Roíbín Dall

Hospitality, insight, and inspiration from a Blind Brighidine perspective! My name is Robert , but please call me Rob, Blind Rob, or Robin, and I'm a thirties something year old Blind and Neuro Atypical Bigender person who utilizes both Male and Female Pronouns. I am an Animist and Polytheist who practices Irish, Welsh, Norse, and Greek forms of spirituality. I'm a professional Bard who specializes in Lyrics, Poetry, and Storytelling. I'm also a professional Celebrant, Diviner, Energy Worker, Spirit Worker, and Witch to boot, so feel free to hit me up for any questions or if you are interested in commissioning me for ome for one of the various services I offer. As a Polytheist, I am devoted to the Deities Brighid, An Morrighan, Manannan Mac Lir/Manawydan Fab Llyr, Loki, Freyr, Skathi, Demeter, and Zeus, though I also worship a number of other deities related to the ones listed here. Please do not contact me through direct messaging, as that feature is too inaccessible to be reliable for me. Instead either contact me through an ask or through one of the various methods of contacting me that I have listed on the corresponding page.

[jesterlesbian]

what are people's favorite niche ice cream flavors. mine are superman and blue moon (specifically from the midwest like michigan/indiana/wisconsin), van leeuwen's royal wedding cake, and jeni's wildberry lavender

[roibindallbhride]

Does Orange Sherbet count? I'm more of a Yogurt kind of Person actually, or at least I am compared to Ice Cream. But My three favorite Ice Cream flavors are Orange Sherbet, Rocky Road, and Vanilla.

When I was attending High School at My state's School for the Blind, back towards the end of the 2000's, They kept this huge Ice Cream freezer in the Cafeteria full of Ice Cream. Most of the Ice Cream found in this Freezer was the kind You could find at most Convenience stores, especially 711.

Everyone was fighting over things like Drumstick or Ice Cream Sandwishes, while ignoring the hundred or two hundred so cups of Orange Sherbet. I was attending the Apartment class, so I was living in the Apartment style Dormroom, and I ended up taking all the cups of Orange Sherbet because No One else wanted them. It confused the Cafeteria staff something fierce, as I hated Them and They hated Me. Somehow They made bread in a way that triggered My Arfid. I've never had that happen to Me before or since.

[gefdreamsofthesea]

I just finished reading Queer Rites by Enfys J. Book. It's a book of ways to mark a variety of queer milestones (coming out, affirming your gender and sexuality, attending your first pride event, etc) most of the rituals are solo affairs but the last section is for group rituals and many of the rituals have tips for adapting them to group settings.

I like how the rituals are structured not as a long list of steps but under their own headings. It feels neat and organized. I also like that most of them require a handful of supplies that you probably have around the house. The author mentions that they wanted the rituals to use free or low cost supplies to support folks of all income levels. I also appreciate the suggestions for alternatives to burning or burying things if you can't have open flames or land in which to bury things. There are also instructions for reusing things used in some of the rituals.

Would I recommend this book? I think if you're looking for ways to mark milestones as a queer Pagan/witch/magical practitioner, you'll get more out of this book. I personally can't see myself performing many of these rituals because they either don't apply to my situation or I don't care enough to mark certain milestones.

[deanspillowprincess]

For as much as they tell you about Stop Drop and Roll as a kid, I really expected to be on fire more times in my life.

[gay-jesus-probably]

All jokes aside, the real reason kids get drilled on ‘stop drop and roll’ so aggressively is because it needs to be a reflex. Sure, getting set on fire is unlikely, but if DOES happen, you will be terrified and in a lot of pain, and you’ll need to handle it FAST. The default response your brain will have to that is the standard monkey brain instinctive reaction to being terrified and in pain - get the fuck away from the danger. Which is the worst possible response to being on fire, because panicking and trying to run will just fan the flames and make it much worse. But if you’ve had ‘stop drop and roll’ beaten into your head a thousand times all your life, there’s a good chance that in that initial moment of ‘oh fuck I’m on fire’, instead of panicking, your brain will jump straight to the trained response of ‘hit the ground and smother the flames’.

And the fact that it’s NOT a common threat is why we need to drill it so hard in the first place - instictive reactions to pain/danger are usually the correct response! It’s survival instincts! Like, if you get a bad cut, your first reaction will be to slap a hand on it and keeo it there, because ‘apply pressure to bleeding wound’ is the correct response! But being set on fire just doesn’t happen enough to be a serious concern as a species, so the instinctive reaction to that happening will actually cause horrific burns and/or death, because we don’t really need a naturally programmed in response for such a rare problem.

But it does still happen sometimes, and the correct reaction is very simple, so basically programming kids to stop drop and roll if on fire is easy, harmless, and probably saves a fair amount of lives.

[potsiefaerie]

Also house fires used to be a Lot more common. Particularly in households where both adults were smokers.

[roibindallbhride]

I was drilled on this a hell of a lot more than other Children when I was a Child, but that was because My older Brother was and still is a Firefighter, though He's semi retired at this point. I grew up spending a lot of time at the local Fire Department, which is located only a few streets down from My house, and My Brother made sure I knew all about the various fire safety instructions, including Stop, Drop, and Roll. Even though I'm the primary house owner at this point, I share ownership with Him, so I have to hide the candles whenever He comes up, otherwise I receive a lecture from Him about how dangerous They are.

I've been set on fire twice in My life, both times resulted in My hair getting set on fire. The first time was due to My own loack of vigilence, and I paid the price for it. The second time was due to ritual shenanigans.

And of course, there was that time I almost set fire to the side of the mountain as a result of pissing off a particular Goddess during My first ever ritual, by which I was trying to impress a Girl. I was sixteen at the time, and there were several lessons I learned from that experience. One of those lessons is unless You are performing Sex Magic, don't try to plan, prepare, or perform a ritual while primarily thinking with Your Cock. Thankfully, I was able to stop the fire from spreading due to all the lessons My Brother gave Me, though the Girl I was performing the ritual with ran the moment the shit hit the fan, or in this case a wild wind caught the pillar candle and threatened to start a wildfire on the side of the mountain that overlooks the town.

[odyver]

alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?

under 18, AI is a net positive

under 18, AI is a net negative

18-29, AI is a net positive

18-29, AI is a net negative

30-45, AI is a net positive

30-45, AI is a net negative

46-60, AI is a net positive

46-60, AI is a net negative

over 60, AI is a net postive

over 60, AI is a net negative

Remaining time: 2 days 23 hours

[odyver]

Question 2/3

How often do you visit or interact with museums/archives (whether in person or online)?

Frequently (multiple times per month)

Often (multiple times per year)

Occasionally (a couple times per year)

Rarely (once every couple of years)

Never :(

Remaining time: 2 days 23 hours

[odyver]

Question 3/3

If you saw a museum was using AI in exhibits, marketing, research, etc., would you be more or less inclined to visit that museum?

under 18, more inclined

under 18, less inclined

18-29, more inclined

18-29, less inclined

30-45, more inclined

30-45, less inclined

46-60, more inclined

46-60, less inclined

over 60, more inclined

over 60, less inclined

Remaining time: 2 days 23 hours

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!

🫶

[roibindallbhride]

@odyver Because Polls on Tumblr seem to be inaccessible for Me, I'm going to write out My answeres here as part of the reblog. I'm sorry if this doesn't help You.

01. I'm currently thirty eight years old and I think Artificial Inteligence, especially Generative Artificial Intelligence, is absolutely evil and should be Napalmed into oblivion. Naturally, My view on it is radically negative.

02. I rarely visit such websites because most of them seem to be moderately to extremely inaccessible for Someone like Me who is Blind and who uses a Screen Reader.

03. I would avoid any Museums openly using Artificial Intelligence like Someone infected with a highly contagious and lethal disease, and I would recommend Others to avoid Them like the plague.

[potsiefaerie]

@finnthebard and I went to a small local pride fest today 😊🌈

I decided to go full whimsy, lol (but unfortunately I don't think nerdykeppie still sells this dress, I bought it a while ago)

And they were in their wizard getup:

That is a mothman shirt, haha. I love this nerd 🥰

[roibindallbhride]

Thank You for describing Your outfit in the alt text! That outfit sounds super cute! I also dig the Mothman touch!

[semtitulo]

who else has fantasized about the Nutrient Brick

[potsiefaerie]

I really want those little star trek cubes ngl. For times when I just can't be bothered to eat real food

[roibindallbhride]

For Me, it would depend on how They would taste and smell. Knowing M luck, I wouldn't be able to stomach it.

[engineering]

Where's that comment?

Hello Tumblr! 

@jubs here, today, to tell you about a feature we're building: Comments by author!

Comments (or replies) have been around for a while, but they have always been tucked away from your regular feed, and so we're working on a few ways to integrate them into the rest of our experience.

Soon, blogs will have a Comments tab alongside Posts, Likes, and Following. There, you will be able to see posts other people have been commenting on, and, more importantly, find your own comments! This was not possible before, except through notifications if someone engaged with your comment.

We're also working on a way to surface posts commented on by people you follow in your feeds. You will be able to find those in the For You tab, and later, alongside chronological posts in the Following tab.

So, how do you identify those posts in the feeds? 

Replied posts will show a small preview right there in your dashboard, before you click anything. 

This is not out yet, but soon! In the meantime, tell us what you think and expect from this! ☺︎

[engineering]

Launch Day

@jubs again!

First of all, thank you all for the feedback in the original post!

Today, we're launching the new "Comments" tab for Blog pages, and we'll be testing a For You recommendation based on comments from people you follow. The posts will have a preview of the reply, so you know why you're seeing that post.

You will be able to control the new tab visibility, and whether we should include your comments in your follower's feeds, through a new setting:

The toggle can be found on https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/YOUR_BLOG or in the General Settings > Replies section, on Mobile. If you have already disabled the "Share posts you like" setting, the setting will default to disabled.

The new tab is only available on Web and iOS (44.8+) for now, but the toggle is available to everyone (including on Android), so you can control what other people see on your blogs, even if you don't have the new feature yet. Don't worry, we have plans to implement the tab and posts on Android, soon!

---

We want to later include these replied posts to the Following feed as well, and we're planning on adapting the current "Include posts liked by the blogs you follow" toggle to also consider comments, in case you don't want to see shared comments from people you follow.

What do you think? As always, we appreciate your thoughts, keep 'em coming!

[roibindallbhride]

@jubs @changes @staff Oh Gods, please no more terrible changes and updates that No One wanted, No one asked for, and will probably make the Tumblr experience even more of a pain in the ass. Will there be any way to turn any or even all of this off? Look, as a Blind Person trying and mostly succeeding at using this Website with a Screenreader, the following following and/or main feed is already such a pain in the ass I that I almost never use it anymore. This is why I'm compiling a list of the Blogs I follow, so I can go read actual posts, instead of the inaccessible garbage that keeps making that feed worse, such as communities. I just want to be able to remove the ability to have to see communities in My feed, because They slow Me down when I'm navigating.

Or recommendations at all, for that matter. Because Tumblr is extremely terrible at recommending Me things, to the point that I would turn all of that off forever if I could do so. And don't even get Me started on the recommended blog options in the various Tag Feeds. That's even more of an accessibility problem, making it slower and harder for Me to find posts I want to read from a particular Tag.

And another things, since I'm talking about comments. I hate the comment system here on Tumblr. I know that comments have gotten better over the years, but in My opinion it's too little, too late. I don't trust the comments system, which is why I rarely comment on a Tumblr post, and will reblog it instead, mentioning the Blogger in question, if I want to communicate with.

[the-patrex]

Genuinely wanna know if its a regional thing or what that this site seems to unanimously dislike beer

Do You Like Beer?

Yes - I am from Latin America

No - I am from Latin America

Yes - I am from North America

No - I am from North America

Yes - I am from Europe

No - I am from Europe

Yes - I am from Africa

No - I am from Africa

Yes - I am from Asia

No - I am from Asia

Yes - I am from Oceania

No - I am from Oceania

Voting ended onJun 3

I know this isn't geographically correct but Mexico you are with Latin America not North America bc we are cooler and I want you guys with us.

[roibindallbhride]

I enjoy Beer, but only certain Beer. Actually, I hate most big Brand Name American Beers, though I do enjoy some of Samuel Adams Beer, and Ying Lings are My favorite brand of Logger, which is saying something as I'm primarily a Stout Beer kind of Person. I prefer Ales over most Beers generally. Most of the Beers I enjoy are Imports, even if some of them have a huge presence here in the States.

[7serendipities]

Still mostly on hiatus, but here's how you can help

Well. I was hoping things with the divorce and my health would ease up, but in fact the opposite has happened, so I'm still mostly on hiatus. My website needs migrating again, as I've downsized it, and I'm going to go back to just having things on storevny instead of a woocommerce, because I do not know how long it's going to be until I can do the sort of volume of work it would require to make that not cost me more than I'm making. The etsy shop is currently on vacation as well, and at this point besides people generously donating here so that I can pay for the cheaper version of the website while I'm not doing much work, the only income I have is from a few divination regulars, because I'm still doing readings directly via email/paypal if you're willing to wait on longer turn times. I'm slow at the moment, and just a mess in general, but I am hoping by Samhain I'll be divorced and settled somewhere in Maryland and finally resting enough to get out of burnout and get my health back to my still-disabled-but-also-functional baseline. And then hopefully I can get the business back up and running again (with divination/jewelry/healing and maybe classes) approx Spring 2027. But that's a Best Laid Plan, so we'll see if it goes aglay, hmm?

In the meantime, if you'd like to help me stay afloat, here's what you can do:

Set up a recurring donation on Patreon where I'll be posting semi-regular updates

Make a one-time donation on Spotfund

Share either of those with people you think might be interested in/capable of donating

Send me an email to request a reading (if you're willing to wait a week or more)

Light a candle for me and/or address prayers to one of the following deities: The Morrigan, Be Chuille, Flidais, The Dagda, Lugh, Freyja, Heimdallr, Njord, Nerthus, the Norns, Bast, Sekhmet, or Apollo

I appreciate everyone here so much, and I am so thankful for everyone's patience and good wishes!

[roibindallbhride]

I'm sharing this to show My support, but also in case if any of My readers aren't familiar with Tuiliel and Their Divination blog. I've been going to Tuiliel for a large portion of My divination needs over the past seven or eight years or so (I've lost count, actually), and They are by far one of My favorite Diviners, as well as one of the Diviners I trust when I'm unable to figure out something on My own for whatever reason. Also, I'm just grateful for Them putting up with My Shenanigans.

Also, also, I'm all for being in solidarity with other Disabled and/or Queer Diviners, so there's that too!

[lakemojave]

Happy Pride Month everyone! Remember 4 months ago when the CEO of this platform harassed and chased a trans woman off this website just for posting her transition timeline, then chased her to other social media platforms to continue harassing her, and threatened to call the FBI if she continued disputing the multiple dubious terminations of her blogs that did not violate tumblr's terms of service in any way? And despite tumblr staff insisting that the CEO was acting against their interests, the broad transmisogyny evident in the site's culture and moderation policy has still not been adequately addressed?

[lakemojave]

Remember that staff is continuing to nuke the blogs of trans women even after all of this. Remember this post when they call this site the queerest place on the internet again this month

[lakemojave]

It's 2 years later. It's gotten worse. Happy pride month.

[roibindallbhride]

I knew that Tumblr's Staff are Transphobic, but I wasn't aware that it was exactly that bad! Apparently I missed a couple of memos along the way. Gods damn! At least Tumblr's Staff is consistant with Their isms, even if They don't express those isms in the same way? Because Tumblr's staff are also Ableist as hell, as well. Either way, fuck Tumblr's Transphobia, and Fuck Tumblr's Ableism while We're at it!

[jazzyloveswomen]

There's this common conception of gender I see: man and woman are often positioned as 'opposites' on a sliding scale and gender as a gradient, and any kind of transition as transitioning 'away' from one end of the scale and 'toward' the other, with 'transfeminine' people being anybody transitioning 'away' from masculinity (which is inherently toward femininity), and 'transmasculine' people being anybody transitioning 'away' from femininity (which is inherently toward masculinity).

This is an inherently exorsexist and intersexist worldview, in my opinion.

Bigender people are almost always forced to 'pick' which gender they are 'more', or have it automatically assigned for them. Their pronouns may be conditionally respected, but people get very uncomfortable, when a bigender person challenges the concept of man and woman as opposite. Constantly, you see "male spaces" and "female spaces", discourse about which labels are for men (and therefore not for women) or vice versa, and other similar conversations, inherently leave out men who are women, and women who are men. Bigender people are ignored, or spoken over, or pushed to 'pick' a gender so they can be neatly categorized, because man and woman are conceived as two opposite mutually exclusive ends of a spectrum that cannot intersect.

Agender/genderless/transneutral people are similarly erased or forced to pick sides, often sorted into a box either based on what people assume they're 'closer' to based on their physical traits (and i hope i dont need to stress how dysphoria inducing that can be) or told they're transfem/transmasc regardless because, well, "You're still transitioning away/toward something", because people conceptualize agender/genderless individuals as being not truly genderless at all, but as being merely at the center of the man to woman spectrum.

Then there are perisex nonbinary people who identify closely with their agab, perisex nonbinary women/fems afab and perisex nonbinary men amab. Gender essentialists either try to cut these people out of trans identity entirely, fakeclaiming them, insisting they're basically cisgender, engaging in intense transmedicalist rhetoric dressed up in a slightly more 'acceptable' font now that transmedicalism is somewhat less accepted in the community..or they insist that, despite many not being at all masculine, perisex nonbinary people afab are all transmasc, and vice versa.

I consider all of these things to be misgendering! Forcing any nonbinary person toward any binary or gendered term they do not identify with is misgendering! And it's done constantly by other trans people who would rather be openly and violently exorsexist than rethink their gender essentialist simplistic reductive sliding scale framework for how extremely complex societal structures and personal identities work.

And, as with any genderessentialist/bioessentialist worldview, this type of rhetoric is also incredibly unsafe for intersex people, who, despite what perisex trans people (and the occasional intersexist intersex person they tokenize) like to insist when they scream over us in these discussions, have a much more complicated relationship with agab and sig than perisex people do, and therefore are also frequently hurt and erased by any model that tries to pose things like man/woman, masculine/feminine, androgenized/estrogenized, amab/afab, etc, as opposite and mutually exclusive. "Intersex people are still [insert agab] despite their 'disorders' and therefore fit into my model the same way any [agab] perisex person would!" is a worldview that will always always be intersexist and extremely harmful.

[aromanticbastards]

just a sidenote, but there are also sonbinary/genderqueer people whose gender has nothing to do with man or women, but is nonetheless not neutral! a lot of xenogenders, genders like maverique etc. are not really neutral or not there, but simply their own thing without relation to the male/female binary.

[roibindallbhride]

Yeah, all of this. This is actually the reason why I tend to avoid Gender specific spaces regardless of which of My Gender expressions I'm experiencing at any given time. I have a friend who is frustrated that I refuse to join His Male specific Heathen group. I try not to take up space in a specific Gender space when I know that I'm not always that gender, or I won't always be only that gender, even if I primarily experience one Gender expression over the other more of the time then not. Also, that space is very Warrior and Viking romantic in Their views, and tend to have a very dim view of Anyone who isn't on a Warrior path or working on becoming one.

Also, I'm now understanding that most of My personal Gender experience has a deeply rooted and strongly spiritual overlay to it. Knowing that, acknowledging that fact, I still identify as Bigender.

One of My best friends is Agender/Non-Binary, uses They/Them Pronouns, and I hate see Them constantly being Misgendered. And by Misgendered, I'm not even talking about the Gender They were assigned to at birth either, though that happens a lot too. But I see a lot of People misgendering Them as if They are transitioning towards a particular end of the spectrum, which is not the case. My Friend's gender has nothing to do with Female or Male, or anything else like that, and it's terrible watching People being everything from ignorant to outright hostile towards Them, both within and without the overall Queer community.

[thegenderal]

even before i lived in a place with a massive population of feral cats decimating the wildlife i had read the studies and knew the data said that TNR did not work and we need to be trapping and euthanizing feral cats but now that i’ve lived in a place where there are an enormous number of feral cats it’s like, inconceivable to me that anyone supports TNR, not just for the health of the world but for the sake of the fucking cats

[thegenderal]

nobody will even acknowledge it not even in most conservation circles. We have a solution to a massive, massive problem that is more humane, cheaper, easier, takes less time, prevents animal suffering, and saves valuable members of our disappearing ecosystem. And nobody is even willing to theoretically acknowledge that it exists outside of a few very small circles.

[thegenderal]

it works. It works. It is better for the cats. It’s better for the cats. Living in a place where you cannot drive 10 minutes without seeing a new roadkill cat almost every single day really makes you think about how much suffering could have been prevented if we just dealt with the problem we have created. It’s not a pleasant way to go, being hit by a car. Or being ripped apart by a predator, or eating a poison, or starving to death, of dying of an infection, or an illness, or any of the hundred thousand ways an animal in the wild passes without human intervention. Euthanasia is simply falling asleep. It is fucking wild to me that saying you think we should take responsibility for our mistakes and ensure that cats fall asleep peacefully instead of capturing them and then hurling them back out into the world SPECIFICALLY in order to allow them to die in agony makes people treat you like a fucking serial killer.

[thegenderal]

And if you don’t care about cats dying in agony do you care about the world around you? There’s a species of bird we only know ever existed because someone’s cat brought home our only example. That’s horrific. We’ve lost so much biodiversity because we simply won’t listen to the research, which again, has proven that TNR is not effective.

[thegenderal]

a peaceful death is not the worst thing that could happen to an animal.

[thegenderal]

@cathartidae sources for ya!

Sources:

https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/UW468 “How Effective and Humane Is Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) for Feral Cats?” 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6523511/ “A Case of Letting the Cat out of The Bag—Why Trap-Neuter-Return Is Not an Ethical Solution for Stray Cat (Felis catus) Management” (also has a thousand references attached that are handy)

Not a reference so much as the human society actively admitting that TNR does nothing to decrease population, actively contributes to harming wildlife, and doesn’t actually help the cats in any way, just reduces some of the nuisance behavior that people complain about: https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/resource/real-impacts-trap-neuter-return

Unscientific from here on out as i don’t feel like trying to find the studies i read in like January of last year:

https://hahf.org/awake/the-trouble-with-trap-vaccinate-neuter-return/ “The Trouble With Trap-Neuter-Re (Abandon!) from the hillsborough animal health foundation, articles also link to studies

https://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/The-Evidence-Against-TNR.pdf from the american bird conservancy, has scientific articles quoted. 

[thegenderal]

Even More Sources on TNR being non-viable and ways that cats are impacting the world from birds to *hawai’i’s monk seals*

Animal Emergency and Referral Center of Minnesota. (2022, October 26). Indoor cats vs. outdoor cats. Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota. https://aercmn.com/indoor-cats-vs-outdoor-cats/

Campbell, V. (2017, January 25). The Obituary of the Stephens Island Wren. All About Birds. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-obituary-of-the-stephens-island-wren/

Castillo, D., & Clarke, A. L. (2003). Trap/neuter/release methods ineffective in controlling domestic cat “colonies” on public lands. Natural Areas Journal, 23(3).

Coe, S. T., Elmore, J. A., Elizondo, E. C., & Loss, S. R. (2021). Free-ranging domestic cat abundance and sterilization percentage following five years of a trap–neuter–return program. Wildlife Biology, 2021(1). https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00799

del Hoyo, J., Collar, N., Kirwan, G. M., & Sharpe, C. J. (2022, October 25). Guadalupe storm-petrel (Hydrobates Macrodactylus), version 1.2. Birds of the World. https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/guspet/cur/introduction

Dickman, C. R., & Newsome, T. M. (2015). Individual hunting behaviour and prey specialisation in the house cat Felis catus: Implications for conservation and management. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 173, 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2014.09.021

Edge. (2019, June 19). Guadalupe storm-petrel. EDGE of Existence. https://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/guadalupe-storm-petrel/

Galbreath, R., & Brown, D. (2004). The tale of the lighthouse-keeper’s cat: Discovery and extinction of the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli). Notornis, 51(4).

Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources. (2025). Feral cats. Feral Cats. https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/hisc/info/invasive-species-profiles/feral-cats/#:~:text=Feral%20cats%20on%20islands%20have,kill%20approximately%202.4%20billion%20birds.

Loss, S. R., Will, T., & Marra, P. P. (2013). The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States. Nature Communications, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2380

McGregor, H., Legge, S., Jones, M. E., & Johnson, C. N. (2015). Feral cats are better killers in open habitats, revealed by animal-borne video. PLOS ONE, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133915

Medina, F. M., Bonnaud, E., Vidal, E., Tershy, B. R., Zavaleta, E. S., Josh Donlan, C., Keitt, B. S., Corre, M., Horwath, S. V., & Nogales, M. (2011). A global review of the impacts of invasive cats on Island Endangered Vertebrates. Global Change Biology, 17(11), 3503–3510. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02464.x

National Research Council. (1992, January 1). Scientific Bases for the Preservation of the Hawaiian Crow. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235935/

NOAA. (2024, August 29). Toxoplasmosis and its effects on Hawaiʻi Marine Wildlife. NOAA Fisheries. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/pacific-islands/endangered-species-conservation/toxoplasmosis-and-its-effects-hawaii-marine

Read, J. L., Dickman, C. R., Boardman, W. S., & Lepczyk, C. A. (2020). Reply to Wolf et al.: Why trap-neuter-return (TNR) is not an ethical solution for Stray Cat Management. Animals, 10(9), 1525. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10091525

Reed, L. (2022). The effects of free-roaming cats on native wildlife populations. Wildlife Rehabilitation Bulletin, 40(1), 17–21. https://doi.org/10.53607/wrb.v40.250

Salano, E. (2024, October 5). Eliciting the effect free roaming cats have on Native Hawaiian wildlife using stable isotope analysis. UKnowledge. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/biology_etds/103/ 

Steele, J. H., Thorpe, S. A., & Turekian, K. K. (2009). Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. Academic Press. 

science says it’s long past time to stop prolonging the suffering of feral cats, for the sake of the people, the native wildlife, and the goddamn cats themselves.

[boundless-ennui]

I was at a friend's house to check on carcasses I had macerating in his yard. A little grey cat ran up to me, yelling her head off in friendliness and wanting nothing more than to be pet. I had nothing to give her but let my friend know he should catch her since she was so friendly. I am ashamed to admit I didn't give her much thought beyond that, finishing my work and giving her a last pet before going home.

My friend told me how he'd seen her before but she always vanished before he could catch her. He works far too many hours and is always tired so he couldn't prioritize catching this cat.

Three months pass with no sign of her. I go back with my partner to check on carcasses and this same little grey cat appears. This time, however, a tooth has been snapped off and her tongue is so badly cut that she can't keep it in her mouth. She was thin and dirty and screaming to please be given some food.

This time I couldn't look away. I asked my friend's girlfriend if I could borrow a cat carrier. She loaned me one and a tin of wet food that the grey cat willingly followed into the carrier. She didn't care at all about being put into the carrier - all she wanted was a hand on her. She'd arch up against the top just so my hand would rest on her back for a moment.

We drove through rush hour traffic to the only shelter still open. We knew we couldn't keep her and I couldn't stand the thought of putting her back out on the streets to die slowly.

The shelter couldn't take her. Her ear was clipped so she was a "community cat" and outside their ability to help. They tried desperately to offer alternatives to me as I cried over her carrier, knowing I couldn't take her home but also that if I didn't I couldn't live with the thought of her back on the streets.

I made a Hail Mary call to a local friend who is very connected in our city. They didn't have my number saved but answered all the same to hear me sobbing about a cat I'd found and to please help me find a place for her. Please. If I don't find something then she'll be alone on the streets again to die.

My friend came through. I could keep the cat in their garage overnight and in the morning my friend would be back in the city and could find someone to help the cat.

The shelter folk gave me a crate and some food - their hands were tied but they didn't want to leave me with nothing. They were good people doing the best they could in their own system. Community cats were ones they weren't allowed to "waste" resources on. Ostensibly they'd been dealt with and their fate decided. There was nothing the shelter folks were allowed to do for them.

I took the cat to my friend's garage. She was settled into a crate on towels, happy as a clam to be warm and safe. This was a cat made to be loved and to love, as she immediately began trying to groom one of my friend's roommates. He stayed in the garage with her, giving her food and water and in exchange having no say on whether she was in his lap or not. She was always in his lap.

Nobby Nobbs (so named for the only other character known to man that is as scrungly as she is) was then formally adopted by my friend. Her tongue has healed, her fur remains scrungly, and she's every bit the rabid love bug I suspected her to be when she came to me yelling to be pet.

She's a TNR cat. Someone thought they were doing her a kindness in that and if nothing else she didn't add kittens to the world but that doesn't negate the pain she suffered before I found her - the broken teeth, the lacerated tongue, the ulcerated cheeks, the flea-bald patchiness of her coat.

I say this as someone who adores this cat and has the privilege to see her loved and cherished: I wish she'd never had to suffer what she did. I wish people were alright making the harder call that leads to less misery on the side of the cats.

TNR is a polite fiction, nothing more. Just so the humans can pretend they've done right by the same cats they're letting loose to die miserably somewhere else. As long as the humans don't see it it's fine.

The shelter folks told me she's a community cat and that I could take her home and release her by my house. Then I could feed her myself and keep up with her and know where she was! I could still keep her, after a fashion.

I am not proud of how I snarled back that I would never exchange a quick death for a slow one. I would be giving her a different funeral plot, not giving her a life. Even near me she'd be just as vulnerable to the innumerable predators that find cats quite delicious, let alone cars and poisons and the other cruelties humans practice on stray cats.

She's the second stray cat I've met that when I held them the cat melted in my arms, purring and so desperately wanting to be loved. The first cat I was able to trap and take to a local shelter only to find when I called to check on him a day later that his health had been so terrible, so beyond help, that he'd been put down. All the love in that tiny body lost because the people I lived beside didn't care enough to trap the cats they had.

My partner was asleep. I woke her up to crawl into her arms and sob, my heart breaking for the stupidity of the humans who hadn't cared enough to grant this poor little cat the chance to be either an indoor cat, loved and cared for, or to grant him a quick death long before I met him. I've other stories of the cats they kept around, essentially feeding the poor souls to the predatory birds and wandering dogs that frequented our area.

TNR doesn't work. It is a lie humans tell ourselves so we can pretend we haven't failed these animals on a massive scale. Cats are invasive and cause massive harm in their turn. It is humanity who needs to deal with this crisis, this horror we've made, and I pray one day we look it square in the face and vow to make it right.

[thegenderal]

sorry

[roibindallbhride]

While there aren't a ton of Stray Cats in My town and the surrounding area, You do see a lot from time to time. That's part of the reason why My Brother built the Cat Bunker under His House to give Cats a place to stay if They don't have anywhere to go, especially in the Winter. We do Our best to make sure each Cat that that shows up at some point a proper home. My Brother works as a semi retired Firefighter, so that has helped in connecting with others to get stray Cats a good home, or on the rare occasion Someone's Cat goes missing, We can help Them return home.

But occasionally We'll still come across dead or dying Cats. This previous Winter was fairly brutal for My area, and I once came across a Cat that was dying at one in the morning. I tried to help Him but I could tell that He was dying from Hyperthermia, His core body tempature was too low, and there was no way to to save Him. So I gave Him a quick death and buried Him in My back yard, bawling like a Baby the entire time. Let Me tell You, digging a grave in frozen dirt, under a foot layer of Snow is not fun at all.

[potsiefaerie]

Who is Prev: High Fantasy Edition

your illustrious liege lord/lady/gentle

a noble of the court

a wizard/sorcerer/magical advisor to the court

a knight or soldier

a wandering bard/minstrel or else a court jester

a hedgewitch/cunning person of the woods

a mysterious stranger or masked rogue or some such

a peasant or merchant or shopkeeper or some type

a fairy or elf or nymph or sprite or some such

a goblin or dwarf or giant or troll or some such

a centaur or mermaid or anyone both human and beast, or capable of shapeshifting

a dragon or other mythical beast or else some kind of talking animal

Voting ended onJun 7

Please do put specifics in the tags, if you have specifics in mind!

[roibindallbhride]

@potsiefaerie I'm going to say Elf Lady/Gentle vibes, very much like Galadriel.

[badwolfdogbutch]

I really hate when I have to unfollow someone because they decided to be transphobic. Can we all agree that there's no place to hate on trans men or trans women or nonbinary people? Like it's getting really old. Solidarity or nothing. I don't want fake ally-ship you either stand with each of us or none of us. You cannot say you support trans people and willingly hate one side of the trans spectrum. We can absolutely call each other out and hold each other accountable but this stereotyping and malicious behavior towards one another needs to fucking stop. It's concerning how easily people are falling into the fascist trans hate belief systems. Decolonize your thoughts.

[roibindallbhride]

Yeah, I had to do this exact same thing the other day, but over on Wordpress instead. The wildest thing about this one is that the Person in question is a follower of a very Queer God, especially when it comes to Gender. Like, what are You even doing? Your God is Queer as Fuck, and yet You're being Transphobic as all Hell? Yeah, I'm not tolerating any of that, so over to the unsubscribe button i went, and I smashed that thing with a digital hammer!

[roibindallbhride]

Some Shufflemancy Focused Musings

I've been doing a few Shufflemancy readings for Myself the past couple of days, primarily for Myself, as well as for My Partner, as We're both trying to clarify a few things. I'm choosing to do these readings with Shufflemancy as I'm taking a break from the Futhark Runes while I work on doing My own personal Translation work on them.

Speaking of Shufflemancy, I plan on opening up My free Shufflemancy reading services come the month of June for the Summer Solstice. I will be opening them up the day of the Solstice, and keeping them open until the following Full Moon, which is when I tend to celebrate the MidSummer, more or less. I'll make an actual post for it when the time is right.

[da-janela-lateral]

Outdoor cat owners have no concept of basic ecology and it shows. "You're saying my kitty is EVIL for following its instincts???????" obviously not, you idiot, its an animal. I don't blame it because it is designed to hunt and doesn't understand human morality. The cat's human owner, though, should stop pretending that millions of people letting their pets hunt native species for fun WON'T make their ecossystem collapse. If you stop hearing birdsong in your neighborhood its your fault 👍.

[da-janela-lateral]

Also cats are domestic animals????? Its your pet. Its your responsability to take care of it and it certainly doesn't look like you are doing this if your pet spends 90% of the day on the streets. Outside cats are in great risk for being ran over, stolen, beaten, poisoned, mauled or eaten by wild animals. A mildly bored cat is way better than a dead one and besides? Just offer your pet enrichment. You don't need to risk its life to keep it happy. You can even let it outside with supervision!! Look how many options we have. Insisting the only way to keep your cat happy is allowing it to wreck the environment and possibly die is not only fucking irresponsible, but also lazy and shows that you don't really care for the wildlife around you.

[miss-m-winks]

I live in a neighborhood with so many outdoor cats. They will fight in our front yard at night. They will sneak onto our back porch. We have a dog who hates cats. He has actively chased them from our yard, and if a time ever came when he happened to catch up to one, it would be a bloodbath.

Our neighborhood is near a field that happens to be home to at least one coyote. I have seen that coyote wander down the road and people have even spotted it in fenced backyards before. I'm sure one reason it dares to wander into backyards is because it knows there are cats wandering freely around here.

The red tailed hawks in the area may not be large enough to carry off most full grown cats, but that doesn't mean they won't try.

Raccoons aren't exactly nice to cats either.

And i can easily point out several houses, including my own, with flowering plants out front that could absolutely make a cat sick or worse. Lilies, for example.

Even before tackling the problems of cars, malicious people, poison from pest control, or the ecological damage cats themselves cause, just the fact that other people will decorate their own yards with plants that can poison a cat should be enough of a reason to keep them inside!

Hell, just the fact that you don't know what they're doing or when they'll be back should discourage you from letting a cat wander outdoors! Anything could happen out there! You don't know what they're eating, you don't know what injuries they might get, what diseases they could come home with, or anything. That's scary! Just keep them inside!

[roibindallbhride]

Yeah, all of this. I do My best to keep Aidan indoors at all times, but seeing how I'm Blind, there are occasions where He's able to get past Me and get outside for a little bit. I've gotten better at catching and blocking Him from getting outside, but it just happens sometimes.

Aidan was once attacked by a Red Tailed Hawk while He was outside, about two Summers ago. The Hawk couldn't carry Him off, but He tried nevertheless. Aidan gave Him hell, and ended up with a nasty scar from the Hawk's beak. Of course, Aidan gave Them a nasty scar across the back of the beak as well, or so My neighbor described to Me.

Coyotes don't come off the mountain too often, but it does happen on occasion. I've heard stories of People losing Their cats, or even smaller dogs, on the occasions the local Coyotes do come off the mountain.

I'm always freaking out when Aidan does get outside. I live across the street from the local combigned Police Station, Town Hall, and Community Center all rolled into one. So there's always activity going on. I'm always afraid that Someone will harm or try to steal Him. It doesn't help that the Neighbors that live behind Me literally tried to gaslight Me into believing that My Cat was Their's instead. And of course, I also live across the streets from the railroad as well, just from a different direction. So that compounds My levels of worry on the occasions Aidan is able to get outside.

[roibindallbhride]

Well, I Wasn't Expecting to Run into an Alv

Well, it's that time of the month when I attempt to do another round of My healing journey. Actually, the Full Moon is tomorrow, so I should start then, but I've been receiving all kinds of hints today that I'm supposed to go ahead and get to it, so hhere We go!

Except, the first attempt for this session went side ways. Instead of meeting up with one of My Gods, like I normally do during one of these sessions, I ended up on some random street. I'm not sure if I was in Vanaheim, Alfheim, or somewhere else. I came across an Alv who was standing at a street corner. I don't know if She was waiting there or even working there, but She was there, and seemed scared of Me at first. I tried excusing Myself, but I kept ended up back in that general location. So, I decided to talk to Her, and I ended up receiving several words. After I came to back in My body, I looked up the words to see if I could translate Them, and They all came back as Sweedish and/or Old Sweedish. Basically, She gave Me Her name, both Her full first name, as well as a related nickname, and asked Me "Don't You remember Me?"

The fact that I could remember the whole thing and translate it properly is new. Also, this is, in it's own way, another sign letting Me know what language My practice is being anchored in, which is fair enough. I've been trying to figure out if I would be anchoring the language of My Heathen practice in either Norwegian or Sweedish, and yeah, the Gods and Non Gods alike have been answering that question for Me in surplus the past week or so.

Anyway, I plan on doing some divination, as well as some spirit work to try and see what's going on with this. The fact that I kept coming back to that spot and to Her felt kind of important, or at least specific. Also, the fact that Her first reaction to Someone coming up to Her at the street corner She was at was with fear concerns Me.