[teathattast]

[raqualswonderfunblog]

[only-cat-memes]

[shaggydogstail]

This tweet lives rent-free in my head now. Hands-down the best comment about the relationship between art and artist.

[prokopetz]

That thing about how cats think humans are big kittens is a myth, y’know.

It’s basically born of false assumptions; folks were trying to explain how a naturally solitary animal could form such complex social bonds with humans, and the explanation they settled on is “it’s a displaced parent/child bond”.

The trouble is, cats aren’t naturally solitary. We just assumed they were based on observations of European wildcats - but housecats aren’t descended from European wildcats. They’re descended from African wildcats, which are known to hunt in bonded pairs and family groupings, and that social tendency is even stronger in their domesticated relatives. The natural social unit of the housecat is a colony: a loose affiliation of cats centred around a shared territory held by alliance of dominant females, who raise all of the colony’s kittens communally.

It’s often remarked that dogs understand that humans are different, while cats just think humans are big, clumsy cats, and that’s totally true - but they regard us as adult colonymates, not as kittens, and all of their social behaviour toward us makes a lot more sense through that lens.

They like to cuddle because communal grooming is how cats bond with colonymates - it establishes a shared scent-identity for the colony and helps clean spots that they can’t easily reach on their own.

They bring us dead animals because cats transport surplus kills back to the colony’s shared territory for consumption by pregnant, nursing, or sick colonymates who can’t easily hunt on their own. Indeed, that’s why they kill so much more than they individually need - it’s not for fun, but to generate enough surplus kills to sustain the colony’s non-hunting members.

They’re okay with us messing with their kittens because communal parenting is the norm in a colony setting, and us being colonymates in their minds automatically makes us co-parents.

It’s even why many cats are so much more tolerant toward very small children, as long as those children are related to one of their regular humans: they can tell the difference between human adults and human “kittens”, and your kittens are their kittens.

Basically, you’re going to have a much easier time getting a handle on why your cat does why your cat does if you remember that the natural mode of social organisation for cats is not as isolated solitary hunters, but as a big communal catpile - and for that purpose, you count as a cat.

[neil-gaiman]

Bread?

Cat.

[animentality]

[silenceinternalmonologue]

thinking about how i just… never complained about anything as an undiagnosed autistic kid. i was dressed in button-down shirts that made me feel like i was choking all day to the point i could only think about that and corduroy pants that filled my ears with nothing but the sound of the fabric rubbing between my thighs all day. i was fed food whose texture made me feel sick. i was scolded for being strange and rude when i was going out of my way to be nice or helpful. 

but i never brought it up. when i had tantrums or cried, it was always about tiny unrelated things that set me off after all the stress had built up. i knew that these experiences were uncomfortable, but seeing no one else around me complain about them just made me assume that life was meant to be kind of painful in those ways. 

even today it barely crosses my mind to tell people when i don’t like something, and i’m quick to accept requests that are actually too much for me because of the idea that everyone else can do it. ironically, most neurotypical people are much better at saying that they don’t want to do something, even when this is often due to something as simple as not feeling like it as opposed to me who is struggling due to sensory, executive function, or socializing issues. 

i wish i had learned earlier that it’s not just good, but also necessary to tell people when something is hurting you. that you’re both allowed and supposed to take action to make life less painful for yourself, especially when that pain isn’t going to earn you anything. i wish i was able to make requests for my own good without automatically feeling guilty for being ‘selfish’. 

[rag3-n-lov3]

i CANNOT get over this picture it’s actually the funniest thing i’ve ever seen

[jennyofmany]

(me, a not British person, reads the name "Stone of Scone" for the first time and that it's apparently used in the Coronation ceremony) "Haha, that sounds like the piece of drawnen bread the new king has to sit on during his coronation in the fith elephant... wait *googles stone of scone* yeah, that was Sir Terry making fun of a real life thing again. 😅"

[terrypratchettappreciation]

Yep.

[honeycove-crossing]

— Studio Ghibli Island songs —

[knightofleo]

Nymphia Wind by Jack Waterlot

[herpsandbirds]

Painted Schinia Moths (Schinia volupia) feeding on Indian Blanket, family Noctuidae, East TX, USA

photographs by Craig Furr

[nakanotamu]

[esoanem]

(via @bijoumikhawal )

[ejacutastic]

honestly fucking fascinating that people will pretty universally understand that thin people can be naturally predisposed to thinness regardless of what they eat or their activity level, but that so many of the same people cannot possibly fathom that fat people could have similar dispositions or that there could be any factors more complex than a "lack of self control."

[cumaeansibyl]

"Oh, it doesn't matter what I eat, I just never gain weight!" = normal, legitimate

"Oh, it doesn't matter what I eat, I just never lose weight!" = lying glutton

[scottsumrners]

[ur-daily-inspiration]