26
107
‘Age Verification’ could force trans people to out themselves to use the internet
(www.theverge.com)
27
28
I became trans bc someone misgendered me and I was too awkward to correct them
29
32
72
Pixar chief says LGBTQ+ plot elements cut from Elio as company is ‘not making therapy’
(www.theguardian.com)
37
38
39
Lucy won't come to you for attention. But you can always pick her up and make her purr.
Lucy's mom has a bob tail. Her sisters Charlie and Tasselhoff have bobtails. But Lucy is the odd one in the family with a full length tail. It doesn't seem to cause her any problems.
40
Produced "Topez" toe-Pez
This was a farel orange girl we brought in with the idea that we would tame her for adoption or she would become a barn cat. She had been through multiple fosters but her habit of destroying human flesh made us her last possible home.
It took a long time for her to chill even a little. Including a few months in my wife's bedroom by herself.
She has, despite her age, the cutest little kitten face. In the morning she will get on my wife's shoulder while my wife lets the ducks. geese and chickens out. She is free to come and go as she pleases (both my wife and Topaz) and after letting the birds out she will come and cuddle up with my wife as she drinks her coffee. Most of the time Topaz will end up upside down demanding belly rubs.
--
You may have noticed that we have a surplus of orange girls. Only about 20% of orange cats are girls. Some put the number at about one in 3000 cats is an orange girl. Yet we have six of them.
I'm not sure but we probably have more orange girls than any household on the east coast of the United States. And we don't even keep each one we find. Some have wondered what is up with our area that results in so many orange girls. Just lucky I guess.
I'd love to have a male tortie but unlike orange girls those are ultra rare and I could never afford their vet bills.
41
Belka came as part of a three pack from the shelter. Free barn cats. We were just starting our homestead and we had a problem with field mice, cotton rats and voles because of the 34 acres of habitat surrounding our one acre.
Her name means squirrel in Russian. Just because.
As much as orange cats get mocked for their single brain cell Belka is here to prove that there are less intelligent cats. She spent the first year on our screened in porch because she could not figure out how the cat door works.
But once she did understand the cat door she proved to be the best mouser ever. In the seven years since she figured out the cat door she has never failed to bring home a rodent a day. She is the all time champ for confirmed kills.
Which also means that despite her extremely accepting nature and general brainlessness she has learned to recognize a syringe full of panacur and try to run if she sees it. She is not a fan of it but is constantly in need of it because the tapeworms love her.
She is old. We got her seven years ago. We don't know how old she is now but she is missing an eye tooth so she is probably at least 9 years old. We are making efforts to bring her inside so she can enjoy retirement. She gets wet food almost every day. But she still wants to go out. She craves the rats. She would have been a god in ancient Egypt.
When not out hunting she can be spotted sleeping above our dishwasher.
43
This is the littermate of Tasselhoff and Lucy. She is the identical twin of Tasselhoff. The only way to tell the difference is that she has a slightly more pronounced maw and the end of her tail theit tail you can feel, but not see, a tiny fleshy bit at the end.
She will let you know if you are not delivering a sufficient amount of attention to her. She sleeps on that unused pillow on your bed and the moment she detects you are awake she will start pawing at you to let you in she needs petting.
She also doesn't have as many freckles as her twin Tasselhoff despite the fact that Charlie actually goes outside and gets sun.
44
CJ, Captain Jack, isn't with us anymore.
He came as part of the three pack with Belka. CJ was completely fearless. To the point of problematic. His fearlessness was a great asset in helping tame feral cats. He was a teammate. He would let them know there was nothing to fear because he didn't know fear. He would give even the nastiest feral beastie a bath.
One time the power company knocked on my door. Then needed to trim the trees that were getting in the way of the power lines. Each and every one of those trees was a Bradford pear tree. They said "can we cut them?" and I said "can you cut them to the ground?"
They were very happy to do that for me. But then CJ disappeared that same day. We called the animal shelter and let them know that we were looking for this cat. A month later they got a call. They had gotten a call from their trapper. "I got this cat that was trying to play with the 18 wheelers delivering supplies to the Builders Supply. But I noticed after catching him that his left ear was deformed and then it was also tipped but you couldn't tell that because of the deformity." We can only assume that he hitched a ride on the logging trucks and ended up five miles away.
Animal control said "is it a dusty orange cat with a deformed left ear? We are looking for him."
That's how CJ became the rare tipped ear cat with a microchip.
He stayed with us for many years after that, but we knew his fearlessness but eventually take him. One day he didn't come home. He lived his best life every day and served as an example to us all.
45
48
49
