Post what you are thinking right now, part two

[MissKitty]

Hilarious visual 

[Lestat]

Mmmmm...this olive and pepperoni pizza is delish.

Just a cheap arsed cheese and pepperoni pizza from tesco, but I put a bag and a half of mozzarella shreds on it, and about a quarter jar of pickled olives. I'm stuffed full to bursting, I guess I  will save the last two and a bit slices for breakfast. Get some chow in me before my driving lesson.

My last lesson was a pain in the arse, I'd just got out of hospital for the second time in days, after two admissions to the ER due to a myoclonic seizure each time, that made me fall and cut my face to pieces. I reckon I got off pretty lightly though, my eyebrow had to be held on with butterfly stitches, major black eye, and the other cuts are all running parallel with the natural crease lines of my face, so if they scar badly it won't be very visible.

Time for a post-face-stuffing rollup methinks.

And yeah, it was hilarious misskitty. Really cute lil devil he/she was. Cephalopods are in general pretty intelligent, and the octopus sure seemed like it was. Very curious, wanted to investigate every last bit of my scuba gear, and me in general. Didn't display any sign of fear, such as trying to get away, or spewing ink.

I'd love one for a pet, if only they lived longer. It seems pretty sad really, that an animal with such a degree of intelligence doesn't get to use it for more than 4-5 years at most.

[MissKitty]

Very true. I find them fascinating but they also freak me out. Too many videos on youtube of them escaping their tanks. But I love watching them opening jars to get the treats inside. They're incredibly smart and enjoy a good challenge.

[Lestat]

Freak you out why?

And yes, that would be one hazard of having one for a pet, finding it has opened the tank lid and come to sleep by your side in bed

[MissKitty]

I don't like the idea of something crawling about that I don't know is crawling about. *shiver* And they're slimy. All of the rescue animals I work with have either fur or scales and I prefer it that way.

[Lestat]

Lol. Octopi are natures expert escape artists. Real houdinis they are. I don't think I COULD keep one as a pet though, I'd love to, but even the biggest octopi, and the deep-sea species that have slower metabolic rates only live for 5 years or so at most. Its odd I think, that they are so intelligent, given how short their life span is,  One would think it would be the longer lived animals, and pack animals such as cetaceans and elephants for instance, that have the greater need for high intelligence, as they have a far greater time to develop a long life experience and use their minds for longer.  Intuitively that is.

I did to begin with, but now I like you even more misskitty, finding out you work with rescue animals. I find it so sad, and utterly FUCKING disgusting, how people can just toss animals away like they would a used plastic bag with tears and holes in it, and do things like tie kittens in bags and dump them. Pricks like that could at least have the decency to buy a cheap basket, line it with something comfortable, and just leave them on somebody's doorstep, ring the bell/knock on the door and leave.

Thats what I would do, if I really couldn't take care of a pet. Find someone with no dogs, and who doesn't appear to be chavscum or similar vermin on doing some recon, then leave them, ring the bell and get off quickly, if I was truly stuck in a deep hole, so to speak, and they had to find a new home. Rather than abandon them to their fate in a shelter, where they might spend ages in a bare cage before finding a home. Not that I am ever likely to have to do that of course, I'll starve myself before letting pets go without what they need. When I was stuck with the devil-whore former housemate, and times were desperately tough, I just subsisted on whatever scraps I could find around the house, bits of cheese, eggs, etc. IF I had food at all, so my cat could have food and fresh litter. Wasn't fun, but I'm hardly likely to starve to death going a couple of weeks with no food, or next to none.

Happily though, The Bitch is gone, never to dirty my door again (at least, not if she doesn't want to be poisoned that is:P) and I have more money.

Gah...in the two years IT was here, I don't think I actually got to do any lab work at all, I couldn't afford to get ANY new equipment, or buy supplies. Had to leave all my projects on the shelf.

[MissKitty]

I've been working with rescues for over 20 years (started when I was 16) and it's my passion. Right now I run the adoption centre in a local PetSmart store because they're partnered with my rescue. We're 100% no kill cat rescue and everyone who adopts from us goes through a thorough screening. Anti declaw, indoor only etc and we take all of our cats back if for some reason it doesn't work out to prevent them from being taken to high kill shelters. Even if you adopted from us years ago. We had a woman who adopted a bonded pair 8 years ago and they were adult cats at the time. Her Dad is deathly ill and she had to move from Canada back to Wales and the cats would not have been able to handle the stress of such a long flight so we took them back, put them into foster and we're trying to find them their forever home.

I've worked with the worst case scenarios. I adopted a cat who had been shot in the face with a double barrel shotgun at close range, and he lived. it blew off half his jaw, but every time we tried to fix him he was calm, we tried to put him down, he fought. So a team of vets donated their time a reconstructed his jaw with plastic. He ended up living another 6 years, happy as can be and what took him in the end was diabetes.

My family dog was adopted after someone threw up out of a passenger side window of a truck while it was driving down the highway. She landed in the ditch and passerbys found her. When she came in we couldn't pass her up. She was an amazing job.

My son (also an aspie) is helping to socialize a caracal and 2 servals rescued from a place north of me. He's making incredible progress with them. They don't like most people but they really like him.

[Lestat]

Jesus fucking arseraped H christ. Who the cunting hell does that sort of thing to a cat/dog. I do not get on well with dogs, but I would never mistreat one.

A caracal, and two servals? damn....nice pets you have there. Any pics?

[MissKitty]

Jesus fucking arseraped H christ. Who the cunting hell does that sort of thing to a cat/dog. I do not get on well with dogs, but I would never mistreat one.

A caracal, and two servals? damn....nice pets you have there. Any pics?

The caracal and servals aren't mine. They're at my friend's farm. Will PM you a link to her website so you can see pics. But son and I go there all the time. He goes as a camper (she rescues animals, socializes them, rehabilitates them into therapy animals, and runs camps for kids with special needs) and she's become one of my closest friends. We're there all the time. It's one place in the world where I can be completely myself, hang out with camels, wallabies, reptiles, horses.....she has over 700 animals. And they want nothing from you. I don't know. You leave with a different kind of headspace after you're been there.

[MissKitty]

er nevermind. She took most of her pics off her website. She just hired someone new to do it (the old one was crap) but there's hardly any pics on the new page so far. Bah.

[Lestat]

Sounds like just the sort of place I would want to call 'home'.

Aside from in my lab, one of the places that I am most at home, able to be myself, is in one of the local woods, one that I have been hiking in since I was a little kid. I have ended up falling asleep, curled up at the base of a tree a fair few times:P

[MissKitty]

okay I lied. The second place is hiking. You just reminded me. I love, love, love to take my camera out and go for a good long hike. This past March i did 20 km in one day with a crapload of pics to show for it. It was amazing. Now if I can just figure out a way to mix my love of photography, with therapy animals, and kids with special needs AND make a living out of it, I'd be in heaven. 

[Lestat]

I think I'm long overdue for something like that.  And there is nothing quite like marching all day to make one work up a huge appetite!

[Queen Victoria]

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!  The next Doc Martin episodes are on Hulu.  About time.

["couldbecousin"]

where the hell is that checkbook?

  I'm sure I don't know.