#predation mention

[braxiatel]

I was thinking about my cats and what it must feel like to them when they find something on the floor and decide to test if it’s food by stuffing it in their mouths. Because sometimes it is food and I won’t say a thing, and other times they don’t get to find out because I will say their name in That Tone and swoop in to steal whatever they’re chewing on right out of their mouths.

But what do they think I do with it after taking it away?

When they catch mice and I take them away I assume they think I am using my opposable thumbs and superior size to assert dominance in the flock so I can feast on the spoils of the hunt all by myself. But when it’s something of dubious edibility like a fabric scrap or a bit of plastic wrap no one spotted what do they think?

That I’m hoarding it? That I eat it all myself?

Am I the dangerous crow boy in their world?

[fishstims]

Hi! I love your blog! Is there any way you can tag predation (like the recent video of the snake or something eating the moray eel)? I would appreciate it so much. Thank you <3

can do! thank you for letting me know

[sparkylurkdragon]

Grocery delivery today.

One of Urist's commands is 'go to your room' which she understands as 'go to the bedroom and wait there, and when you're released there will be Many Treats' (I hide them around the apartment to give her something to ‘hunt’, and having to shut her in the bedroom while I'm getting the groceries in is the usual excuse). Today I spilled the treat container and just said fuck it, she found An Entire Carcass today.

 She seems to be having a ball with this bonanza.

[sparkylurkdragon]

‘Gay used to mean happy but queer used to mean weird, therefore queer is a Much Worse Word’ is starting to nip at the heels of ‘aces stole dragons from children’ for the title of Most Completely Baffling REG Take.

I think the Aces Stole Dragons one is still winning because it’s just so petty and since I am an ace dragon it just loops around to surreal and hilarious nonsense to me, but... haha, wow. Argument By Etymology is often pretty spurious in general and this is a particularly silly one.

I think it’s such a bizarre take to me because of a fundamental disconnect in overarching goals. I can see how it would be a compelling argument if the goal is to Be Normal. That... is not my goal.  I am not and will never be normal, and I have known this since I was very small. My reaction to “but it means weird!” is “yeah, it does; and?” 

I’m queer because, yeah, it is unusual, it is strange, it is weird. You know what else is unusual, strange, weird?

(Source) The titan aurm, a plant with a gigantic flower that blooms about once a year and smells of corpses.

(Source)

The opossum, North America’s only extant marsupial. Their body temperature is so low that they, unlike most mammals, are quite resistant to rabies infection.

(Source)

The tuatara, a reptile that is not a lizard and in fact the last remnant of a group of reptiles who diverged from lizards about 220 million years ago. They have a sensory organ on the top of their heads that amounts to a smaller third eye. 

(Source 1,  Source 2)

The pikas, a group of lagomorphs which dries grasses aboveground to make their own hay, which they use to get through the winter.

(Source)

The bowhead whale, which has a skull that looks Like That.

(Source)

The acacia tree, which has a symbiotic relationship with ants. Some acacias have ants which will attack giraffes trying to eat their leaves. (Source)

(Source) Arthrobotrys oligospora, a fungus that actively predates on nematodes by making ‘snares’ out of its hyphae.

(Source)

The European hedgehog, which grows a back full of bristly spines and becomes a round ball of pain when threatened.

I could go on.

Look at all these queer lifeforms. To a one they are unique, to a one they are strange, to a one they are real, exquisite beings that deserve to be recognised for the weird things they are.

How gay it is to be queer.