The best genre of family portrait is and will always be Husband With Multiple Kids Making Come Hither Eyes At His Wife

Barbara Krafft, Die Familie Anton von Marx 1803

Marie-Geneviève Bouliard,Monsieur Olive & family 1791

Stray cat breaks into Lynx’s enclosure at zoo

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The first year I had Emily, I learned to put my finger in front of her nose every few pets. If she moved to touch her nose to my finger, I could pet her a little bit more. If she stayed absolutely still, she'd bite me within the next few pets.

It took a long time for her to be willing to share softer signs of discomfort, like lashing her tail or making noise, before she escalated into attacking my hand.

Or maybe not "willing" so much as... literally able? I might be reading too much into it, but I got Emily as a year-old cat who'd been living on the streets for part of her life, when I was at the underemployed end of the grad school program that never ended, a therapist with nobody to therapize, so I ended up looking at her as a survivor of trauma and bringing therapeutic perspectives and techniques to the table. Some of which are about how we have to actually learn to understand and recognize our own internal states, especially because when we're living in fight-or-flight, that goes way down on our brains' priority lists most of the time.

So it might have taken her a while to be able to understand that petting felt nice but also overstimulating, so while she could enjoy it, it also caused that buildup of discomfort, and she could do something about it that wasn't biting.

All of which is just the context necessary for me to say, today she crawled into my lap and rested her chin in my palm, and demanded via headbutts that I just keep continuously scritching her jaw, for 20 minutes straight.

We've come a long way, babygirl.

When I was a kid, I had a shawl.

I don’t remember where I got it, or even exactly when. I’m not sure I had it in elementary school, but definitely by middle school. It was very simple, a white triangle shawl done in granny square style and basic acrylic yarn, and I felt so . ⋆ ★ ✨fancy✨ ★⋆. whenever I got to wear it. Any really special occasion I wanted to have it on, and to twirl and swirl, living out my Stevie Nicks dreams long before I had any idea who she was.

I don’t know where the shawl is now, and I don’t remember when and how it left my life, but I remember how it made me feel. I think that is part of why I make so many pretty shawls, and frequently sell them for far less than they are worth.

This weekend I sat down to reattempt, after uncountable failures which are shocking considering how simple a pattern it was, to recreate that pattern. Stitch for stitch this still isn’t exactly correct, but it has the color, size, shape, and feel.

Now I need to find a kid for it.

Cat after all.

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💙 Dragonstarart on IG

glóin and baby gimli

When you got caught 😻

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