compared to what you get for the midrange price options. This is as true for pet health as it is for people health.

It's true that wet food is usually a better option for cats. Among other things, it helps them stay at a healthy level of hydration, can be easier on their digestive systems, and is often more palatable for cats who are elderly or have dental problems. But that doesn't mean that dry food is inadequate--Mal and Vice used to split a can of wet food daily, and graze dry food whenever they wanted. They're currently eating almost exclusively dry food, because Vice is on a sensitive skin and stomach diet to help address his overgrooming. I would avoid the bottom-end dry foods, because they seem prone to contamination, but that's more manufacturer quality than an issue with the dry food generally. Dry food is usually a nutritionally complete way to feed a cat, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Mal and Vice drink tap water. They have a bowl of still water, and a fountain with an inbuilt filter. The fountain is because if they don't have running water, they will make running water by splashing their bowls all over. I can't speak to chlorine but it's definitely healthier than drinking out of puddles, which is what they would be doing if left to their own devices.

They use clay litter because that's what's effective and affordable. When I'm changing it out I generally give it a few minutes for dust to settle before I let them at it--someone always wants to make a deposit in the clean box--but there's pros and cons to all the litter options out there.

In a perfect world with infinite resources, I'd be feeding the cats a careful balanced diet of fresh-prepared meats and filtered spring water, and they'd take dumps in a tiny kitty toilet that cleaned itself without my help. But that's not really practical or achievable for me, my life, or my cats, and frankly, it's not necessary. I want them to have a good life. It doesn't need to be a perfect one. If your cat is doing well, and their vet is giving them a clean bill of health, you probably have nothing to worry about. I'm not a professional; you should consult your vet and research options for yourself (which is what I do) but you're not doing anything wrong here.

I will say that when I was going through the process of adopting Mal and Vice, some places (usually private rescues) wanted me to jump through INSANE hoops to even apply. I respect that their hearts are in the right place, but... There are hundreds of kittens in shelters right now that need homes desperately, and the quality of the cat has very little to do with the quality of the rescue--they might have more or less vet work done, depending on where they're coming from, but nobody's managed to fundamentally change the nature of the beast. If you can provide a safe home, food, clean water, and attention to a cat, that's really all they need. The rest is just gravy.

#look i deal with a lot of animal cruelty in a professional context #and if your cat is having their basic needs met #and is healthy and happy and safe #then youre good #there is so much worse that their life could be #there's always someone who thinks anyone not providing the absolute platinum standard of care is somehow neglect #its not #there's always a better best bestest thing #but that doesnt mean other options are bad

301 notes · View notes

youngbounty · 11 days

Text

I don’t think it should be a hot take when I say that Jonathan Kent should never have aged up. This isn’t about who is shipping whom, because I’d be genuinely surprised if even JonJay fans disagreed with me on this.

Let’s actually consider this: if Jon had not been aged up, how would any of his storylines and adventures have changed overall? Sure, yes, there would be a few tweaks, but would Jon’s age have prevented the events of The Legion of Super Heroes, Superman Son of Kal El, Dark Crisis and storylines afterwards. I dare even say it would have made those storylines and Jon’s character so much better.

Let’s go on this rabbit trail here for a second. Even if you liked Son of Kal El and maybe even shipped JonJay. If Jon had never aged up, stayed on Earth age 10, maybe grew to be 11 and met Jay at that point in time, it can go two ways: either Jay would be written the same age as Jon (11 years old) or Jay would still be 18ish and Jon would just have a one-sided crush on an older guy. Either way, the idea would have been more interesting in exploring Jon’s sexuality at a time when he’s just starting puberty. Because he’s young, it would have given room for Jon to grow and develop. Even the Teen Titans under Damian explored his sexuality despite his crush being terrible imo. First love’s are likely to work better if the character is still a child or minor.

The problem comes down to Jon aging up to seven years in a few days. His character is now a shell of what he once was. Jon was already strong and developing. He was becoming his own little person separate from Superman. Hell, if we’re going to talk about making Jon diverse, he was already diverse and dealing with discrimination for being a mixed Kryptonian and human. He was hunted down by a Kryptonian clone of his dad to eliminate any “human impurities.” He was tricked and betrayed by his own hometown, who used alien cow’s milk to “protect him” from needing to be Superboy and as a result had hindered his powers from activating. Evil Tim’s Batman hunted him down to kill him because his human and Kryptonian genetics clashed hard enough for Jon to create a solar flare that was capable of destroying a part of the world. These are issues Jon deals with that are the equivalent of what children of mixed races go through such as health conditions, their own being skeptical of them because of the other half of their race from both sides and often being belittled for being a “half-breed.” Until Jon was aged up, he had to be checked by Batman himself because the Fortress of Solitude and regular human doctors weren’t capable of checking a half Kryptonian and Human child. Then, Jon got aged up and his health concerns and the discrimination conflicts from his own were thrown right out the window.

My point is that Jon’s character arc and conflicts were thrown out the window the moment he aged up. Sure, there are some good comics with Jon here and there like Tom King’s Super Sons’ Adventures in Babysitting, but for the most part, Jon’s character has been reduced to a clone of Superman. Whatever happened to Jon’s personality that came from his mother like his stubbornness, tamper and sassiness? Whatever happened to that Jon that led a bunch of demon dogs he rescued to save his parents? Whatever happened to the boy that went Emo over accidentally frying his pet cat to ashes?

I guess Jonathan Kent truly died in that volcano when he was sucked into a wormhole.

#jonathan kent #superboy #superman #dc comics #action comics

49 notes · View notes

robsterskellington · 2 months

Text

Well, if you all insist. Here's a cute section for those skk shippers.

Necessary context: this is about a year or so after Vanitas came to Yokohama, so his memories have since returned. Certain other characters from VNC have since made an appearance and some caused issues that won't be spoiled here, but just for the context Naenia *has* hurt Chuuya and made a small impact on his appearance, while also harming him mentally and physically. So this is Dazai trying to comfort Chuuya:

"A puppy?" Vanitas tilted his head, surprised at those words coming from Dazai's mouth- it had been a quiet day at the Agency, so Dazai had asked to borrow Vanitas for what he'd called *personal reasons*. It turned out that Dazai wanted to show his love to Chuuya in a new way, and wanted him to feel better after the last incident they had.

"I'm terrified of dogs, but Chuuya loves them. I want him to be happy, and he put up with so much of my crap." Dazai chuckled, though he was visibly shaking and had grown deathly pale, "I thought maybe I wouldn't be as scared if we got a puppy and raised it so it wouldn't be a vicious monster like the dogs I know."

Vanitas understood that, being afraid of something and worried that it would affect his life if he didn’t get over it. Also he was more of a cat person, so were most of the Agency, as proven by how everyone liked Atsushi. Obviously it wasn't the only reason, but it was a big factor. Humming to himself, Vanitas asked, "Are you wanting to go to the pet store, or..?"

That had been something else Dazai had to think about. He slowly shook his head, "I want to adopt from a shelter. Chuuya would love that, plus even I think it's a good idea, rescuing rather than relying on a possibly sketchy breeder."

Now, Vanitas had come to respect Dazai: he was capable of being cruel and calculating, but he had a heart filled with warmth and kindness, and that wasn't something that anyone could or would ignore. Even when it came to something he hated, Dazai chose the option that was best morally and logically. Yokohama had a lot of strays, so rescue centres were an essential, thus it wasn't difficult to find one. Dazai was terrified, both of the dogs and the thought of this new commitment, but...

Naenia had nearly taken Chuuya from him. He couldn't lose him, not Chuuya. So now, he needed to make sure that he never lost him again, without being manipulative or controlling. Not that anything could truly control Chuuya, he was far too *Human*. Dazai had already fucked up so many times, and it was too much- Chuuya had been the one affected, it was time to fix what he could and ease any pain.

Time froze when a giant grey dog started snarling and barking when Dazai got a little too close to its cage, and he immediately fell on his ass, trying to scoot away while hyperventilating; this was far more than just a fear, this was straight up trauma.

*****

"Stand up and fight, Shūji!!"

Shūji Tsushima was about five years old at this point, standing in a makeshift boxing ring with a metal chain fence circling the entire thing. He and his father were the only people there, but in the cage with him were three dogs at least double Shūji's size. His father was training him to become stronger, he'd said. Shūji wasn't unarmed, he'd been provided a knife, and a gun.

But those snarling fangs had absolutely terrified him, he couldn't even attempt to turn his back and grab the weapons he'd dropped the moment the mutts came out. One had jumped towards him and bit his arm, causing the poor boy to scream and cry, "Father, please help me!!" This wasn't how he wanted to die.

"Pathetic excuse for a son." His father's words was the last voice he heard before he passed out, but the last sounds he heard? Three gunshots.

*****

"Dazai! You're okay, just hold onto me."

That was Vanitas' voice... but wasn't he..?

No. That's right. Shūji Tsushima wasn't here anymore, Osamu Dazai stood in his place, but still had all those same fears, memories and visions. Vanitas was rubbing Dazai's back, slowly guiding him from his panic attack. He did hear the sound of a dog, but no vicious barking, just a whine. Dazai steeled his nerves and looked over at the dog who'd barked, and... it was the one whining. Actually, it looked really sad, like it knew it did something bad.

After taking some calming breaths, Dazai sat up properly and Vanitas reached into his pocket, "I've got chocolate on me, that should help you." The Agency Members always carried some form of snack on them in case Ranpo asked them to tag along, and Vanitas usually carried chocolate, claiming that it was medically beneficial, whatever that meant. However, since Dazai felt better after having a piece, he wasn't inclined to call bullshit.

"...that dog looks sad." It was weak and childish sounding, but Dazai wanted to make sure he was still sort of functioning. Plus, he found himself a little curious.

Vanitas gave him that explanation: that dog was female and had been used for breeding most of her life. She was seven years old, and had only just been rescued, though not before her abusers got one last use out of her. Apparently the name she was given was Viola, and she was expecting another litter of puppies within the next few weeks. It sounded like the sort of sob story that would pull at Sigma's heartstrings.

Once he'd calmed down properly, Dazai decided that after coming this far, he wasn't about to give up now. Vanitas stayed close to him, as they looked around. Animals are more intelligent than some people would make them out to be, and not a single dog barked after Dazai's panic attack. It helped him feel a lot more at ease, and he was able to look at the dogs without breaking out in goosebumps.

Eventually, one large cage caught his attention: the inside was full of puppies that had a mix of tan, white and blueish coloured fur. The mother wasn't with them, and the puppies were clearly a few months old, so they weren't dependent on milk but still very small. Most of them were playing with toys or playfully fighting each other, but there was one who was just... in the corner on its own. It must have been the runt.

Dazai didn't know why, but he found himself kneeling down and while he flinched when he got that runt's attention, he also felt warm inside. Its eyes, one was blue and one was brown, just like Chuuya's! Even in the same positions. The white colour that separated the blue from the tan looked peculiar, it was almost like the shape of lightning bolts, all across its fur. The puppy's ears were tall, far too big for its body, and when it tilted its head at Dazai, its entire body tilted with it, until it fell on its side with a squeak.

"Easy there," Dazai chuckled, carefully reaching out to the cage, letting the puppy catch his scent. The puppy nuzzled his fingers and gave a small lick. Dazai's eyes widened and his thoughts stuttered, *Wait, is this how most people react with dogs? That was so adorable, and I don't think I can leave here without this one.*

"Oh, he never usually goes to people!" The woman who ran the shelter had walked up, having heard about the man fainting in her workplace, "He usually hides in the back away from people. Would you like me to get him out for you?"

Of course Dazai said yes. He was still afraid of dogs, and it would take him forever to recover, but this puppy brought out a reaction that wasn't true terror. She scooped up the puppy and put him on the floor- he scampered up to Dazai, sniffing around him and flopping onto the floor when his ears turned against him again. Dazai smirked again, before stroking his fur, absolutely amazed by how soft it was, he imagined that this was what a cloud would feel like if he could touch them. The puppy yawned and curled up close to him, which sold Dazai completely. After all, if this dog liked Dazai, he would love Chuuya.

However, he looked over at Viola's cage and frowned- all alone in the world and pregnant. Didn't seem fair. Fyodor, Nikolai and Sigma had apparently been talking about getting pets, and while they weren't all on speaking terms, Dazai did keep in touch with Sigma and dialled his number.

*Ring... Ring... click.*

"Dazai? Is everything okay?" Of course Sigma would immediately worry. After giving a brief synopsis of the situation, and the detailed version of Viola's story, Dazai grinned when he heard Sigma's voice become laced with emotion and tears, "Luckily I'm in town. And we did think about getting dogs, so one and some puppies on the way? I think that's that. I'll be right there!"

Dazai laughed when Sigma hung up, likely sprinting here. He told Vanitas, who laughed as well and gave the puppy who claimed Dazai a little stroke, "He's adorable. This one is yours and Chuuya's dog?"

After looking down, and seeing the puppy give him a tail wag, Dazai nodded. This was their dog.

***

"I cannot believe you actually did that." Sigma was walking a cheerful Viola down the street with Dazai, who held a box containing the new pup. He also bought another surprise, but he kept that in his coat pocket.

"Which part? Getting that slug and I a pet, or calling you about someone who clearly needs you?" He teased, but when Sigma had arrived and saw Viola, it was love at first sight. Naturally, Sigma had sent photos to his boyfriends, who practically begged/demanded that he come home with the pregnant dog.

"That you faced your fear so well. And that little one is going to be much happier with you." That made Dazai smile, and he appreciated that thought. "...you are prepared, right? For a dog?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I always plan ahead, I actually bought a bunch of dog stuff and hid them on the top of the shelves and my closet so that the shortie couldn't see them." Ah, how long had it been since he'd had a dig at Chuuya's height? It wasn't a lie, though. Dazai had gotten everything necessary and hid it all from Chuuya so that he wouldn't suspect a thing.

After thanking Vanitas and congratulating Sigma on the new family member, and future family members, he headed back to the apartment. Chuuya should be home by now, so he was thankful that the dog had fallen asleep. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if the gift started barking, would it?

Once he opened the door, he heard Chuuya's voice- he was obviously on the phone, and he sounded anxious, maybe a little annoyed? "...so there's no mistakes? Fuck. No- yes, I'm fine. Just... you're definitely sure? This isn't something that you can-... okay, fine." Chuuya took a breath then cleared his throat, "...thanks, *Doc Glasses*. Bye- *yes* I said thanks, fuck off." He hung up the phone, then saw Dazai and lit up with a smile.

Dazai seemed surprised. Ango and Chuuya definitely didn't like each other to say the least, so for them to have an actual discussion with minimal cursing seemed off. But that didn't matter at that moment in time, as Dazai put the box down and went to hug his partner.

Chuuya was still drained and exhausted after Naenia attacked him, the new white streak in his hair showing and nothing could hide it. Dazai just thought it made him look even more beautiful, which he didn't even realise was possible. After a kiss, they sat on the couch, and Dazai made it clear that Chuuya's business was his own, but Chuuya just scoffed a little, "It's... to do with Verlaine."

Oh. No wonder Chuuya had been pacing. They weren't stupid, they knew Verlaine had been alive all these years, and was their superior at one point. Dazai held his hand and squeezed gently, "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not yet, but I will, I promise." Most members of the Port Mafia kept their promises, but the only two who truly kept them were Chuuya and Akutagawa. Sort of.

"Well, no rush. Anyway, I wanted to make you feel better, so I got you something." Dazai pulled out the small box from his coat and handed it over, an idiotic smile on his face.

"What have you done this time?" Chuuya would always be suspicious of any gift that Dazai brought him, since his presents used to be ridiculous in the past: toy slugs, a book about how to train dogs to be obedient, even a rubber knife to replace a real one he once stole then lost on a mission.

Dazai smirked, "Nothing~! It's just a gift to show my appreciation!" When Chuuya went to open it, Dazai quickly cleared his throat, "Ah, but you can't be mad at me."

Chuuya looked at Dazai with furrowed eyebrows, then at the seemingly inconspicuous box tied with a crimson ribbon, "There's not a bomb in here, is there? ...or a stink bug?"

Dazai shook his head, "No, just open it!" When Chuuya finally did, he tried to hide a smirk behind a glare, "What? It's perfect for my loyal dog!"

Inside was a pure black collar, with a tag in the shape of a bone. It didn't have anything engraved on it yet, but that wasn't really what Chuuya focused on, as he half-jokingly called Dazai every name under the sun. "Seriously, Osamu?! A collar?!"

Once he had his fun, Dazai turned serious. He couldn't hold it off any longer, after all. "Chuuya. I do have another gift for you, but I need you to trust me and close your eyes." He blushed when Chuuya *immediately* closed his eyes.

As if to carry on the joke, Dazai had slipped his finger through Chuuya's choker, tugging it slightly in order to pull Chuuya forward for a kiss. He acted as if he was going to completely remove the choker, only to leave it where it belonged and pulled away.

Taking another breath to steady himself, Dazai went to the box and opened it, seeing that the puppy had just started to wake up. His tail wagged at seeing Dazai, who scooped him up, and carried him over.

Swallowing his nerves, he weakly cleared his throat, "O-okay, you can open your eyes now!" Chuuya did, and he froze. Dazai was holding out the tiniest, most fluffy puppy out to him, "Surprise!"

The puppy let out a tiny yap, his tail wagging uncontrollably, and after seeing Dazai give him a look of *please for the love of God, take this puppy out of my hands*, he did, holding him close and letting him sniff, lick and nuzzle him. Dazai had looked really uncomfortable, though it was because he was scared that one wrong move could lead to him getting bitten or something, and yet Dazai was undeniably happy as well, his smile incredibly bright.

He started to cry, he couldn't help it. This was something he'd dreamed about since he learned about dogs, having a puppy of his own. "Is he ours?" He managed to say through his sobbing, which intensified as Dazai nodded. He nuzzled the puppy, who snuggled into him properly, yawning again. "Oh, 'samu. This is the best."

"I wanted to do better with my fear..." He sat with Chuuya and explained everything: the panic attack caused by a frightened Viola, how he was comforted by Vanitas and this puppy, and how they've both now got their forever homes. Chuuya leaned into him and kissed his cheek, making him smile warmly, "Glad to see Chibi thinks I made the right call."

"You really did." Chuuya stayed on the couch, and Dazai retrieved all of the dog supplies he'd hidden- food, toys, a bed, puppy mats, even some medicine in case he ever got sick. Dazai was prepared, and he wasn't letting his fear blind him to the fact that this was a living creature they were taking care of.

They let him roam and explore the apartment, watching him try to climb and run around like a maniac. Chuuya was silently thankful that the puppy didn't have the zoomies, otherwise Dazai would probably faint again. Now there was one last thing to discuss.

The one thing that the shelter didn't do was name the puppies, which naturally meant that the responsibility fell on Double Black. They both took note of the patterns on the puppies fur. Lightening bolts.

Bolt? Cute, but it didn't suit him. Thor? Too generic. Lightening? A bit too long. Zeus? ...actually.

"Zeus is a good name. He's got the lightening patterns, and he's got personality." Dazai couldn't argue with Chuuya's logic, especially since he looked at the puppy and found himself thinking that he *looked* like a Zeus, if that made any sense.

So that was the name they trained him to respond to. And Zeus was welcomed into their home, as a part of their little family. This was how far Chuuya and Dazai's relationship had come, and they loved it, just as much as they both grew to love their little Zeus.

*****

AN: *Psst.* This is what Chuuya looks like from this point, drawn by my cousin, HisDarkDisgrace on AO3:

#bungou stray dogs #the case study of vanitas #vanitas no carte #bsd #bungo stray dogs #vnc #chuuya nakahara #dazai osamu #vnc vanitas #bsd sigma #a guide to tainted sorrow #soukoku #skk #bsd skk #bungo gay dogs

31 notes · View notes

jonquilyst · 3 months

Text

My Perception of Pet Mortality

Not sims related, but I felt compelled to share.

Today my brother and I discussed pet mortality today, so I wanted to share the advice I shared with him about pet mortality in case if you have a pet (and especially if you've lost a pet in the past)

This is Shaggy, my beloved childhood cat. He died in 2020 at the age of 11 from kidney failure. To quickly describe the cat he was, he was an intelligent, though grumpy indoor-outdoor boi who patrolled the neighborhood block and was an affluent hunter. He frequently brought home live birds and bunnies to our deck to give us a lovely execution show before he would devour his treat.

He was such a good hunter that the bunny population in our neighborhood bottlenecked and did not return until last year (3 years after his passing).

10 months after Shaggy died, we rescued a kitten named Oskar, who has been with us ever since.

Now, introducing my very own cat, Lacey. She's a kitten in this picture but she will be 5 years old next month. My brother asked me today if when Lacey eventually dies, I would adopt another cat.

My answer was yes.

He asked me if I would adopt the cat so I could replace Lacey.

I said no.

He then asked me why I would adopt another cat if I wasn't intending on replacing her, especially since we had adopted Oskar after Shaggy died.

This is what I told him (though fumbling on my words trying to get my point across):

Pet mortality is a very sad thing, yes. It is the worst to lose a pet, but I think there's a very good reason why pets only serve a fraction of our lifetimes and this is why:

When we lose a pet, our animal-loving hearts tend to open up to loving new animals. Of course, it'll take some time to grieve the loss of the departed pet, but more often than not, we adopt a new animal.

Why do we do this? Is it because we're "replacing" the lost pet?

Most often times, no. The reason why is because the animal being adopted is an entirely new being, with a different personality and quirks and habits that's totally different from the lost pet.

Pets only live for so long so us humans can love as many animals as possible. Again, it's sad, yes, but I stand by the quote: "they may not have lasted all of your life, but you lasted all of theirs." There's something so beautiful about being there for an animal for the duration of its life, even if you adopted the animal later in its life, and especially when it comes to touching the lives of many animals over the course of your own human life.

Point being, when you adopt a pet after the loss of a previous one, you are not replacing them. Rather, you are opening your heart to a new being who will enrich your life in a brand new way. You will never have an animal that's exactly like the one you lost again, so it's very much worth remembering them.

I told my brother that even though it's been 4 years since Shaggy died, we still talk about him, reminisce about him, laugh about him, remember him. His urn containing his ashes and a cast of his pawprint still remain on our fireplace mantle. I told him that the fact that we still continue to remember him, that Shaggy impacted us in this way, is proof that we never replaced him.

Our new cat Oskar is simply a new addition to our family.

So, when my Lacey eventually passes (hopefully not for a long long time, but Ik it will happen), I will adopt a new cat, because I want to keep loving cats for as long as I live. Humans impact cats and cats impact humans in such a beautiful and powerful way that I want to continue extending my impact to new felines who will live alongside me, and so that they can impact me in the same way, even if they might not last the entirety of my life.

Pets are family forever.

#txt #nonsims #hope this helps someone... i managed to change my brother's perspective about pet mortality which I feel happy about

5 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 1 year

Note

regarding this post

I was waiting in the vet and as one does chatted with a random stranger also waiting in the vet's office. We got to talking and I mentioned that most of my family's cats were rescues from where people had dropped them off at the local Mcds/gas station combo.

She then told me that she didn't understand people who would do that and if she couldn't take her dog somewhere with her when she moved she would have him euthanized. I didn't really respond beyond an ah.

Because while I can kind of understand where she's coming from: our area had a major abandoned animal issue, no shelters, one vet who only opened their clinic about a year or two before, no animal control, and a lot of people who thought both collars and spaying/neutering were bad for their pets, but weren't inclined to try to keep their animals away from other animals when necessary.

LIKE HELL I'M EVER GONNA TAKE THAT MINDSET!!

I don't call myself a pet parent, I'll admit I spoil my cats to the point where I probably line up with those folks, but my cats are very important members of my family.

To me, those lines come off as, "well, I either have to abandon the pet or euthanize the pet." uh, no? rehome. Even in our area with all its issues there were volunteer groups who were trying their best to find solutions for people and get people aware of the fact that spaying/neutering isn't a bad thing [and it was working! fixing was going up!]

It just feels like a very casual dismissal of what a person's responsibilities are to their pets. And how can a heart not break thinking of such a possibility??

And at first, my response was, "Well, maybe I'm looking at this from a place of privilege, I've never actually been forced to choose between my cats and a roof over my head," but then I realized that anyone who can choose euthanization probably is as well. Euthanization costs money.

Euthanization for a healthy animal because you don't want to rehome them is just.... sad.

Anyway, no matter how rural you live, there may be animal resources by you! Also, alot of animal programs don't merely just help pets find homes, some will help people in financial need feed their pets as well so the rehoming isn't necessary. They can help you afford spaying/neutering! If someone is struggling and they have pets, animal resources are often willing to help! I only learned a couple of years ago about the, many resources will help with food and other things so I always feel it's important to share that aspect.

26 notes · View notes

icedteaandoldlace · 10 months

Note

5, 6 and 16 for Barry, Iris and Cisco :)

Not sure whether you wanted one for each of them or if you wanted the same ones for all of them, so I just did every possible headcanon/character combination here.

5. Fear headcanon

Barry has a slight fear of cats. It's nothing serious, he's just very wary around them because he can never read them and he's never sure what they want. Joe's aunt had a cat who would roll over like it wanted a belly rub, but when Barry would try to give it one, it would take a swipe at him. He still hasn't figured out why cats do that yet. Whenever he pets a cat, he only touches it very lightly because he doesn't want to set it off. When Cisco finally gets the house cat he's always wanted, he insists that it's harmless and very sweet, but Barry still doesn't know what to do with it. It hops up in his lap while he's eating a snack on Cisco's couch, and he goes very still because he doesn't want to anger it by not sharing. Cisco tells him to just push him off, but no way he's making enemies with a thing with claws (he's kinda forgotten about the whole having super speed thing for a moment). Kamilla ends up coming to his rescue and holding the cat so he can eat in peace. It's still staring at him, though.

Iris is used to having to be the brave one. At sleepovers, if she and her friends heard a weird noise at night, she would volunteer to go check it out so none of the other girls would have to admit to being afraid. Part of the reason she nudged Barry toward Felicity and threw shade at Becky Cooper was because she didn't want him to let fear hold him back from telling either girl how he felt (or at least how she thought he felt), and she thought he could use the validation. She chose to be a journalist because someone needed to report the truth even when everyone else was afraid to. This tendency has carried over to several other aspects of her life as well, and she's gotten so used to being brave for everyone else that sometimes she forgets that it's okay to let people see that she's afraid. Without consciously realizing it, one of the ways she knows she's found a solid friendship is when someone can see through her brave front, and they let her address her fears while they act as the brave one for her for a change.

Cisco's fear of bees goes back farther than he can remember. He's not sure how or when it started, but he knows it was already in full swing the first time he watched Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, as a small child still navigating basic motor skills. He can vividly remember being scared out of his wits when that mean bee laughed his buzzy laugh at Pooh getting stuck in the tree, and it was not a good time for him. It took him a few years to be able to watch that scene without wanting to leave the room. It doesn't scare him anymore, but he still doesn't like that bee. But one movie he is never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER watching again is My Girl.

6. Musical headcanon

Barry is the basic bitch of the group. He is the most likely to listen to Taylor Swift and The Beatles and other mainstream stuff like that, but of course he's also a big fan of musicals. He totally made a few music videos as a teen that he choreographed himself, and roped Iris into being in/filming a couple of them. At some point in his later teen years, he deleted all the evidence, but there's probably a home-burned DVD or a flash drive lying around somewhere that has a few survivors on it, including the Soulja Boy dance, which they were both so proud to have pulled off at the time.

Iris's taste in music has less to do with genre and more to do with how much of a visceral effect it has on her. She's a big fan of heavy bass lines and snappy tempos, and she loves anything she can dance to, whether slow and romantic or upbeat and noisy. She went to an *NSYNC concert when she was 12, and No Strings Attached is still one of her favorite songs of all time. She is also a big fan of En Vogue. She usually listens to music around the house with headphones, because if Barry walks in while she's grooving, he will embarrass her with his dad moves. But when she's driving to work, she lets it blast.

Cisco has the most All Over The Place taste in music out of anyone on Team Flash, and also the biggest music library, and the most playlists. He has (at least) one playlist completely dedicated to film scores, and another for songs used in memes. He has more songs he likes than songs he dislikes, but when he finds a song he truly hates, it Needs To Die ("Tom's Diner is trash, and I don't care who knows it!"). He's also a big time shower singer, and if it annoys you, that's your problem.

16. Appearance headcanon

Barry loves his signature quiff, but he secretly wants to have side bangs because he thinks they're cool. He's heard enough people make fun of guys with bangs that he's too afraid to get them himself, but he did enjoy that brief period with them right after coming out of the Speed Force. The best part of being Savitar was not caring what people thought anymore and getting to style his hair however he wanted, but he would never admit to that. That secret died with Savitar, but deep down, Barry already knows.

Iris has always been pretty confident about her appearance, but one thing she was on the fence about for a while was bright colored lipstick. She was just never sure if she could pull it off, so she would play it safe with neutral tones, and more often than not, she would just wear lipgloss instead. But after the whole Savitar thing and spending months thinking she was gonna die soon, she decided life's too short to be anxious about little things like that, so she started wearing bright lipstick more often, and she decided that she really, really loves it.

Cisco had to wear glasses when he was a kid, and he hated them because it just provided the bullies with more ammunition (especially when combined with the headgear). But he's too freaked out by the idea of having to touch his eyeballs to wear contacts, so as soon as he got off his parents' insurance plan and started taking care of his own medical expenses, he got LASIK surgery. THAT freaked him out a whole lot, too, but at least he knew it was only a one time thing. Ironically, he thinks glasses are sexy on other people, just not on himself. But he eventually got over that insecurity, and he fully embraced the Vibe goggles once he got comfortable using his powers.

#The Flash #Barry Allen #Iris West #Cisco Ramon #headcanons #ask #alittleflashvibe #long post

8 notes · View notes

queer-adhd · 2 years

Text

CW for discussion of animal death.

So. The dog killed a bird yesterday.

I spent most of today processing it in the background, because it was something I wasn't prepared for. I've always been honest with myself about the fact that we can't have any small pets that he could gain access to, because he is not safe to have around them. I would not leave him unsupervised with a small dog. I still wasn't really prepared for it to happen, because I thought that it was in my control to avoid those things.

This was one of those situations that very much cannot be properly controlled for. We run him off leash in a fenced in area, after dark to limit the chance of an unseen pet running into him, with rescue treats on hand. He has a harness that I can carry him by if necessary, and is trained to associate that with high value treats. He considers it one of the tricks he does for fun.

He's even sensitive to correction from other animals. Being hissed at by the neighbour's cats when he saw them made him unwilling to try and play with them.

None of that can really protect against him being out of sight for fifteen seconds, and immediately finding a small and fairly injured fluffy thing that makes the BEST noises when he slaps it.

Sometimes rescue treats aren't good enough, and by the time I'd gotten close enough he'd already begun resource guarding. We've been working at that, and on his recall. More work still clearly needed, but it's pretty fucking hard to trade for an entire bird when what you have to offer is just a dog treat, no matter how nice the treat is.

Anyway. It was not a good time. Athos had to front because he was the only person who could be calm for that situation, and panicking was only hyping the dog up further when he'd already gone far past threshold. He's been known to try and swallow forbidden food whole if he feels it's being threatened, and we really needed for that not to happen.

Rouke came out with the highest value rescue treats we had. We got him back on leash and continued the walk after disposing of the bird. We've been keeping an eye on him to make sure that whatever had the bird grounded and unable to get away wasn't something that can make him sick.

It helped to know that there are a lot of foxes in that park. They like to tease the dog. It's why he only runs in the fenced area; the bars will let a fox through, but not him. The idea was always that he was the only thing in that park that couldn't leave at will. But it also meant that the bird would have died no matter what. It was just a matter of when that night it happened.

Anyway. The main point to this post was. Well, partly to put it in a different perspective from total panic. Recontextualise it a day later with a clearer mind.

The other main point was that this is normal. It was a bad experience, but it doesn't make him a bad dog. It wasn't a major failure of training or management. It was a situation that was fairly impossible to preempt, and which was dealt with as best we could manage.

Dogs kill small animals. It's a large part of why we bred a good number of them. He's a working line dog, and just because he lives in a city it doesn't change the fact that many of his siblings are working as hunting dogs. The traits which make him an effective assistance dog when he's on duty make him a risk to small animals, because focus and drive and food motivation are a double edged sword.

It's not just him, though. It's more of a risk for him, which is why we're careful, and why this has only happened once in over three years. This is the only animal he has ever hurt.

A lot of people are not so careful, and the results are similar. The dog is fine, tolerates other animals reasonably enough, until the conditions are right and things go wrong. In those cases it's often another pet. One which the dog has coexisted peaceably or happily enough with. Until something hit just right: the cat ran past it at the wrong time or it wasn't careful when playing, and... yeah.

It's not a bad dog. It's a management issue in a lot of cases. A dog being set up to fail. But despite the best management in the world, there will always be unforseen circumstances. So I guess this was to raise awareness, because this... Happens. It's horrible, but it happens. All we can do is manage it when it does.

#tw animal death #rouke asked me to make this post so #yeah

65 notes · View notes

winterandwords · 1 year

Text

15 questions, 15 mutuals

Thanks to @k--havok for the tag!

Are you named after anyone? Nope. My parents just liked the name and my mum, who was a teacher, had a never taught a kid with it before so it didn't come with any preconceptions.

When was the last time you cried? A couple of nights ago. My dog freaked out because her foot went to sleep and she tried to get up and the noise she made fucking broke me. Terrible things happening to humans in my presence? Totally calm, stop the bleeding, whatever. An animals being mildly distressed over a extremely minor non-problem? TEARS.

Do you have kids? No. Never. Completely by choice. Team happily child-free here.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Not as much as people think I do. Unless I'm in hardcore masking mode, I can come off as kind of cold and unemotional, so when I say genuinely supportive or appreciative things, people don't realise I'm being serious and assume I'm being an asshole.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their…vibe?? I don't know how to explain it. Their innate them-ness, the way it feels to be around them. I usually pick up pretty much immediately if someone is going to be very significant in my life. When I first met the person I've now been married to for twenty years it was like "Holy shit, you are going to matter so much" even though I didn't know how or why.

What’s your eye color? Blue, but not like all one colour. They're very pale around the pupil with a much darker ring around the outside.

Scary movies or happy endings? Yes. Violent revenge fantasies, please.

Any special talents? I'm hypermobile, so I can do all sorts of ill-advised party tricks with my stupid joints. Also I have a knack for picking up on people's fears and insecurities very quickly and easily via completely unrelated conversation and often hardly any conversation at all. I've never tried to do that. It just sort of happens. I'm not entirely comfortably with it tbh.

Where were you born? Ireland.

What are your hobbies? Writing, but that goes beyond being a hobby. Also learning French, reading, yoga, absorbing information about special interests (usually various aspects of religion and cultural mythology), baking, playing computer games, and BDSM.

Have you any pets? Yep! A black greyhound lurcher called Shadow. She's a rescue and we adopted her from her foster human last October. Before that she'd been raised in a racing kennel but couldn't race because she has a wonky foot, so she'd mostly been tied up in a concrete yard for all ten months of her little life. Also, Silver the cat. He's five, adopted in a "my cat had kittens and they need homes" situation, and he's had the most charmed life ever. It's a total coincidence that they're both named after characters from Sonic the Hedgehog.

What sports do you play/have played? I used to play hockey (field hockey, for those of you who live in places where ice hockey is the default) and did competitive gymnastics in high school. I played tennis and badminton casually, had a weight lifting gym bunny phase in my early twenties and went running late at night a lot for reasons of sanity. After that it was mostly mountain biking, because what's even the point if you can't hurl yourself down ridiculous hills on two wheels and hope all your body parts get to the bottom at the same time?

How tall are you? 5ft 2in

Favorite subject in school? I loved art, but hated art classes because I always had really shitty teachers who were very "I will only dedicate time and energy to people who make exactly the kind of art I personally like".

Dream job? I was a professional photographer (it's what I went to college for) and ran a studio before my body crapped out on me, so that was pretty cool and I'm glad I got to do it while I could. Writing isn't my job as such, but it's The Thing I Do now and I love it too.

Tagging some newer mutuals here. No pressure at all to take part! @felixwriting, @frankiesaysrelaxx, @superfangirl2789, @mawcegoblinwrites, @marthawrites, @danijameswriter and @make-them-scream. Fifteen people seems like a lot to tag, so I'm going to leave it at that and include an open tag, so if you'd like to take part feel free to @ me so I can see your answers.

#the shit in my head #writeblr tags #fifteen questions fifteen mutuals

8 notes · View notes

sunsage · 1 year

Note

canary! blonde! lime! cerulean! navy!

🐝 * ― 𝑪𝑶𝑳𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑭𝑼𝑳 𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾. ( send one or more of these to get to know the person behind the blog a little better. )

[ canary ] do you have pets? if yes, how many and what?

YES I HAVE A CAT

Her name is Dusya, or Deuces for my more English-favouring friends. She's a six year old rescue and she's my little ball of sunshine that loves to yell at one in the morning and eat holes in my bread (she doesn't like the crusts).

[ blonde ] what is your favorite type of music? favorite artist? favorite song?

Hm, I don't really have a favourite genre or anything, I just like music. I guess I listen to a lot of rock music? And also songs you generally find in AMVs? Don't know about favourite band either but I've been listening to a lot of Florence and the Machine lately. Mermaids and Free are my current favourites from them.

[ lime ] describe yourself as a character / mix of characters you've always related to the most.

i don't think i want to do that... It's a little too revealing of a question! Also, I have bad memory. In general terms I suppose I relate most to characters with anger issues who push forward and find the best in any situation despite everything the world throws at them. For no particular reason.

[ cerulean ] what is your favorite ( type of ) character to write?

I once said that my type seems to be "men who have a little something wrong with them" and that's still true, I love my weird little freaks. Transmascs who have morals somewhat but will still help you hide a body? I vibe with that.

[ navy ] what do your muse(s) mean to you?

The world. Interesting question! I guess my muses do mean a lot to me, since I use my writing for escapism. I suppose it is essentially just playing with action figures except over internet and in a language I am only somewhat fluent in, but there were points in my life where roleplaying my little guys was the best part of my day so I do owe a lot to them. And to my wonderful writing partners too!

#light imperfected #uh oh i am being perceived #i'd rather people look at my cat instead /j #she knows three commands and ive been trying to leash train her but she's too afraid of other people #so we only go for walks in the inner yard and at night

2 notes · View notes

terrence-silver · 2 years

Note

I’ve been thinking about the other Terry - McCain. What do you think he’d be like nowadays? Do you think he’s mellowed out a little or is still fierce and hot-tempered and practicing his kicks and punches? Does he still play piano? Have a new cat? Still have that earring, still wear his hair in that mullet style or has he updated his look? Just curious about your thoughts cuz I never see people talking about him outside of the movie.

What was Terry McCain up to after the 90's and into the present day?

Well, here's what I headcanon:

---

― He is still a cat man and has always remained a cat man, and cats have been his persistent and devoted companions for years, mostly various strays he picked up and adopted off of the streets of Chicago ever since his and Anna's relationship broke off even after they had a time of renewed happiness together. She moved back to England to pursue her modelling career, finding that their lifestyles differ too much for anything more lasting than fond feelings and goodbyes and Terry remained behind, something of a bachelor that lives alone with his pets (which include the occasional dog he feeds too) and frequents local clubs. They actually parted on good terms. Or at least intended to for the second break-up in a row before Terry nearly ran after airplane taking off and Anna was re-reminded that, my god, this guy is pretty damn possessive and maybe this distance will do everyone so good, won't it?

― Terry McCain either got a seriously big promotion in the police force...or a seriously big demotion. Or both at one time in his life. He might've passed through several stages of grief after losing so many of his colleagues and indulging in some vigilantism of his own and he might've contradictively had an invigorated sense of spite and pride in his work precisely because so many of his work friends died and he felt he should be the one to carry their torch. Then, for a short while, he took to drinking. Thing is, Terry McCain, while passionate and something of a firecracker is also a good man and a good cop, and fact is, a good cop doesn't excel too far career wise, so if he was ever due for a promotion, it never happened in decades, and his position stuck due to a corrupt system. He was always Detective McCain. Might've gotten demoted to Sargent at one point, just to curb his attitude.

― It did't curb his attitude. No. Terry McCain could've channeled a lot of his justice-loving, righteous, fiery ways into helping people freelance, just because, outside the vestiges of his badge, becoming known over the years as something of an smaller urban tale around Chicago. Might've even gotten a little segment on the news about it. Stopped a burglary? Prevent a fire in an apartment? Neighbours need help moving boxes up to their apartment on the fifth floor? Mr. zealous McCain to the rescue! This good reputation isn't anything colossal, to be understood, but being this local sensation earns him a favourable place at any pub, club, musical bistro, with ordinary people in general in almost any corner of the city. He is just a very well liked man, thing is, because even though he is occasional difficult, temperamental, aggressive and fierce, loving to get into a fight or ten, Terry is far from a bad person.

― He also never abandoned music. Quite the contrary, except maybe only when he is hit by the recollection of all the various taskforce friends he's lost on the job and the subsequent depression that follows it. The one thing he saved up after years and years of scrounging together money was in order to have an instrument all of his own. Naturally, he loved playing in bars for an audience and sometimes, he'd even sing during open mic nights, with people in equal measure loving to hear him (could've gone viral once the Internet became a thing) but for the most part, buying a piano all of his own was a special type of joy. Now, whenever he plays, he has a cat or two napping atop of it, as his prime audience. If he ever had any concrete plans what he might when he retires from being Detective McCain, it is more or less this manner of leisure time.

― His luscious curls changed with the time, namely, the mullet went out of fashion and clearly, he styled it a bit differently (perhaps, putting it up in a bun when training and exercising), but the fundamental essence remained as he went grayer and grayer. Might've removed the earring, possibly exchanging it for a small, discreet cross necklace instead (brought it back from a trip to say, Ireland, which he undoubtedly visited somewhere along the way) --- the one timeless constant, perhaps, were the long coats. I think Terry McCain likes things that are slightly old timey and don't go out of style. Case and point, he undoubtedly kept his body prim, but he never did it at some newly opened glossy downtown gym. He did it at some old watering hole boxing ring that's been open since 1955 or something --- same goes for the type of bars he goes to. He feels better there.

― I don't figure Terry McCain dated or slept around really, not since Anna, or even before, in general, even though he was a looker and warranted many a sigh of admiration from people in general and could, validly, score his share of one night stands, if he wanted to. He simply never did. He really is a 'big love, all out romance, possessive and overattachment' type of guy and the added bonus of his occasional run-ins with the mob through the years wanting revenge for their Boss DeMarco and other lower street-crooks Terry put behind bars, outside of so many of Terry's own friends dying or being seriously injured left him unwilling to embroider innocent people he sees into this. He was actually a bachelor by choice, always thinking he'd die rather young but it never really happening. He worries enough for his cats. Who on earth will feed those guys if he gets shot somewhere?

---

― Might've actually found a beloved only when he was retired (or rather, forced into retirement by his superiors, because he was too stubborn to do so himself), deciding to move out of Chicago for his pension and back into his countryside family home that was empty for ages, preferring how slowly time moves there compared to a city that irrevocably changed since the 90's when he was young, distancing himself from all the bustle, the risk, the danger, the fear of retaliation; a family man at heart, he brought along his cats, his dogs, his piano, his guns, training equipment, his many memories and all that fire cracking attitude still in place. If he ever had children, he could've named each after a deceased partner or friend he might've had. Maybe Dylan. Maybe Frankie. Maybe Jake, after the the Deja Vu club owner he was close with and whose piano he utilized for performances. Either ways, his life has had its ups and downs. He got demoted. Criticized at work. Maybe even shot a couple of times. Nearly risked being fired. Nearly quit himself. Then, he got promoted. He was a willing loner. He was a neighbourhood sweetheart. His attitude got him into trouble a million times. But, I don't see Terry McCain's life being fundamentally all that bad.

#terry mccain #excessive force #excessive force 1993 #terry mccain headcanon #terry mccain headcanons #people are free to disagree of course #these are just possibilities

12 notes · View notes

knuxtiger4 · 1 year

Text

Karma and Chase

One of the things that happened in the last few years was the addition of Cat #4 & #5, Karma and Chase. Honestly this was highly unexpected, I was closing at my job that night and was by our back dock to find two 6 week old kittens that were not there a few hours ago prior. Thus began a long night that involved buying a trap, learning how to trap cats and a few phone calls.

I had both of them by the end of the night and separated into our bathroom which they trashed. I was able to find them a foster at A Pathway to Hope which is the rescue my store partners with and I have friends in that rescue. Turns out both kittens had ringworm and Karma had a polyp in her ear. We brought them to the rescue the day after I trapped and got regular updates on them. It was a month that we decided to adopt Karma.

Karma came home with us in October 2020 while Chase was adopted to a family which I kept in regular contact with through out the year. This kept up until 2021... where we got the bad news that his family was no longer able to keep him due to the parents divorcing and the mother was going into an apartment that did not allow pets.

The day I picked up Chase that is was clear the environment was...tense and bad. And clearly also had affected him mentally. He hid from me a week and my fiance he hid from him for 3 weeks. He clearly was scared of men and loud noises. We don’t know the full details of how his first year of his life went but over time we realized that we just couldn’t see him going to another home with these issues so we adopted him.

Things were fine up until a few months ago where Chase would attack Karma to the point she was having accidents during the attacks. Many vet visits, feliways, calming supplements, medicine and trying reintroductions that it went to the point we had to see a behaviorist. Most people would have told us to give Chase up cause of how ugly the fights got. I had family tell me this. I didn’t want to fail this cat who been through so much. So many times people just take that route and we refused to give up on him.

Since we moved that things have been better that they can space out more and that the fighting has reduced greatly. We still are always working with them but I know these two taught us so much more about cats and its been a fun journey.

To the person that dumped them: You missed out on wonderful cats.

#Knux's personal #cat #cats #pet #pets #rescue cats #Karma #Chase

3 notes · View notes

forgottenghosty · 1 year

Text

Unexpected...

As I wrote at the start of December, I had to say goodbye to my dog Baxter. It was agreed at the time that it would take time to heal and not likely that my family would be getting another dog for some time. I myself thinking at the very least it was understandable that it would be 3 or more months before we even would think about it, letting the family heal as well as the other pets, Gracie (cat) and Toby (dog). Gracie and Toby are around the same age of 8 (both adopted) and Baxter was 6 and 2 months (from a breeder and last big Christmas gift from my late grandfather to me.) My dad and I had started looking into breeders and adoptions and such before Christmas on our own separately just to have an idea of the area around us since we had lived in another state when we got Baxter and we also both agreed when we mentioned this to each other that we were curious and wanted to know things when we felt our family was ready. No rush, just taking our time while we healed. A big reason for looking into it for me that I made know is that I didn’t want Toby to be alone too long since he and Baxter were thick as thieves.

Baxter was around 1 when I found Toby abandoned at a movie theater and took him to a vet to be scanned for a chip and none was found. He was taken in by a foster and in the end no owner was found. Though a person did come forward saying their mother had owned him and passed from an overdoes and the roommate hated him. Most likely why Toby looked well taken care of and groomed except for debris from the field around the theater. Thankfully he hadn’t gone near the highway near by.

In the end our family fell in love with Toby while looking for his family, though I would admit I loved him right away. We adopted him and Baxter took too him right away. Toby was original a skittish guy. He was afraid of men and jumpy around plastic bags and yelling. He was completely fine with loud noises like garbage trucks. Over time he has mellowed and is no longer skittish around men and loves my dad and brother as much as my mother and I. Baxter and Toby would play often and wrestle. Baxter would alert to when they both needed to go to the bathroom and they’d lay in my dad’s lap together.

Gracie, Toby and Baxter would be calmly lay in the same room with me and nap while fireworks would go off. Only reaction to gunfire, (ppl love doing that for the holidays). This New Years Eve both Gracie and Toby were hiding. Toby wanting to be with someone. Something I hadn’t seen them do before and made me more aware of how much Baxter was not only a calming presence for my family, but also for the rest of the pets.

Ever so often Toby will just act tired and not eat as much as he used to. He has lost a little weight and does eat more when he sees someone like me eating. Other days he’s energetic and snarfs his food down. He’s had days at the start where he was looking confused and searching. I’m pretty certain he’s missing Baxter greatly.

Toby has been taking Baxter’s place as comforter during high times of anxiety or emotions. Baxter helped me through my sever Anxiety and my emotional moments as my emotional support animal. He’d give the best hugs and the most loving kisses. If he heard me crying he’d come running to start giving kisses and hugs. If someone even was quietly stressing he’d put his head or paw on their leg or jump into their lap. Toby has been giving kisses and snuggling in our arms taking on his young brothers role. So getting another dog at some point felt only right so he wouldn’t be alone. He can only do so much with his cat sister. My mother mentioned often how she felt it would be a long time before we would even think about another dog. Both my father and I understood this and were being patient. After hearing about Baxter, a friend couple of my parents mentioned a Doodle Rescue which my mother then started looking at around Christmas and my father as well. A few days before New Years Eve, my mom say a dod that looked like Baxter on the site and mentioned it too me and showed me. I agreed and looked her up and thought she was adorable. She told my dad about her as well. Slowly over the few days my mom began to show more interest and my dad and her talked about doing an application for the dog as a trial believing they wouldn’t get picked. A lot of people had mentioned on the post they had entered an application for her and my mom just wanted a feel and idea of how it was done for the future. What was not expected was within a few hours of applying we got a message saying our application was picked with others for an interview. We found out that we were 1 of 5 others that was picked to be looked through as potential adopters. In the end we are now going to meet her and hopefully bring her home. It’s amazing how quickly it happened and how suddenly as well. I’ll do another post later about it after, but for now I just wanted to mention it and the journey. Hopefully it goes well and Toby and her get along and then Gracie and her as well.

youtube

#baxter #toby #my fur baby #my fur babies #update #miss you baxter #dog #dogs

2 notes · View notes

oscaronthegloryroad · 28 days

Text

I don't wanna get aggressive in a friend's comment section; so enjoy this rant about performative activism and animal rescue groups!

I worked briefly in pet specialty retail, and as such I got to interact with some local rescue groups (and a friend's stepmom worked with another, and while I thought my opinion of them was coloured by my opinion of her; it turned out to be accurate) and they fell into two basic groups.

Groups that were result oriented and struggled with volume and funding.

Groups that were in the game to feel good and be a way for rich folks to perform activism.

People in the first group were a lot of fun to interact with, they were happy to hand you a leash and chat while you hung out with a dog, they knew which dogs were not friendly with other animals and were quick to talk up the dogs even (sometimes especially) the elderly and the difficult. They were clearly flexible and happy to share tips and tricks for affordable dog ownership.

The people of the second group were the worst. From keeping a dog in a crate he could not comfortably lay down or sit upright in in favor of having a younger and more personable dog on leash (including telling me that they would not let me help them out by giving him some leash time because I was not in their org!) to bad mouthing another local group for holding a reduced fee adoption event to "get rid of dogs" in their words.

But the most insidious thing they did was set standards they themselves could not meet for adoption. Some examples from my conversations with them; single source of income greater than 75k annually, married (preferably) either without children or with children over the age of 10, had to own their home (no renting a house, let alone an apartment), have a history of pet ownership but no pets currently, agree to random inspection.

I said they would be unable to meet those standards, and while there are some they would meet, the one that is most frustrating they certainly don't.

Their fosters always have a lot of dogs. As a side effect of not being willing to adopt out their dogs they rely on members fostering multiple dogs.

As for cats, my friend's stepmom fostered cats for such an organization, in fact she was a board member for a time. (Full disclosure; this bitch is the worst, I strongly dislike her and the way she treats my friend and his sister.) She had two cats of her own, and was happy to foster a couple adult cats because she had the space. It started with two adoptable adults, who were with her for four years, then it was three cats and one of them was "unadoptable", then she got strong armed into taking a soon to be mother cat, who had her litter there. At one point there were eight cats in that house that were there for between 3 and 7 years.

Their organization was so bad at adopting out cats because their standards were so high that she was essentially stuck indefinitely fostering cats that got to the point that that was their home. And that's why she left the organization. They kept "rescuing" cats with no real intent to get them adopted.

They are rescuing animals just to feel good about themselves.

#there are as many good organizations as bad #but locally the bad ones are really bad #it's just like any other kind of performative activism

1 note · View note