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And I cannot let International Cat Day pass without celebrating my precious little demon child, my little lion, my cub Simba--little Sasha! He is the most curious little thing ever, and gets into the most trouble because everything is always for Sasha. Naturally!

Once more copying this one over from my instagram, this is the post I made for little Sasha on International Cat Day (August 8th). We celebrated Sasha's FIRST BIRTHDAY (making my curious little lion) an entire year old and "officially" an adult cat, back on February 13th, and he has officially been with me for an entire year back on April 2nd of this year.

When I brought him home that night as a tiny little fluff ball, little Xaden was like "what did you do, mom?"

But needless to say, as exasperated as Xaden will seem, and as super curious as Sasha as (because naturally he has to know everything and be everywhere and be the very center of attention, of course!), the two brothers get along wonderfully.

My boys are my entire world. I can't imagine life without them. I don't want to.

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On International Cat Day I have to highlight all the black cat love, with my precious little Xaden. This is just a small snapshot of the almost 2 years I've had with him (so far). And my chill panther is my baby. We love him completely.

Copying over from my instagram, the post I made for precious little Xaden on International Cat Day (August 8th). He turned two years old back on June 23rd. (Or at least that's when we celebrate his birthday because the shelter estimated he was born "somewhere around the latter part of June of 2023" -- so he gets the 23rd as his birthday.)

I will officially have been his cat mom, and he would have been in my life, for two years come September 26th. I wouldn't change anything. This baby is everything to me.

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A few months ago, a co-worker’s daughter came across this little abandoned kitten. Poor thing was so near death, and my co-worker was all “we CANNOT keep it” (to her daughter) so she asked if I could, knowing how much of a cat lover I am. She offered to pay for all its care, etc. if I took it, but as much as I’d take every kitty in the world, I couldn’t either. So I brought the little guy to the shelter, hoping he’d make it, get a good home, etc. Today, I’m in PetSmart getting food for little Xaden & Sasha & what do you know— there’s the little guy from those months ago, looking so much healthier, ready to find his forever home! So proud of him (and the ones at the local shelter who helped get him back to health). You go, little guy! I hope you find that loving family that will give you all the cuddles and treats forever! (You definitely deserve it!)

Seriously, though -- this MADE MY DAY today! I had (in all truth) figured the precious baby had succumbed to his sicknesses, or just realistically had no idea that I'd ever see him again. Why would I? I gave him to the shelter and "Hoped for the best".

To get the very fortunate chance to know now that he made it, that he is alive and well, that he is healthy (and has so much energy in that little PetSmart "come and adopt me" area), has just given me so many feelings, it's unreal!

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When little Xaden is oh so curious about the phone that is taking his picture (that his mama has in his face again)

Needless to say, he looked so statuesque while sitting on my bookcase there (and this was by far not the only picture taken) but it was the one with him nosing the phone's camera like that-- and thus making little Xaden even more adorable and precious and the perfect kitty that he is.

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It is way too hot to function in this world right now.

Have I said before how much I utterly despise summer? And the heat? Not just "oh I prefer the cold" --

No. I DESPISE the summer weather. With every passionate bone in my body. Detest it. Hate it. I would utterly obliterate it if I could.

Because "summer" holds absolutely no importance once you're out of school and it's no longer a break, etc. All it means is that the weather turns absolutely fucking MISERABLE in every possible way:

the sun is WAY too bright

the humidity

the "cool" days are in the mid-80 degrees Fahrenheit (of which you MIGHT get... two or three in the entire 4 months--if you're lucky) ; average days are mid to high-90s.

it ALWAYS feels at least 100 degrees

the bugs are out in FULL force. We're talking beetles, spiders, june bugs, mosquitos-- ALL OF THEM.

being outside for barely 0.5 seconds makes you sweaty and soaking wet with that sweat that it feels like you need to take another shower. I mean your clothes are literally WET (like you just came out of that shower IN said clothes) but all it is that sweat from said heat & humidity

heat = major trigger for my migraines. and you know how they say "figure out what the triggers are, avoid them, etc." Can't exactly CONTROL THE WEATHER, can I? So the summer is utterly MISERABLE as I stay inside as much as humanly possible (with the AC on, the fans on full-blast, etc.) because it's the only way I can diminish said expose to such a migraine trigger

another of my medications doesn't work well with heat so again-- see above.

I have ZERO patience with stupid people on a nice, cool wonderful day. As we all know, heat makes tempers even shorter and patience fried to the average person anyway. So imagine the fact that I have to deal with that-- THEIR stupidity and lack of patience--and the fact that my ZERO level is now in the negatives because of said heat and temper--

Not to mention the fact that all of this makes it hard to focus on things, and all I want to do for the most part is sleep with the precious kitty boys underneath a maximum blowing fan.

And the fact that this kind of weather (because of climate change and all that) has gone from being during June-August, for the most part, to now pretty much mid-May to mid-October, (sometimes as early as March & April) still in the 80s or so in November and if we're lucky we can have "fall weather" at Xmas time so I can at least PRETEND the season is somewhat right--

I couldn't do THREE months years ago.

There's something severely wrong with people that enjoy the 9 months of this crap.

(I will take winter temperatures over summer temperatures ALL YEAR LONG because I can put on a coat--five coats, ten blankets on the bed--if I get cold. I can only take so much crap off!)

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It’s this special boy’s birthday today (well, yesterday, but I forgot to post this pic here on tumblr--even if it did make it to some other social media sites)! He’s a big full TWO YEARS OLD! Needless to say he’s just as chill as always, and somehow miraculously puts up with his little brother’s antics.

Happy birthday, little Xaden!

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So yesterday, we did make it to the vet. But he didn't like it at all, of course. (Then again, the last time he went, he got neutered, so...)

Not only did he cry the whole car ride over (which broke my heart but it's like-- I'm sorry, baby, you have to go and get your shots), this is how he ended up immediately after we got inside the room and he got out of the carrier.

Little Sasha (the normally super curious little kitty, everything is for me kitty) finds the smallest space he can to curl up and hide. To make himself as super small as possible. :(

Precious baby is so scared and anxious and my heart just broke!

(The vet people were really good with him, though.)

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Don’t let little Sasha’s attempt at innocence fool you! Demon child wouldn’t get in the carrier this afternoon for his vet appointment (so we had to reschedule) & now here he is, all chill. He’s a very bad boy! And he is… not forgiven. Nope. … no matter how cute he is.

~

Seriously, in the morning, he was all chill inside of the carrier (the appointment was initially scheduled at 2:00PM Friday afternoon). We started to "okay, time to get ready" at around 12:45-1:00 (both of us had to get ready, it takes about 10-15 minutes to get there, he is NEVER able to go right into the carrier, etc.)

And about 1:50, I'm calling the vet, to find out how late is "late" and how late can you be before "you're too late, you need to reschedule" because Sasha is hiding under the bed, refusing to come out. Or even where I can reach him at all.

Naturally, we had to reschedule (because unless he was going to come out in the next 2 minutes, we were going to be too late, and I didn't want to do that to them), so come Monday morning, he better work with me.

And then, to top it off, this is where he spends most of yesterday evening.

In.

The.

Carrier.

As cute as the little lion is, I still haven't (fully) forgiven him yet.

His big brother, Xaden, got the treats last night (even if Sasha did get one too, because I can't say a complete NO to that adorable face).

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I love this post. I don't even know if I have the words to adequately express just how much I love it, to be quite honest.

Because it IS okay! It has always been okay. You are always supposed to live your truth on YOUR time. No one else's. And to reiterate what @granola-peasant said above:

They’ll come out when the time is right and they feel comfortable

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

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See this precious little baby who just knows that the entire world revolves around him (when it doesn't revolve around his big brother, Xaden, of course) and how helpful he wants to be while I'm here, trying to work on things...

I mean, even if little Sasha is my favorite demon child of all, I can't ever get mad at that face! Look at him! He's too cute!

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Alright ... and... ????

I'm not even going into the fact that the answer was well, DUH, anyone could have told you THAT! obvious. Because it goes without saying. (And I am glad, reading through a lot of the comments on that final voting between Chapter 55 & Chapter 54, that there were a lot that felt the same. Because again-- DUH.)

I've always said you wouldn't have had Chapter 55 (much less how wonderful 55 is) if you didn't have the emotional and actual story-telling impact of CHARACTER that Chapter 54 gives you, tying it all together.

But I mean... Bloomsbury... I'm not ungrateful, and this was fun, but like... THAT'S IT?!

Nothing? This had the whole "we're counting down to something" vibe about it and there was... absolutely nothing. Zilch. Nada. It's got the disappointment of getting to the very end and there being nothing.

At this point, I'd seriously take ANYTHING. A crumb. A hint. Any inkling on where we might be in the process. Are we looking at 2026? Or are we getting closer to approaching GRRM territory to the point that "good luck, but you'll never ever see the next ACOTAR story."

Because at this point? I don't know...

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So, another update on my "these books are going to utterly destroy me" post --

Because like I already said, to no one's surprise at all--

ONYX STORM UTTERLY WRECKED & DESTROYED ME.

And then, well, we just continued with the pain by rereading the entire original Hunger Games trilogy in preparation for SotR. I'm still not sure if that was a good idea or not but I can tell you it definitely made the book a thousand times more impactful (if that's even possible!)

So yes, Onyx destroyed me,

SUNRISE ON THE REAPING COMPLETELY DESTROYED ME.

We were already two for two on this. Why not make it three for three?

Take it home, Lauren Roberts, with the conclusion of the Powerless trilogy in Fearless!

FEARLESS HAD ME WEEPING & (yes) DESTROYED ME!

Books that I know are scheduled for 2025 that have every single reason (and 99.99% chance) of destroying me completely:

Onyx Storm (Empyrean 3) -- Rebecca Yarros

Fearless (Powerless 3) -- Lauren Roberts

Sunrise on the Reaping (Hunger Games Prequel) -- Suzanne Collins

The Ballad of Falling Dragons (Moonfall 2) -- Sarah A. Parker

Books that are highly likely to come out in 2025 that have every single reason (and 99.99% chance) of destroying me completely:

Sequel to Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy 2) -- Callie Hart

Another SJM (ACOTAR?!) book? Anything?!

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Also , you know that feeling of picking up a book that has (literally) been on your "I'm gonna read this one day" list for ages and you're devouring it, and you're all-- WHY THE HELL DID I WAIT SO LONG FOR THIS?!

Yeah. That's actually been me lately with Sabaa Tahir's Ember in the Ashes books. I have wanted to read them forever, bought the first book years ago (I mean, years ago, before the cover changes). Had the whole four of them downloaded on my kindle forever, and still hadn't gotten around to it.

It was always "I'll get to that ONE DAY" ...

The proverbial "one day" hah.

Bought the book Heir earlier this year too, when it came out (because 1. Pretty book! and 2. .. I don't know, I caved on "pretty book" and the plot sounded good and like I said, I was always planning on reading the books...)

Anyway, I think I started the first book around early to mid April.

We started the fourth one last night.

I generally don't read through a series that fast, especially if my brain isn't so focused on things / has trouble focusing in general / is in that "weird mental brain state" it sometimes gets, or whatever reason. And I'm always reading more than one thing anyway, so it always takes longer to read each book cause I go back and forth with things...

All that to say--

WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?!

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When you’re looking for the little panther and he suddenly decides that, “wow, that empty bag looks like a pretty good place to be!”

The fact that, while little Xaden was in here, little Sasha (after realizing the bag couldn’t fit BOTH of them, to poor Sasha’s detriment since neither are very little anymore—and especially not the panther), crawled down into one of the enclosed “bag-LIKE” cat beds so he could be as much like his big brother as possible.

Precious boys.

It's the life of a cat mom and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

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alina and nikolai have so mych more chemistry than her and mal!!!

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One of the things I love most about cats is that every single one of them is just a weird little motherfucker. I've never known a cat that wasn't just fucking strange in some way. Just a little freak about at least one thing.

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I honestly couldn't help but screenshot this the other day when it came across my FB feed. Like, I'd tell myself they all have to be trolls, but there's way too many for every single one to just be a bot or a troll or whatever.

Not to even go into the fact that the Orange Baffoon got the office in the first place, which means you had to have enough people press the button to make it happen (hence my supreme lack of faith in humanity in general--especially when it comes to those in the United States of America.)

Especially since, like, when it comes to the whole Checks & Balances system with the US Government... it's basic, what, 3rd grade level stuff? Schoolhouse Rock level stuff? Every IDIOT knows at least the basic premise when it comes to knowing anything at all about the way the system of government works here.

At least... I thought every idiot.

Like I told a friend the other day. I have got to stop saying things like, "How stupid can it be?" or variations of that, because I swear, this world is taking that a challenge to out-stupid itself each and every time.