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bad day to have wool (it's fucking hot outside and I'm regretting growing my hair out)

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this is another one of those cases where I forgot to turn my blue light filter off to color.

uh..

this image best viewed with a blue light filter WHOOPSSS

I could write an essay on Jinx but this is the scene that stuck with me pretty firmly

felt like playing with the colors, and the water droplet effect is nice.

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I could write an essay on Jinx but this is the scene that stuck with me pretty firmly

felt like playing with the colors, and the water droplet effect is nice.

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the only true ally

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It's Pride have some Stripes-on-Stripes

Zulius needs more glitter but it's past time for sleeps so G'NIGHT

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Behold, an incredibly cursed image for Mermay

Sunfish Merguy. And egg.

you're...welcome. i think.

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been feeling super burnt out but wanting to draw something, and you can't go wrong with centaur world

behold my little sweet baby child (who's 43)

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Alligator Bites Might Never Heal, But Doechii Is Good At Holding Alligators

Doechii won the Grammy for Best Rap Album for Alligator Bites Never Heal, but she also should have won the coveted and definitely not fictitious "Best Alligator Handling" award for the way she held Coconut on the cover!

(Yes, it's this Coconut.)

And the best part? She released a BTS video showing how they shot the cover, meaning that we can see more than just the still image! If a picture's worth a thousand words, video's worth... a lot more. (Sorry if it autoplays I don't think I have any control over that either way)

So, using the photoshoot images and video as evidence, let's take a look at how Doechii handled this alligator very well! I'm going to go into excruciating detail here because I think it's important to know why something is good just as much as it is important to know why something is bad. It's hard to understand alligator body language a lot of the time, so in this writeup, I will address how Doechii's holding the gator and what she's doing right, as well as point out how you can tell from Coconut's reactions that she is not distressed.

Body Support

In the album cover image, Doechii is seated, which is good, because even though she's a small alligator, Coconut is a very strong and powerful creature. That tail is pure muscle! But even in the standing images, you can see that Doechii is giving Coconut great body support and holding her correctly- close to the body, but without grabbing too tightly or being restrained uncomfortably. I think for a gator of this size I would have recommended pinning the back foreleg against her body for a little additional support and movement restriction- but I don't think she had to restrict movement because Coconut seems quite relaxed!

In the seated image, Doechii has one hand under Coconut's chest, supporting her sternum and head. The other hand is on top of her tail, and her knee is under the pelvic girdle. This type of hold lets the alligator feel safe; remember that these are aquatic and terrestrial creatures. An insecure hold that risks dropping them is going to stress them out and make them uncomfortable. By holding the alligator gently against her body and not squeezing, she's avoiding any uncomfortable pressure.

Head and Throat Support

In all of the images, Doechii is bringing her hand under Coconut's neck, creating a cradle with her hand so that the alligator can rest her head. But what she's not doing is she is not squeezing or grabbing the throat. The throat is one of the soft bits of an alligator, and squeezing it too tightly is very uncomfortable for them. But the way Doechii is supporting her gives her several degrees of freedom to move her head if she so chooses.

Body Language

Another indication of good handling is that it's clear that Coconut is not uncomfortably stressed. Alligators express displeasure with being held in a lot of ways, including struggling to get away, hissing, and holding their mouths open. (If you want to know more and see my sources, you can read my post on alligator body language. LOTS of info there, including peer-reviewed ethology sources that explain what alligators do and why they do it! Go get your data-driven answers!)

But Coconut isn't doing that; she's calm and alert. You can see in the BTS video that she's active on set. She's not shut down, and when she wants to walk around, she's not restrained. Obviously the video is an edited timelapse, and it's not the whole story- but when people show alligators in media, they usually don't know enough about them to edit out any uncomfortable body language. So I think that if she had been upset, we would have seen that.

We can also see in the video that Coconut is unbanded, meaning her mouth was not held shut. I thought they might have banded her and then edited the band out for the cover, but no, there was nothing restricting any distress cues. Banding is usually done for public safety, but the facility Coconut's from... doesn't do that, so I'm not surprised she's unbanded. At least it gives more evidence that she's not trying to gape!

One more good indicator that Coconut was comfortable is that she's got her eyes open, which you can even kinda see in the video if you zoom in. Reptiles will often squinch their eyes shut to avoid distressing stimuli or signal distress, and albino alligators have even more reasons to do this. They're much more sensitive to light than their pigmented counterparts. But it looks like her on-set work was completed quickly, meaning that she didn't have to be around bright lights for long.

In conclusion:

Doechii's album cover is an example of good alligator handling. Yay!

That said, please note that this is only about handling and is divorced from any other issues surrounding this particular alligator. (Read the body language post if you want more on that.) These are not issues I'm touching in this post, because that's not the point! I simply want to point out an instance of good handling and how you can identify relaxed body language in an animal that is notoriously hard to read when posted on social media.

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idk why people photoshopped the crying cat meme on this pic when the unedited version is so powerful

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sometimes you gotta be your own sleep-deprived, traumatized, mentally exhausted single parent

hang in there y'all. I'm going through it right now, I'm sure someone seeing this is too. I'm too tired to have hope, but my partner is holding hope for the both of us.

current procedures are to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others, and do your best to work through the new trauma as it comes. lean on the people who love you, reach out to your community. don't isolate, don't spiral, and don't fester. do what you can to take control of what little you can. if that's laundry and dishes, if that's personal hygiene, if that's community support, whatever. just don't make a home in the despair just yet. and whatever you do, don't overextend your energy or your resources. you need to save enough in the tank to not lose yourself, your housing, your transport, or your access to food and clean water.

I have no idea if we're gonna make it through this, but we're gonna fucking try.

be safe. and be smart.

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FINALLY

I think Singularity and Unraveling would be appropriate names. I'm so sad Arcane is over but I'm so glad we got these beautiful, complicated, messy fucking wrecks of characters that I love so much. I've got more Arcane art in the ol' noggin, but I'm supposed to be asleep

Super proud of this one

(repost to spontaneously combust)

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IT IS FINISHED

FUCKING FINALLY

I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY HOURS THIS TOOK

FUCK

BEHOLD MY LOVELY LITTLE FAMILY MINUS TWO PEOPLE CUZ I'M LAZY AND THEY'RE EXTENDED

HUZZAH

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highly recommend just slapping your art all over the wall

you can do this for the low low price of free (+$7 for sticky tack)

(the crab apple tree ain't mine, my wife's sister did that one for me because she's awesome)

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didn't finish my wig in time for Kumoricon, but I had a grand old time and got to model for a figure drawing workshop

everyone loved the finished Jinx jacket and I'm excited to just wear that art piece like a normal part of my wardrobe now

thank you to the people who drew me (esp. for drawing me so FUCKING HOT), I would credit everyone but I only got @rhoda-pomelo 's business card (thank you for that!)

if anyone else recognizes their art here i will gladly credit!

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working on a family portrait DnD style

WIP