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my balcony blocks my view of the playground, but I heard one child yell "I FOUND A FROG" with a great deal of excitement and now there is screaming, so I'm filling in some blanks

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“work smarter, not harder” ok no, bitch. inefficiency is part of my process. all those wasted hours over there? they’re load bearing. you do not get it.

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Your dislike or phobia for certain animals never outweights the animal's right to exist and live, i keep running into this behavior and i don't know why some folks never got to learn that. Who do you think you are

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If you're experiencing homelessness, a sudden loss of income, a change in living situation, or any other event that makes you unable to care for your pet(s), try reaching out to your local humane society and/or shelters.

Many of them have programs in place to help people in these situations, whether that be by providing you with food/supplies for your pet when you can't afford it, providing free/discount veterinary services, or even temporarily caring for the pet in shelter until you can take them back.

At my shelter, we have what we call "community days" once or twice a month. This is when we give away any extra donations we receive to the community. Although anyone is welcome to come and take what they need, these are usually intended for those who are homeless, low income, or otherwise need some help.

We also have a program called "urgent care". With this program, we take in pets temporarily when their families aren't able to care for them. This could be one of the situations mentioned above or something like recovering from a surgery/illness, being incarcerated, etc. The reason doesn't matter. While in this program, the pets are taken care of like any other animals at the shelter with one main difference -- it's all confidential. Most of our shelter is open to the public to come visit and meet the animals but the urgent care animals are kept upstairs, which is staff only. We also aren't allowed to take any photos of the animals or to discuss them with anyone. As general staff and volunteers, we also know nothing about the family's situation or what brought the pet here. That's kept extremely private.

One other program that we have -- which is less common -- is what we call a "fundraiser spotlight". Each month, we spotlight a fundraiser to help pets. This is usually to pay for veterinary care but can be for anything really. The fundraiser is posted in the newsletter, on the social media pages, etc. and they usually get filled very quickly. I don't know anything about the specifics of how the fundraisers are chosen or what goes on (it's not my job) but it's a great program anyways.

Your local shelters may or may not have simar programs but it's worth a shot! Many of them can at least connect you to people who can help.

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“Authors should not be ALLOWED to write about–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“This book should be taken off of shelves for featuring–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Schools shouldn’t teach this book in class because–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Nobody actually likes or wants to read classics because they’re–” you are an anti-intellectual and an idiot

“I only read YA fantasy books because every classic novel or work of literary fiction is problematic and features–” you are an anti-intellectual and you are robbing yourself of the full richness of the human experience.

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Some things just feel deeply right:

Being in the woods (bonus points if there are ferns)

Being around Lots of Books

Making things with my hands

Looking over a cliff or clear mountain summit

Napping after a shower

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every time I hear a story about someone talking a wild animal out of its habitat and forcing it to live as a pet in horrible neglect I want to cry my eyes out. I don’t understand people

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become familiar with nature in your area. your life will be marginally improved by recognizing the birds singing outside your window or identifying pawprints you see. i promise

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you can’t save the world but you can save some bugs which is pretty cool and also important

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Why did my cockroach post get NSFW-d??? 😭

Almost ran over this dude with my wheelchair while at the biodome yesterday but stopped in time and yoinked him to take a picture and put him up higher to not get squished. It was pretty cool to see him cleaning himself after I put him down (Which cockroaches do after touching humans) but part of me was a bit offended lol

For those curious, this is a (I believe) Australian cockroach who was probably destined to be eaten by some of the animals as a feeder insect

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ranking the best things I have heard surgeons say mid-surgery:

1. "Five second rule!" while scrubbed, after dropping a sterile scalpel on the floor (no they did NOT pick it up again but I swear everyone's buttholes puckered)

2. (spoken during the closing of a particularly long and difficult case) "Nurse - my tunes." :heavy metal starts blasting:

3. Gently to a fretful patient, pre-anaesthesia: "It's going to be okay. I promise, I've dealt with worse." As soon as the patient is unconscious: "This is literally the worst thing I've ever seen."

4. [okay this one was a med student] "Wowwww, that's so gross!!" Reg: "Please remember that [patient] is awake for this procedure." Student to patient: "Oh my god. I am so sorry, that was really unprofessional - " Patient, cheerfully, also engrossed with what's happening inside them on the screen: "Nah - it's, like, super gross, right?"

5. [another procedure where the patient couldn't be put under GA] Patient: *starts singing country roads midway through the procedure* Surgeon: *shrugs and joins in with surprisingly good harmony*

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Hey man don’t cry. Summer almost here. Increased observations per day added to iNaturalist.

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A lava lizard standing on a marine iguana – Galapagos Islands

Photograph: John Seagar

World Nature Photography awards

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i was preparing a wet specimen one day and my dad was like this reminds me of my work buddy who ties dollar store balloons to roadkill and watches them fly away. and i had to drop everything for a second and say no. no i dont think this is like that

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[Image Description: A screenshot of an iNatualist notification that reads: Lilyboy suggested an ID: Columbia lily. End ID.]

I love when you post a species on inat and seconds later someone called "salamandergirl" "solidagoman" or "troutlilly_identifier" swoops in to ID it. Like yeah, you know what youre about. I trust your ID of my Bombus bimaculatus, "bombusboy200"

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Most pet reptiles are kinda chill with whatever. Some are even very happy for your body heat. And some, like my beloved little bastard, choose to bite Santa Claus ._.

I love visiting people who have some kind of pet reptile because they're always like "would you like to hold the reptile" and I'm like "of course I would" and then the rest of the conversation happens with me just holding a random reptile and the reptile Has No Feelings about the situation. They always just sit there, probably vaguely wishing to return to their heat lamp but clearly exuding an energy of This Might As Well Happen. and then I put it back in its enclosure and go home and the reptile very clearly has no strong feelings about the situation.

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A moment of silence for my poor roommate who walked in on me sitting at the kitchen table organizing my bones because I wasn't expecting him home for reading week :,)