Hey there! I'm Millie (late 20s, transfem, plural coyote) :D I play TTRPGs and write Fanfiction! We're currently back on our Pokemon kick. Our RP blog is over at @illusory-nicole. if you're looking for my Ao3, here's a link: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MillieCoyote.
Icon commissioned from @masked-phantom-47
having a snuggable animal in your home is like a constant minigame of ancestral persistence hunting, every morning this beast is getting yoinked from various parts of the house to indulge our daily ritual of bringing him back to bed for cuddling purposes. im like the doom guy in hell meme but instead of ronald reagan im looking for my cat
is this anything
So I found this caterpillar on my way to class
We’re bros
I named him chicken nugget
Aaaa he’s turning a duller color… I hope he’s alright
So apparently chicken nugget is a spicebush swallowtail and they turn yellow before they pupate. He was making little silk things everywhere Bruh this caterpie is going to evolve to metapod today my boy isn’t messing around
update hes entirely yellow now
i made him a tube room
hes crawlin all over the place checking it out
its happening
False alarm he moved a bit
This guy
??? caterpie doesnt evolve into kakuna
whats he doing
its happening part 2 For Real This Time
chicken nugget using those advanced tactics balancing my man doesnt do anything halfway
i put on some tunez for him so he can get into the metamorphazone
sorry for keeping you all in suspense but chicken nugget is doing fine and he has a cool hat now
hes been chillin like this for a couple days
hes been in cocoon for 10 days now
🎉🐛🎉
let me know how he’s doing soon
HES BUSTIN OUT
im going to sleep, chicken nugget is snoozin and ill check up on him as soon as i wake up
hope he doesnt party too hard
🐛
💤
💤
hes gone goth hes in his emoteen stage
CHICKEN NUGGET IS A CHICKEN WING NOW BABY WE HAVE LIFTOFF!!!!!
hes’s in a bigger container than the one in the pic now but im gonna let my home boy find his way in the world after he gets used to his wings a little bit
this kid doesnt have a bad angle dang
there he goes he’s free and im so proud and a little sad
this was an incredible experience
(thats my family oohing and ahhing in the background)
I’ve seen yall reblog the unfinished ones SO MUCH that I’m getting pissed, anyway here’s the full chicken nugget saga.
Awesome! Hope you’re happy somewhere, Chicken Nugget!
I have missed this post so much! Let’s all celebrate Chicken Nugget!
do you guys realize that,,,, chicken nugget is one of those butterflies that is perfectly half female and half male?? nugget’s left wing is typical of a female spice bush swallowtail and the right wing is typical of a male
a gender role smashing icon
I wondered why the wings looked different
Incredible
intersex icon
He’s a bilateral gnandromorph!!
WE STAN?????
chicken nugget said intersex rights
This whole post is wonderful, but I think a lot of people don’t realise just how rare bilateral gynandromorphs are. Research has shown that only approximately 1 in 6,000 butterflies is a bilateral gynandromorph! So thanks so much @oddity-txt for sharing this wonderful being with us!
Trainability in cats is a funny thing.
My cats understand and will obey a number of verbal commands, one of which is “go away”. I don’t use it often, but if they’re bugging me and I’m trying to work or doing something that could be dangerous for cats, I can tell them to go away, and off they go - they’ll only keep pestering me if there’s a serious problem they need me to look at.
That said, their idea of a serious problem that requires my attention is somewhat eccentric. Previous instances have included:
These are all very important things that required your attention. They’re doing a good job.
Dogs really aren’t much better. I teach all my dogs the command “show me”. How it works is if the dog needs something but I’m having trouble understanding what exactly they’re trying to tell me, I say “show me” and they lead me to whatever the problem is. Usually they lead me to a real problem (like a toy that got stuck under the couch, their water bowl is empty, etc). But sometimes they want me to fix things like this-
A lot of these make a lot of sense as things they are seeing as “problems”
Apparently the current form of Avian Flu is transmissible to cats and will kill them. It is also transmissible from cats to humans, just in case you don’t actually care about the health and safety of creatures who depend on you.
Terrible but unfortunately true news. The last HPAI outbreak in the US was in 2015-2016, and studies at the time determined cats were at risk through both ingestion of infected meat (like when they catch a wild bird and eat it) and respiratory transmission.
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.
cat socialism
meowletariat
you're telling me people DONT like when their cat is talkative?? you don't like meow meow?? mrrp? mmrp?
you don't like meow meow ? 🐈 ? mrrp mrrp ?
Three qualities of a great cat
ALTtweet transcript in alt text. image ID: a clip-art picture of a hanukkiah with nine burning candles, standing amongst gelt pieces. above it in cursive font are the words "Happle Hanukkah." end ID
chag sameach this still makes me laugh
tis the season! happle hanukkah
A very Happle Hanukkah to all my Jewish cool cats out there
Daryl and Marlin, our ship cats! It's Marlin's second season sailing (though he's been with us three years- got locked at the seaport last season for crimes) and Daryl's first! What sweet babies 💖
The people have spoken: What Crimes Has Locked This Poor Soul Away
You are Marlin, ship's cat and mascot of the tallship Lady Washington. It is the summer of 2021, you are about a year old, and full of Mischief.
Lady is docked in the Port of Everett, and no one is paying attention to you- never mind the fact that they're doing their jobs and getting money so they can keep pampering you. No, they're not paying attention to you Right This Instant, so you decide you want to take a little jaunt off the ship and explore on your own.
In addition to the marina, the waterfront, and all manner of other delights, the Port of Everett also has a Naval base, so you decide to check it out! See what all the fuss is about.
Of course, wandering kitties without the proper credentials aren't allowed on high security Naval bases, so when the Marines inevitably capture you and ask you where your people are and what you're doing here and how you got here, you just curl up cutely and bat your eyes and meow the most pitiful meow because these new people are paying attention to you but not the Right attention, no one's even petting you!
They call the number on your collar, which goes to the captain of Lady at the time, who... is on leave. In Florida.
"Ma'am? Is this your cat?"
"Oh god yeah where was he?"
"A high security government facility. Can you come pick him up?"
"Considering I'm on the other side of the country, no. Let me get in contact with the crew to send someone."
"Thank you. Also he's very cute."
"I know."
So the captain does just that, playing telephone while trying to find someone to go pick you up. Except by the time a viable crewmember is chosen and calls back to confirm, you've gotten bored and decided you want to leave.
So you clawed the Marine holding you and escaped.
You get a smidgen more exploring time before you're captured again and taken to your crew and back to the boat, but at this point no one is happy including you, because no one pet you the Whole Time you were off adventuring and that's a damn travesty.
And not only that, when you get back to the ship, you're locked up tight in the aft cabin because no one trusts you anymore not to wander off and break into government facilities when they're not looking, and then when the boat gets back to her homeport in Aberdeen, they do you just the WORST injustice and lock you inside there! For the whole winter! And then the following summer, because you are now a Criminal and Criminals don't sail.
Except this season, you made Big Pouty Eyes at everyone, and they caved and let you back on, so you are a very happy kitty now.
With a tracker in your collar so this doesn't happen again.
@theoutcastrogue @we-are-pirate Meowschief! At port!
how can ppl say cats are heartless tbh
I once stayed at a game reserve in South Africa, and they had three cheetahs – two males and one female. The boys stuck together (they were brothers), but female cheetahs are solitary, save for when they are raising cubs. Which is hard work for cheetahs, because they don’t/can’t den, she’s working constantly to protect/move her cubs, as well as feeding both them and herself.
Now, these cheetahs ARE in a private reserve, but they’re still essentially wild. But they are more or less accustomed to the presence of people. And this cheetah, Ketswiri, got very badly injured in her leg one time, which usually would be fatal to a cheetah. The staff at the reserve helped her. Another time, she was starving, and they provided her a fresh antelope carcass. And she remembered this, because the science officer was telling us how one time he was watching Ketswiri and her cubs, and she wandered over and dumped all her cubs at his feet, and walked off. Like “watch my kids, I need some me time.” And he was panicking like COME BACK I CAN’T BABYSIT YOUR KIDS WTF
Half of the comments are about cats giving birth on top of or next to their owners and I’m not crying at all
it’s so funny though because domesticated cats are aggressively social in raising their young so basically op’s cat was like bitch these are your kids too, where tf you think you’re going???
As a person with cats who has given birth, they are also this way about *your* kids. My cat spent my whole pregnancy snuggled up to me, and then as soon as my daughter was born, he was always where she was. He was super protective of her when new people came over. Whenever we had to take her out for a doctor’s appointment, he waited by the door and sniffed her carseat when we brought her back. Cats are intensely social and it’s so wonderful 🥰
[image description: comment by Nassim B.: “I had a cat that used to sleep with me, and once she had given birth to 4 kittens, she brought them to me at night to bed, so I got scared to smash them by accident and went to sleep downstairs in the living room, after 10 mins she comes to sleep with me, then goes upstairs and bring her kittens one by one…. can we call that trust?”]
