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SAUROPTERYGIA

Sauropterygia was a very diverse lineage of Marine Reptiles, including Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs, and many more forms. More are included THIS VIDEO. These poster are available for PRINTS and more at Redbubble

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Backstory, I'm off the charts allergic to cats; I've always known I am allergic to "animals" but found out today it's past the IGE blood tests counting threshold for cats (they stop when it's over 100;) but cats have kind of been my special interest since I was a kid; I have loved them as long as I can remember

Dogs came up in the mid 50s on the test which is still considered high but I don't jibe with them the same way I do cats and the idea of never owning an indoor house cat, kills me. I currently do have an outdoor stray that I started taking care of 6 years ago when I first moved back home; and I do take great care of her (my vet says she's one of the most well treated of her patients; I would look for an indoor only family for her but people don't generally do that with cats here (Ireland) so moving her would make it more likely she'd meet a bad end)

But I know when I have my own place, I won't bring a cat in if it's not indoors only; and with these results... That doesn't look like an option

I've heard a lot of people talk about ferrets filling the same ecological niche and having similar behaviours to cats; in your experience would you say that's true?

(I'm going to get tested to see if I am as allergic to them before I start actually investing if it's even feasible here, like is adequate veterinary care avalibe etc.)

Thank you for reading this and for giving such good insights and information on cats; I always find your blog to be a delight

Please ignore this if you don't have the spoons/energy to answer! I hope you're day is going well so far!

I actually have very little personal experience with ferrets tbh. They're illegal in my area, so I generally only had them long enough to transfer them to a different rescue.

Except for Mickey. He was already 8 years old when I got him so I didn't want to put him through the stress of a transfer and rehoming. So I just kept him. Illegally.

Please don't report me to the FBI :(

He was very catlike in certain ways. He was extremely playful (especially once his meds were sorted out) and he enjoyed stealing things and carrying them back to his cage. He got along very well with my other animals--- the cats and dog just sort of accepted him as a weird smelly cat. They didn't really interact much, but that was fine by me. I wasn't looking for them to make friends. I just wanted them to tolerate each other.

On my days off, I generally let him free roam and caged him at night. He usually stuck by me pretty closely; like I said, he wasn't interested in interacting with my other pets. He just wanted to hang out with me and steal whatever I was interested in (he stole a lot of keys off of my keyboard when i unwisely left my laptop open). He loved chasing my feet. I used to sort of shuffle at him and he'd do his silly little wardance and hop around.

On my work days, he generally came with me to work. I had a little room set up specifically for him.

I don't know if this was ideal, tbh. I think letting him stay home was probably more ideal, but he needed to eat every few hours so I felt better this way.

he LOVED the cats at work, weirdly enough. My own personal cats weren't very interesting, but he really loved my work cats. He was especially fascinated by Goldie and loved to chase her around. She was mostly baffled by him.

The biggest drawback of ferrets is a (comparatively) short lifespan. In the States, it's rare for a ferret to live to 10 years old. Mickey just barely edged over that line. The typical lifespan of ferrets in the US is 5-8 years due to high rates of insulinoma.

It's thought that this is due to extreme inbreeding since pretty much every ferret in the US is produced by one company. I don't know how much that changes in Ireland--- I've heard ferrets have longer lifespans in Europe and the UK since you've got a larger genetic pool and there's not just one company mass-producing animals.

There's also the smell, which is another divide between the States and Europe and the UK. Over here, descenting ferrets (removing their anal glands) is typical. Over there, it's rightfully banned as an unnecessary surgical procedure. But this does mean ferrets smell a bit. Mickey (who I believe was descented) didn't have a particular odor; he smelled a bit musky, but so do dogs so I never much minded.

Silky Anteater a.k.a. Pygmy Anteater (Cyclopes didactylus), family Cyclopedidae, Costa Rica

From the article:

“If you look only at the trend of species declines, it would be easy to think that we’re failing to protect biodiversity, but you would not be looking at the full picture,” said Penny Langhammer, lead author of the study and Executive Vice President of Re:wild. “What we show with this paper is that conservation is, in fact, working to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. It is clear that conservation must be prioritized and receive significant additional resources and political support globally, while we simultaneously address the systemic drivers of biodiversity loss, such as unsustainable consumption and production.”

This massive meta analysis (for those not familiar, a study analyzing the results of many studies on similar topics) found that the vast majority of conservation efforts show much much better results than doing nothing. In many cases, biodiversity loss was not only stopped but reversed.

A very tiny percentage of creators go on to be famous, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t remember little things you did for years and years. Who came up with most of the world’s most famous jump rope rhymes? Who coined some of the famous idioms we use in daily speech? Who made up ‘Jingle Bells, Batman Smells?” Somehow, all of these things stuck and spread around.

When I was a small child, I saw a high school put on a production of the musical HONK. In one song, the mother duck describes various dangers that her baby should avoid in the water, including fishing line, which could strangle him. A member of the ensemble played the role of fishing line, doing a maniacal laugh and over-the-top strangling motions, and I found it hilarious– and to this day, that’s an example I often think of when talking about how ensemble members can still stand out in theatre. The guy who played the role might not even remember that he did that, but I do.

I took Suzuki violin lessons as a kid. The teacher made up lyrics to some of the songs, and she let her students make some up, too. Now whenever I hear the instrumental of one of those pieces, I always remember these ridiculous lyrics about a skunk that we sang in violin class. I don’t even know which student invented them!

In middle school, I found a video about atoms parodying Bill Nye made by some kids for a school product. It probably had less than 1,000 views, but I think of quotes from that video all the time. They had a parody of “We Will Rock You” with the chorus, “Protons, neutrons, electrons” that I think about a lot.

I love hangovers ☺️