#getting involved

[practicalsolarpunk]

The City Nature Challenge 2025 is due to kick off in a few weeks, April 25-28, a one-weekend challenge to go out and observe and record as many living, wild things as possible. As a researcher recently pointed out to me, we are creating data points. We are providing hard evidence that this species was right there, on this day. There literally aren't enough scientists in the world to do this kind of research, let alone the funding. And who knows, maybe you'll discover a new species!

All you need is an iNaturalist account accessible through an app or browser, a camera, and access to the world we live in.

I challenge each of you to check your own cities to see if they are participating, or join the global challenge in the link. Take your camera and go outside - look at bugs and plants and animals and mold and fungus. Look at the lichen growing on the fence you pass everyday - what kind is it? What kind of ants are carrying the crumbs away at the picnic? What kind of squirrel is making that racket up in the tree? Pick a plant you walk past everyday, a weed or grass, something you've dismissed a thousand times - what is it?

Get curious. Get involved.

[npd-vriska]

"But i don't even buy the brands that are being called to boycott! Even if nobody really called for it, it's better that I stop buying McDonald's right? At least i'm doing something?"

If that's you, then you can't really participate in a boycott past e-mailing the companies (Which is still something! E-mail them! Tell them what you think!) that are actually being put under pressure. But you can always find another way to get involved! Since most of you will be familiar, BDS has a helpful tool that will pull up their affiliated organizations based on what country you live in, and those are not just doing boycotts!

Send an e-mail to one of them. Ask what you can do. Most of the time you'll find there's a lot of things they need that don't even require you leaving your home! Every association needs someone to draft e-mails, to respond to people, to beta-read their articles and flyers, to give ideas on what they can do next. It may not feel as immediately effective but i assure you it is far more useful than a poorly organized internet boycott.

[joannep-whoelse]

Oakley the Mio

Romanian Rescue, Helping or Hindering?

We adopted our dog four and a half years ago without knowing anything about him or his breed, background or anything. We were given very little information from the charity.

We completed an online form, they called us, asked us some questions about our family and home and we were told we could go and collect him, and so we did.

Looking back that raises so many red flags for me.

No in person home check

No initial visit with the dog to check compatibility

When we collected him, he was just handed over outside of the gates of where he had been staying and told he had a cut near his eye

He was incredibly anxious in the car and barked for the entire journey home. When we got him home we saw that the cut was severely infected, his hair was terribly matted and unkempt and he was filthy. So the next day we took him to the vet and the groomers, we also discovered he had an infection in both ears. We contacted the dog charity and explained the situation and they said they would deduct the vet fee from the adoption fees. But that didn’t explain how a dog that had been in their care for the last few months could be in such a state.

We were added to facebook group for people who had adopted dogs from this charity and with a quick search I discovered that we weren’t Oakley’s first adopted family. I sent a message to the previous owner and asked about Oakley and why they sent him back to the charity. They told me that they couldn’t handle him and he didn’t get on with their other dog.

So with that information we contacted the charity and requested more information about Oakley’s history and this is what we were told.

Oakley was found at roughly three months old tied up in a village in the Carpathian Mountains region of Romania, next to a pond. It was assumed that he had been left by sheep farmers because he is quite small for his breed so he would have been the runt of the litter. Mioritic Shepherd dogs guard thousands of sheep in large packs and are known to fight wolves, bears and lynxes to protect the herd.

He was then neutered at roughly four months old and then when he was six months old he was packed into a van and made the long arduous journey to the UK.

When he reached the UK he was placed in a foster home with nearly forty other dogs, with no segregated facilities for him to have his own space, they were all fed together and basically left to their own devices.

At home with us Oakley showed some food aggression particularly when it involves bones and other fresh food. He was also very underweight. He also had not developed bite inhibition. He would also find gaps in fences and bushes to jump through into the neighbours garden.

He would spend hours hiding under the table trying to be invisible. He detested going in his crate, to the point he injured himself destroying it to get out. To which I said to my husband no more crate. He had serious separation anxiety and would chew on my oak chairs and table.

For months we had to show endless patience and compassion and slowly he began to settle in to his new place with our family.

The one thing he never did was mess inside the house.

He is a very vocal dog and if he needs something he will let you know, whatever the time is, much to the annoyance of our neighbours, who have even suggested that we should have him debarked, to which I replied you get your voice surgically removed then!

The barking is breed specific and nothing can change that, so we figure out what it is that he wants and then he is fine.

Even now he is still an anxious dog especially when it comes to going out in the car. So clearly the journey over here traumatised him and left him scarred for life.

Yet Oakley is classed as one of the lucky ones because he didn’t come from a life on the streets or worse a kill shelter.

So the question I am asking is knowing the trauma Oakley has experienced and the resulting anxiety that he has been left living with, what about the other dogs who have experienced trauma from before the journey from either living on the streets or worse in a kill shelter is it worth adding to that and bringing them over to the UK and expecting inexperienced owners take on these challenges?

All the vets that I have spoken with have said that it is cruel to put the dogs through this and that the journey from Romania to the UK is much more traumatic than living on the streets.

I have a friend from Romania who told me that in the villages the stray dogs are seen as the village dogs, people feed them, children play with them. They don’t keep them inside.

So are we getting involved where we don’t need to be? Are we forcing our beliefs of how animals should be kept as pets onto others? In the farming communities dogs and cats are not pets they are part of the community and they have jobs to do. Cats catch mice and other pests. Dogs herd and protect the sheep and other livestock.

I am not picking a side I am merely providing food for thought.

I personally don’t think kill shelters should be allowed but I am just one person and who am I to challenge a foreign government that allows them.

[batboyblog]

Hey I appreciate your long political posts with links and sources. Keep doing the Light's work.

oh thank you! Tumblr glitched and said your one message was 10 messages and I was scared for a second there, my inbox is usually death threats, so thanks!

and Remember everyone! check your voter registration! that form takes 30 seconds, check even if you know! doesn't hurt!

and if you can, volunteer on a campaign this year, I guarantee there is something thats your speed, I just saw an event on there thats a "Vanderpump Rules Premiere Watch Party!" hosted by the "Real House Wives of Politics" so there's something for everyone trust.

[captainjonnitkessler]

>Join a union

>Hear people constantly complaining that the current union leadership is super corrupt, it's all just the same ten guys making all the decisions in secret and nobody else in the union ever gets to know what's going on

>Go to the monthly union meetings that are completely open to all 1200 union members

>The only attendees are the same ten guys every month, giving detailed reports about everything that's going on

[gideonisms]

Just found out I was thirsty not by receiving a signal from my body about it but by dozing off and dreaming about cold water from different alluring angles. This is great. I think all my wants and needs should be revealed to me this way

[skipppppy]

This has to be an AU already right? I’ve never seen it. I’m doing it. My city now

The angst potential alone haunts me. How long do you think he waited for Ford?? When did it start to sink in that nobody was coming to save him, that nobody would miss him? Would anybody even want him back? How long did it take for his anger, his heartbreak, his grief to turn into acceptance and a belief that this was divine retribution? How long did he work, how many jobs did he take, how much wealth did he accrue, how many brushes with death did he have until he believed he’d “earned” the right to go home and see his brother?? Many such questions. I need to go deeper

[lindaghill]

Prompt Me Part 2 of 2 - #JusJoJan 2025

Second half of the month – January 19 – 31, 2025 I’m looking for prompt words for Just Jot it January! This is your chance to inspire other people and have your blog linked to the Daily Prompt post. I’ve decided to do this in two parts again this year—Jan. 2-17, and Jan 19-31. I only need 10 prompt words today, so if you miss getting your word in on this post, you’ll have to wait for another…

[frosthetix]

some dudebros: tom hardy must be held at gunpoint to still be doing these sony venom movies

tom hardy: WRITES the movie, PRODUCES the movies, repeatedly states how much venom and eddie means to him, reads all the comics, #1 veddie shipper

[satellites444]

sylus has a long day and he needs to eat you out.

simply because he's a giver, and he wants nothing more than to please you. that's his stress relief.

like, you're at home relaxing when you get a text from him, simply saying ‘need to see you’

so you unlock your front door for him and wait for him to arrive.

when he gets there you're on the couch in your comfiest sweatpants and your head perks up when he the door opens. you notice immediately the tension in his shoulders and the tired look on his face.

“how was your day?” you ask, your voice is curious. he meets your eyes as he walks towards where you're at on the couch, and he doesn't say anything he just drops to his knees in front of you.

“sylus?” you question as his fingers pull at the waistband of your pants. you let him take your sweats off, leaving you in just your underwear. he tosses the sweats somewhere in the living room and starts to leave a lazy trail of kisses from your knee to your inner thigh, leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake.

“long day,” he says between kisses, “just need this,” he mumbles into your leg.

who are you to deny him what he needs?

“whatever you need,” you say, running your fingers through his hair, watching his eyes flutter shut at the touch.

he pulls your underwear off, leaving you naked from the waist down. he spreads your legs, admires the sight for a moment and then he's diving in

your back arches off the couch, your jaw going slack. he normally likes to tease you, take his time, but right now he's not wasting any time.

“aahh, sylus,” you say, it comes out almost like a whimper. the pleasure hitting you so suddenly you feel like you can't breath properly.

he's just as vocal as you are, too. he's moaning as soon as he tastes you on his tongue, he's whispering, “fuck,” to himself before diving back in. he’s gripping your thighs to keep them open so he can devour you.

he knows what you like, he knows exactly how to move his tongue to get those noises he loves so much. he knows that if he sucks your clit in just the right way, your hips will buck and you’ll let out a breathy moan. that's what he does; he’s in heaven.

you're flooding his senses, the stress of the day melts away instantly. he doesn't even remember why he was so pissed, why he was so stressed before because he's in his favorite place.

he gets messier with it as he loses himself to the action. not caring that saliva and arousal are dropping down his chin, probably onto the couch—he’ll buy you a new one. “need you to cum for me, on my tongue, i need it,” he says, only breaking contact with your pussy to ramble out what he wants. he's drunk on it. slurping and licking at everything you have to offer him.

when you're close, you have tells and he knows them like the back of his hand. your breathing gets shallower, your moans grow in pitch and frequency, your fingers grip his hair tighter. he inserts two fingers because he wants to feel you clench around them when you cum.

ultimately that's what pushes you over the edge, too. the way he curls his fingers has you seeing stars and you come hard.

he cleans you up, though it's more for his enjoyment. he takes his time doing it, still relishing in the taste of you, the feeling of you on his tongue. he stays down there until you're pulling at his head.

he’s rock hard in his pants, but he doesn't ask you to return the favor because honestly, he got what he wanted. maybe later he’ll fuck you, or he’s going to touch himself to the image of eating you out but right now he's helping you put your clothes back on and ordering take out.

[batboopp]

batman has gotta be one of my favorite heroes only because he’ll go through the most borderline traumatic series of events possible where he may or may not have proved an afterlife existed just to drive away in his stupid fucking batcar with his stupid fucking bat ears peeking out

[nomnomroko]

happy Lower Decks finale, everyone <3

[yuutaguro]

part 3 to celebrate the new addition to ‘nyanyamin’ mini series by @pseudowho 🐈

[calmlb]

“Chuuya wasn’t in Dark Era, why is he in this art??”

wdym, he’s right here 🤨

[starrysunglasses]

Watching Merlin AGAIN