i know we'll reunite up there in the clouds

Here it is again. You might want to save it just in case an accident like that happens again

Lost my mind a little and added (if my math is correct) 5,615 beads to Nim Teasdale's Odenwald pattern. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!

The goal was “soothingly weighted but not uncomfortable to wear, even as someone with chronic pain.” It could have been a little heavier, so maybe I’ll make a shawl with larger beads another time, but I’m very pleased with this one. I used size 6/0 seed beads, applied as I go with a .6mm crochet hook.

Yarn-wise, used 2 cakes of YarnArt Flowers. I knitted the fully purple sections from both, then knitted all the way through the yellow-oranges with a single ball. When I hit the beginning of red-oranges, I used yarn from both cakes, alternating between them. (Not the entirety of both, I played it by ear to make sure I made it through the full rainbow.)

I do have edited charts with bead placements. I will only share them with Nim's permission.

Adopting this breed from a rescue is a good deed, but they will have higher than average medical needs. Be sure to do your research to determine if you are financially and emotionally able to care for one before adopting.

Thank you for giving me the chance to say what I am going to say.

These cats are not something we should be bringing into the world on purpose.

Please don't create demand for them.

If you want a soggy muppet, and can handle the expense and the possible heartbreak, you absolutely can find Persians and Himalayans in shelters and rescues, and they need homes desperately.

Just be ready. I wish it was different, I truly do, but you cannot adopt a cat from a Problems Disorder breed without accepting that they will, in fact, have Problems.

I was in the trenches with one for fourteen years.

I needed something damp that would sneeze into my mouth, so I got this alleged cat from a shelter when he was just under a year old. Here he is at ~13.

Dried Pickle Man.

Nothing about his skull was put together right. Even his ears were uneven. If I'm being honest, the rest of him wasn't so great, either.

Here's a list of the breed-related problems I knew about.

Wry nose/mouth. Very common in brachycephalic breeds, which are also prone to cleft palates.

Breathing problems when he got excited or slept on his back.

Chronic sinus infections and URIs.

Tooth problems. His mouth was so jacked up.

Eye and tear duct problems.

Hyperesthesia, which made grooming painful. We sedated and shaved him twice a year, and in between I trimmed mats myself.

IBD. Strongly associated with intestinal lymphoma.

Bladder crystals and bladder stones. Painful. Expensive. Can absolutely kill them. He had both.

CKD. Kidney disease. All cats are at high risk for this. Since it is a dominant gene, Persians and Himalayans, with their, um, ergonomic family trees, are even more at risk for it, and it is hard to catch early. There is no cure. To manage just this, we did bloodwork at least three times a year. He needed regular urinalysis, prescription food, medications, and sometimes subcutaneous fluids. Three times he started to spiral downhill. Three times some of the best vets in the country pulled him back. The fourth time, they couldn't.

Y'all, this was just one cat. Their genetic code can fit so many other problems inside it.

This backyard-bred bog haint averaged around $200-$250 a month just in routine care and food. For most of his life we were never below $3,000 in vet debt.

My god, I loved him, my stinky son with Every Disease. Can you understand? That I loved him?

The night before we were going to help him along, he drifted peacefully into the Bog Eternal while in bed with us, after snackies. We did everything we possibly could for him before he went. His quality of life was good, we didn't keep him longer than was best for him. It just took an incredible amount of effort, money, and love to keep it kind to him. The love, at least, was easy, but it hurt the most.

I knew exactly what I was signing up for before I adopted him. I thought harder about that decision than I'd thought about any adoption before or since. Could I handle it?

I decided yes. And by the skin of my teeth and the grace of his tusk, I did. I did.

I have never regretted adopting him.

while we're at it, Scottish Folds (the floppy eared cats) have a painful cartilage disorder that makes them develop arthritis while they're still kittens, and Lykoi (werewolf cats) develop gruesome and painful cystic acne because of their coats. Manx cats (the ones with no tails) can have spina bifida and incontinence related problems because of their short spines. Munchkins (short leg cats) have a form of dwarfism that causes problems with their spines and joints.

second base: torture

There's worse to come, folks. Strap in and stay strapped.

"How do you say goodbye back home?" "We don't. We do this."

Because, haha, it turns out? Most people actually don't need to be constantly right, always in control, and perpetually being reassured. And they'll feel funny (negative) when you treat them like they do. Because people mostly assume that how you treat them is a direct reflection of how you perceive them, and they will never assume you're treating them that way because of someone who literally isn't currently in the room.

Wild, I know.

In actuality, people already know you have a preference because that is a very normal thing to have. And because you're never as slick as you think you are, you definitely won't fool anyone by pretending you don't. So the actual kindest choice to make is to just be honest about what you want, because most people will feel most comfortable when they know for sure that the decision you've both made is truly a mutual agreement.