"You think she should be ashamed? that's weird man. why do you care so much. You think that's gross? okay... kinda weird that you care though. you found out about her kinks? what are you, like, stalking her or something? what, you think her job sucks 'cause it involves sex? what's it got to do with you? you're really obsessed with other people man, it's kinda creepy."

I volunteer for my local shelter and when the weather's good, we do a free vaccine clinic every Friday. Free distemper, free rabies, cats and dogs. We hand out free food from the pet pantry, we give people leashes and collars, we do whatever we can to keep people's animals at home and healthy. Every animal that can stay home and be fed and be vaccinated is an animal that we can keep out of the shelter.

We get all kinds of folks, sometimes we even get backyard breeders but we don't do any judgment, because we want people to come and get their dogs vaccinated, because one parvo case costs $7000+ and the whole year of Parvo vaccines for hundreds of dogs costs less. It's just harm reduction, everything we do is harm reduction.

So anyway, this one day this woman comes up to the vax clinic and she is high as fuckin' hell, just obliterated fucked up, smoking a joint in line, and she has this TINY pibble puppy with her, maaaaybe four weeks old. This thing is so fuckin tiny and wormy and lethargic, and she's like, "Hey I heard I can get her shots." and we're like, oh fuck this puppy is gonna die. Like straight up, we were all like, fuck that dog is gonna die. So we gave her wormer, we gave the first distemper shot, and I put together a whole care package: wormer to take home, puppy milk replacer, puppy wet food, a leash, a harness, some blankets, toys, we gave her instructions on how to get the puppy eating food, and we told her to come back in 3 weeks for the follow up vaccine. And we were all like, well fuck, that puppy's gonna die, goddamnit, that's so fucked up. But you know, we did our best, and we hoped we'd see her again.

And in three weeks, you guys, she showed up. And she was still high, but like, half-high this time. Smoking a cigartte in line but like, could focus, could ask and answer questions. And she'd taught that tiny puppy how to SIT and had her walking on a leash. We found out that it took her three buses to get to the clinic, and she told us all about how she got the puppy eating right, got her stool solid, she was taking her on walks... The puppy looked so good, you guys. I almost cried, it was so big. Really happy puppy. At the end of the visit, we were like, ok, see you in three more weeks for the next distemper.

So three weeks later, she shows up, and she's sober, and she told us, "You know, I was really fucked up the day I bought that puppy, I wasn't sure I was going to live, and I bought that puppy and she was too young, and I didn't know what I was doing but y'all were so nice to me, and you helped me so much, and I knew that I had to give this puppy the best life I could, so I moved back in with my grandma, and I'm getting clean, and I'm on methadone, and I'm going to rehab next week, and when I get back, I'll come back and visit you guys again."

Link to original post with all the links

Some very helpful tools, ideas, and ways keep going or get involved

I will add the resource Big Beautiful Boycott as a way of checking businesses to avoid that is not an app

Andre 3000’s “ 47 Messages “ Jumpsuits for the OutKast Reunion Tour in 2013. Every night he wore a different jumpsuit with a conversation starting message printed displayed on the front of it. In his own words, he said that he thought the fashion statement ( quite literally ) could act in a progressive manner, aiding socio-cultural concerns.

Whenever I look at pictures of opossums with all their bebes i think of that one Queen song.

You can read about it here: https://minds-africa.org/fabric-map-of-africa-the-art-of-storytelling/

But we look back everyday- rechecking emails, making sure a friend is still behind you, checking to see if you remebered to pick up your keys. It's second nature, a habit of care.

As of August 1, 2025 prescriptions paid for via goodrx have seemingly had their prices increased from prior months. I'm a pharmacy technician and all month I've been hearing patients say that they are paying more for the same medicine. Several have even had to go without it for a day to come up with the extra money.

There's...not really much we can do about it (at least where I work) because the vast majority of the time the prices on a prescription are totally and completely out of our hands. This is mostly a warning so that you aren't blindsided at the register.

black people of all sorts, including the queer demographic which is extremely vulnerable, are not taken seriously when it comes to our mental health, even within the community itself.