Thank you! She is quite the charmer c:

My phone (a Samsung of some sort, though I forget the model), using the macro camera mode

it was brushed off the first night when I kept saying let’s talk. That part hit me the most

This is the part of his behavior that concerns me as it pertains to your emotional wellbeing. It takes understanding and compassion from all partners in a relationship, and he is not extending that to you. It is those moments that I reflect on in my past relationships that I wish I had seen for what they were so much sooner. I did the same thing you are doing, focusing on the parts of my partner that were positive and using those to excuse the negative, which is what kept me locked in a difficult, dark place for years. Because real talk, even though I know now that the men I dated weren't right for me, it's not like they were 100% bad people. I still don't think that. They were damaged young people in their 20s that hadn't fully processed the trauma in their life and had, unbeknownst to even them, developed unhealthy behaviors and coping mechanisms that I was then stuck dealing with on the daily. And I thought, "If I just support them enough and be patient enough, they will pull through and our relationship will experience a bloom and depth that will make all the strife worth it." That never happened, and I don't think it ever would have happened. As long as I tolerated the dark times, they never had to push through their problems. You deserve someone who loves just as fiercely as you do, don't accept half measures.

I’m so drained. I’m tired.

I have 100% been where you are right now. I will acknowledge that I don't know your situation intimately and that it is your life and your call on whether or not you choose to move on. But I can tell you that when I was finally tired enough to break away, that was the beginning of a fresh new chapter for me ❤️

Take some time for yourself today. Make a nice cup of tea (or whatever is your preferred warm and cozy type of drink), listen to your favorite album (I take much solace in music, and if you need a recommend I am high-key obsessed with Pale Jay's album Low End Love Songs), and try to remind yourself of how wonderful you are 💖

Ugh, contam, so frustrating! Do you make your own grain, or buy? I get bags from Fungaia and haven't had any issues with their bags going funky

To update you, I am finally starting to see some mycelial growth in my rye bag, so in my case it's probably just slow to pull out of dormancy (plus I don't have an incubator for my grain spawn so I don't keep them as warm as would be optimal). Hope your next attempts go well!

Was reading through this thread and wanted to say idk wtf these other people are flipping out about. I have owned cats for 15 years and not once have I ever bothered to trim nails on any cat I have had in my care. It's a pain in the ass for me and for them, and I have never in all those years had any health issues arise from not trimming. The other people are right that trimming is different than declawing. Declawing is indeed very uncool, but trimming is not harmful as long as you don't trim into the quick of the nail. However, maintaining that it's an absolute necessity is simply wrong. At best, it's nice for us humans because they are less likely to scratch you on accident (or on purpose if your cat is an asshole) or less able to fuck up your furniture. And while I haven't ever had a cat who needed trimming for health reasons, I can acknowledge it's not an impossibility so maybe there are specific scenarios where trimming is required.

Also, I kinda thought all cat owners knew this but per the meltdowns of some other people responding to you, apparently not; cats naturally shed their nails. There are layers to each nail, and when the outermost sheath is loose enough, scratching on something pulls it away. It's not bloody or painful, it's totally natural. If you give cats plenty of scratching post toys around the house, the act of scratching on those posts will help them to maintain their own nail health without the stress of me having to restrain them for clipping. Sure my cats have sharp claws, but tbh they know how to control their claws and I almost never get scratches from them. I'd say the only times I get scratched is if one of them is on my lap and something surprises them, like the doorbell ringing or the dogs suddenly barking, causing the cat to launch off my lap, lol.

To start, I am not an expert, just a single 30 year old woman who has had cats for a long time (wait, does that make me an expert??), so this is just my two cents.

I wouldn't call that a full on spat, tho it may have escalated if you hadn't intervened so it's hard to say, but overall I wouldn't worry too much about that specific interaction. My two occasionally get in worse disagreements, often because Hashi is a gremlin (who I love, but fr he has a lot of vinegar) and has a strong inclination to intrude on Ripley's space. Despite Ripley having to occasionally tell Hashi to fuck off, they still get along great like, 97% of the time.

Just reading body language, neither seemed to be too stressed out or upset. I feel like the feeding set up is a great way to give them positive associations with each other while ensuring they both have the ability to retreat if they want to. You could also take one of your resident cat's beds or favorite blankets and place it in the foster's space, ane vice versa, so that they can smell/investigate and get used to the other cat without actually being near each other. This plus time is the way I have introduced new cats to resident cats. The time will depend on how social- or not- either cat is, but more often than not they will acclimate eventually.

They are both adorable, btw 😍

Your title reminded me of Jobie the dog, a classic.

I hate when the internet eats a classic clip. Hopefully this tangentially related episode of Next Time on Lonny helps?

It's a great conversation starter

Yo. Just saw this in c/Atheism on lemmy.world a minute ago. It was a direct repost except OP left off the last portion of this post about being willing to work. Someone in that repost commented reflecting on how OP had just posted here a couple days ago. I responded to that comment, as did another. A minute later, that whole post got deleted. Came back to look at this post and the only person OP responded to is to the person offering money. Idk, whole thing feels a bit shady. Just felt like I should say this here and let y'all decide for yourselves. Attached a picture of the comment I made to the deleted post to show the post was there.

Right?? I was blown away. From TrueBlueGenetics if you're looking to do some of your own research c: