Kaleigh, by the way.

[thorstenhasenkamm]

[amnesiaguy]

you can experience life altering devastating emotion and then your cat will throw up next to you & look at you like does this help ?

[emhidesart]

Rocky meets some animals from earth 🌍🌻

[schmergo]

Yesterday, I was at dinner with some friends and briefly forgot Harrison Ford’s name, but I was like, “His name is a president and a car,” which is how we got such acceptable alternatives as McKinley Camry, Van Buren Gremlin, Clinton Infinity, and Range Rover Cleveland.

[caesarsaladinn]

Lincoln Lincoln

[madredhattie]

turtle school

[madredhattie]

[pusong-mangga]

[animals-with-fan-art]

This counts as fan art

[thecoparoom]

Fish

From the cover of Better Homes & Gardens, August 1934

[gallusrostromegalus]

Love this for a lot of reasons:

1. Yes, some fish have been in the fishtank hobby for over a century. Some have been on even longer.

2. I can identify all these species down to the specific color morphs because they've all been so exquisitely rendered, including the val and the BABY ASSASSIN SNAIL!!

3. I immediately started critiquing the stocking choices and... Well, if it's a big enough tank it's not bad-bad but those zebras are so hype they're going to stress those angels out unless they're both unusually chill, and the angels are going to gobble up all the swordtail fry. OTOH that may not be a bad idea given what live-bearers breed like... B+, I'm going to assume the keeper managed to personality match their zebras and angels and Gave them enough space. Needs more plants.

[mybeingthere]

Diné Weaver Venancio Aragón

"From researching historic twill patterns in museum collections to dyeing wool with Kool-Aid, Diné (Navajo) weaver and instructor Venancio Aragón interlocks research and experimentation to expand the visual and technical vocabularies of Diné weaving. Working on the Diné upright loom, Aragón is part of a generation of Diné weavers who reinterpret ancestral knowledge through experimentation, carrying the medium forward on their own terms. As he stated in our interview with him, “I am not a purist.”

Based in Farmington, New Mexico, Aragón is trained in cultural anthropology and Native American and Indigenous studies, currently teaching at Diné College, the Navajo Nation’s tribal college. Before transitioning to full-time weaving and teaching, Aragón worked as an interpretive park ranger at the Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, and Petroglyph National Monuments, where he led tours and developed public education initiatives. He was born to the Tó’aheedlíinii (The Water Flow Together People) clan and born for the Naakaii (Mexican people). His maternal grandfather is of the Tsénahabiłnii (Sleeping Rock) clan, and his paternal grandfather is of the Naakaii (Mexican people)."

https://hyperallergic.com/dine-weaver-venancio-aragon.../...

[teathattast]

[segamascott]

this is honestly such a good idea

[cellsdividing]

[hadalplumes]

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 2 - Natsu Hyuuga

[contemptible-scoundrel]

seriously awesome

[doctorbeth]

A Puppy's Turtle

I know I owe you a bunch of stories, and I’ve got them all lined up to tell, including Kouku and Girlgirl and Leika. I just finished with the hardest patients I’ve ever had. One was literally shredding, so needed two different stuffed animals of my own to act as models, and the other pair had fabric that was disintegrating in a way that made it sticky, so every time the needle went in and came out, I needed to clean it off! They were stuffing inside, and the top layer of their fabric was coming apart, but the backing of their fabric was sticky. It was new. :-/

But, today I am going to share the story of a turtle named Turtle, and for a rare special treat, you get to see part of the patient’s family. I don’t usually show families for privacy reasons, but, well, this is Turtle’s warm blooded being, Murphy:

They’d been together for six years, since Murphy was a puppy. Here’s their baby picture:

As you can see, Murphy has grown and Turtle has, well been worn a bit. Here are a couple of his diagnosis photos:

We agreed that Turtle needed transplants for his balding, and wounds sewn up. Usually, I don’t clean patients belonging to animals, as scent is so important, but in this case, the humans decided a spa was in order too. So Turtle flew down to the Bay Area and started his treatment with a spa:

You can already see him getting cleaner!

Once dry and restuffed, he got a heart with a bit of original stuffing:

And then the humans chose a fabric for his transplants from two options:

Soon his surgery was done and he was ready to head back north:

Normally I’d stop here, with a quote from the humans “He looks great!” But that’s not the end of the story. You see, once Turtle got home, Murphy sent some photos to make everyone smile:

Happy as a puppy that they’re together once more!

************

If you enjoyed this post, you may be interested in my substack newsletter, doctorbeth.substack.com. It's free, and you get the stories straight to your inbox. I also do occassional retro posts from the backlog through the newsletter. But don't worry, I'll keep posting everything new here too.

[lady-raziel]

This is why we can never let local news die. Commitment to the bit as an art form must survive

[headspace-hotel]

I wonder WHY breathing exercises have always been such a dogshit "coping skill" for me.

It just feels so incredibly wrong to try to force my breaths to be a certain length. Usually, when I've tried them, it gives me the sense that I'm not getting enough air or I'm starting to suffocate, which slowly increases the longer I do the breathing exercises, and it's a very stressful feeling.

Last time I tried doing breathing exercises to relax, my back and torso became slowly more and more and more tense and locked up and tight until my back was very painful. It was like I was clenching down with all the muscles of my body to try to make the breaths start and end when they were supposed to.

It sucks because therapists usually think "breathing exercises" are the gold standard for anxiety coping skills, and I had one therapist tell me that it was impossible that they didn't work because scientifically, you Cannot have a fear/stress response if you're doing breathing exercises. Lady, if it was that easy no one would need therapy. Also I guess I'm some kind of alien or something.

In yoga class, I think I finally "got" some of the benefits of what breathing exercises were supposed to do from paying attention to breathing in different poses and feeling how that biological cycle affects the parts of the body that are holding the pose. That isn't trying to control the breathing though.

Also, it's engaging the whole body: trying to focus on my breathing while not doing anything else I think causes that tension to build in my muscles.

I'm just thinking like. I notice that my breaths become faster and shallower when I'm stressed or afraid, but when I try to force myself to breathe slowly, it's like my body is wrestling against me.

I think it's much easier and less pain- and panic-inducing to do breathing exercises when I'm already calm?

I kept trying to do breathing exercises for years after I knew they didn't work for me. I think I had the idea from therapy that coping skills weren't necessarily supposed to feel good or different or helpful at all, and that I had to keep doing them to "get better" which was something independent from "feeling better."

[fluffyhummel]

ive been wondering when id have my bananas arent supposed to be spicy moment but i cannot fucking believe this

what do you mean breathing exercises arent supposed to make you feel out of breath???? what???

also why the fuck did i need to be told the feel better exercise is supposed to make me. feel better? what went wrong here. genuinely asking.

jesus. what a revelation.

[headspace-hotel]

I don't think they are. It seems counter-intuitive, right? I'm just as perplexed at how they're supposed to feel as you.

[thombalan]

Follow my artist’s journal on Patreon for free. 💙

Link in bio. ☝️

[yagaminoue]

Hunter's Nightmare