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Your daily dose of fluffy animal content ♡

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For a slow Sunday here are some Fabergé nephrite jade snails from Russia:

Carl Fabergé, late 19th/early 20th century, carved nephrite jade, 4.8 x 8.1 x 3.2 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum

Fabergé Workshop, c. 1900, carved nephrite jade with diamond eyes, 5.5 x 12.3 x 4.1 cm, Cincinnati Art Museum

Fabergé Workshop, c. 1885-1905, carved nephrite jade with rose aventurine quartz shell and gold tentacles, 4.9 × 4.8 × 10.8 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago

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Please meet Rube Goldberg.

While collecting eggs a couple of weeks ago, this egg slipped out of my hands from 5 feet up above wood, wire, and cement. Quail eggs are VERY fragile when it comes to impacts, so this egg's life flash before my eyes and time slowed down as I watched the world's most ridiculous accidental cartoon egg drop.

It somehow missed every obstacle on the way down (3 shelves) in order to land upon the side of a milk jug I had dropped the day before. It bounced off of that to a couple feet away, and hit the side of a hay bale. It bounced off of that, and somehow landed on the open lip of an empty feed back laying on the floor that I had put down under the towers to prevent the cement from sinking heat from the space. The bag gently collapsed, and rolled the pristine egg to a stop back at my feet.

I stared at it in disbelief. I took it inside and candled it- not a crack in it. So I noted the pen I got it from (CER) and scribbled "dropped?" on it. I figured SURELY it would not develop after that kind of nonsense, but when I candled at lockdown, the little thing was ready to go.

So, I stuck the egg into its own hatching bag, and sure as shit, the little fucker hatched!

And as if the rest of the story is not weird enough, this is possibly the first coturnix chick in the world who didn't immediately faceplant off of a human hand in the pursuit of the cold embrace of death. It just sat there, posing with the egg. Looking around like Hm so this is what being alive is... it's alright I guess.

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people at the grocery store sometimes do a visible double-take about how many vegetables I'm buying. they look at me probably thinking wow she's so healthy! it's ok that she's also buying donuts! she's earned them!

you fools. all the produce is for my pet pig. I'm eating donuts for dinner.

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Common Potoo (Nyctibius griseus), family Nyctibiidae, order Nyctibiiformes, Ecuador

Potoos used to be in the same order as nightjars, but are now placed in their own order.

photograph by Danilo J. Mena

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Wild about this barbed wire sculpture by Bernie Jestrabek-Hart that I saw at the High Desert Museum near Bend, Oregon.

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Footwear Friday! (Yeah, that was yesterday, but I forgot to post here as well.) I am a little obsessed with highly embellished ca. 1800 slippers, particularly ones with trim like this.

What draws me to them, aside from the fact that they're beautiful, is that later eighteenth century shoes are nearly always unembellished, just using the brocaded pattern on the silk for luxury, and then when you go a bit forward in time to the 1830s-40s, you nearly always see shoes in plain black or white satin with no spangles, embroidery, painting, or trim.

Here's another pair made similarly:

Of course, shoes like this weren't the norm in the period. There are plenty of plain silk or leather examples out there. But the frequency of decorated shoes is significantly higher from about 1795 to 1805 than those others, in my experience.

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Padded leather doublet, late 16th century This embroidered leather doublet (or jerkin) is often times classified as a "fencing doublet" - which is not surprising, given the fact that this garment is not only made of sturdy materials, but also heavily padded. The tie-in sleeves and the laced side openings also make the doublet look like it´s supposed to be a practical piece of sportswear. Unfortunately, there isn´t any proof for the existence of protective fencing jackets in the 16th century. Tournaments were fought without any protection (except gloves, in some cases), while fencing practice was generally done wearing "normal" everyday clothes. So if it´s not a fencing jacket, what was this doublet used for? Actually, nobody knows for sure. It might have been a hunting garment or used for military purposes - or perhaps the wearer just wanted to wear an embroidered leather doublet. Exhibited at the MET in New York, USA.

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One of the many unique creatures found on Madagascar is the streaked tenrec. It's the only mammal known to make sounds using stridulation, a method most commonly associated with crickets and other invertebrates, which it does using specialized quills on its back. ©Smithsonian Channel

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So one of the things that can apparently contribute to kidney issues in cats is if they eat too much dry food and don't drink enough water; cats are adapted to get a lot of their water from their food since they're originally desert animals, and might not get enough water if they don't eat wet food. Unfortunately, Dozy won't eat wet food no matter what; she categorically refuses to touch the stuff. So a few months ago, we were looking for ways to get Dozy more fluids, and my wife noticed at the pet store a cat drink--basically meat broth with some floaty bits in--that was low-protein and meant for cats with kidney issues. So we figured, worth a try, right?

Great news: she loved it. Super tasty apparently. Great success. Along with the kidney-sensitive treats we found, it was a nice way to supplement her diet. Unforseen long-term consequence though: she loved it so much she began demanding it throughout the day. Like, would come up to us and meow, and meow, and meow, and not stop, until we got up, went to the kitchen, and got her some cat drink.

And by doing so on demand, we have unfortunately created a monster: no matter what we are doing at home, Dozy knows that if she sits next to you and meows, 1) you know what she wants, and 2) you know that she will not stop until you get it for her now. And when you do get it, she gets extremely excited. She will bum rush the kitchen door as you enter. She will run around your feet as you open the can. She will let out the creakiest, crunchiest, most nails-on-the-chalkboard meow you've ever heard if she thinks you're not going fast enough.

I do not begrudge her this. It is gratifying to care for a creature whose most ardent desires are so simple that it is this easy to fulfill them. But I am a little sad, because I know in my heart that I have never loved any comestible as much as she loves this cat drink. She has a pleasure of a purity and intensity that I will never know.

[the creacher in question]

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let’s play in the eelgrass with mama

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Unexplained Phenomena, Software Programming

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Autumn day, Sokolniki (1879) by Isaac Levitan

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sometimes I think about how red is the first color in the visible light spectrum to be absorbed in ocean water

and how many deep-sea creatures evolved to be red as a stealth adaptation, making them near invisible when there’s little to no light present

and it makes me think. If there’s never any visible light present in these animals’ lifetimes, if no ROV shines a little flashlight in depths that would otherwise not have light, would these animals ever get the opportunity to actually be red? that might be a stupid question.

imagine being a little deep sea creature and having no idea you’re red until something comes along and shines a light on you except you still wouldn’t be able to tell because you’re probably colorblind. anyway. I don’t know where I was going with this post