Congratulations, mortal! (Or not so mortal), you have officially become the proud caregiver and/or parent to a Non-Digitalized Caine Plush! Also known in common talk as simply: A Caine.

But perhaps you don't quite know where to start. Caine are temperamental creatures after all! You wouldn't want to do something wrong, no that wouldn't do!

So, I've created this quick care guide to help you get started! Whether your custody is temporary or permanent, I hope you'll find it helpful!

And remember, Caine are not a very beginner's friendly creature to take care of. There's no shame in asking for help if you're overwhelmed or unsure, we've all been there!

1. Physical touch - Caine are, by nature, touch-starved. However, individuals may vary as far as their response to this. They may want lots and lots of affection (as mine does), may want none, somewhere in between, or it may take them a while to warm up to you! All of this is entirely normal. Just meet your Caine where he is at a given moment, and make sure he knows you are willing to provide affection when and how HE wants it. Don't force one way or the other.

2. Companionship - another trait of the Caine is their fear of loneliness. This may show as apparent 'needy' behaviour, or your Caine might initially self-isolate, fearing attachment. Here are a few steps you can take to help your Caine form healthy attachments and attitudes towards companionship:

-Establish routine. Practice leaving your Caine alone and coming back at set times. Be consistent. You can also establish nonverbal cues as part of reassurance that you will return. (For instance, I pat my Caine on the head twice before leaving him alone.)

-Give your Caine warning and establish expectations. For example, say "I'm popping over to the grocery store, be back in an hour!" This helps alleviate potential anxiety. Remember to STICK to the expectations you establish, and if something unexpected comes up, communicate the delay to your Caine. For example, calling your Caine to inform him there was a road accident and it might take you an extra half hour to get home.

-Offer choice when available and explanations when not. For example, "I'm going to the grocery store, do you want to come along or stay here?", or "I have painting class today. I'm sorry you can't come, but you might get dirty."

-Explain a person's relationship with you to your Caine before introducing them officially. For example, "We're about to go to Emma's house. Emma's one of my best friends. We met in school." Make it clear you're open to listening to any concerns your Caine might have.

3. Firmness - Caine, despite their stubbornness, can be very reasonable creatures and are fully capable of higher cognition. That said, things like personal care or emotional regulation may not come as naturally to them. In cases of emotional outburst, lashing out, or other emotional dysregulation, it's important to remain calm. Once your Caine has calmed down some, you may offer physical or verbal reassurance, and then ask your Caine some questions regarding why he acted the way he did. Remember to stand your ground on things that matter. Do not excuse destructive behaviour, but rather explain why such actions are inappropriate and the consequences they have. Raising your voice at a Caine will likely cause the outburst to worsen, so this is not recommended.

Idk if this has been discovered before. If it has, I haven't seen the info.

For the Tamagotchi Connection 2024

So. It's Pride Month, and the Sylveon are out in droves, being the icons we all want them to be (they adore the attention). During this time, you may be tempted to catch one of these goobers, or perhaps be chosen by one, to raise and train as your own. That's great! As a trainer of a Sylveon for a whole decade, I'm intimately familiar with the ins and outs of this particular Eeveelution and will be glad to share some advice!

Without further ado, here's how you care for a newly caught Sylveon!

0: Don't.

Get yourself an Eevee, and earn your Sylveon.

Understand I'm not saying this with spite, this is genuinely a word of caution, a warning, if you will. Aside from the fact that catching a Sylveon during Pride is almost certainly an "impulse catch" that you may well not be ready to commit to, stop to consider for a moment just how Sylveon evolve. They require affection. Love. A step above "mere" friendship. They require a genuine connection to another that sparks perhaps one of the most unique and precious evolutions known to all 'mon. Straight up catching/adopting one not only skips that entire, critical step, but also more-than-likely deeply implies that the Sylveon you're catching/adopting had that connection and, one way or another has lost it.

We call this baggage and a lot of people aren't ready to deal with it. You could be inadvertently taking in a 'mon with separation anxiety, depression, nightmares and high stress, imposter syndrome, and more.

Start with an Eevee (A child of a Sylveon if at all possible ;D), and evolve it with a healthy baseline into a Sylveon, you'll both be much happier.

"But what if the Sylveon chose me and isn't leaving?"/"I'm aware of the risks, but want to commit to this anyway."

Well, dear reader, keep reading!

1: Be ready for touch.

Sylveon are titled "The Intertwining Pokemon" for a reason. They adore touch. They're hardwired to seek it. Quite literally my own Sylveon is sitting under my desk as I type this, with his feeler wrapped around my leg. It's his favorite place to be that isn't also in my bed. Their feelers can be off putting to a lot of people, especially after one realizes they're flesh and fur, but do not recoil from it, you'll break the poor bab's heart. Touch is how they explore and how they get a read on you and other pokemon (it's also how they lull prey into a false sense of security before they go for the throat, more on that later). Do not touch starve your Sylveon. For a blessing, their feelers are velvety soft and feel wonderful, at least, to most people. If you have other Pokemon, encourage them to get used to the feelers as well. I have a Zoroark on my team, and, though it took a while, he doesn't recoil at Vivi's feelers and lets him explore.

This all goes double for cuddles. Sylveon are perhaps the absolute worst of the Eeveelutions that still believe they're a lap Eevee once they evolve. A lot of trainers will try and tell you to discourage such behavior, since it will encourage them to pounce on other people, but, in my experience, Sylveon are rather adept at knowing who to not pounce on. As long as you're the primary pounce person, your Sylveon will seldom jump on other people that it doesn't consider a friend and knows not to pounce on.

2: Be ready for high-maintenance.

Sylveon (most of them, at least) are spoiled brats in one way or another. It's a common "trap" most trainers fall into when raising one, a lot of the ways you can show one affection as an eevee is to go above and beyond for it in one way or another, and they will get used to that. My Sylveon, as an example, loves baths, and practically requires one daily. Other Sylveon may require a battle on the weekly, or high quality food, or long, scenic walks, or, Arc-save-you, all of the above. They're a very high-energy, high-maintenance Eeveelution, beaten out only by Jolteon.

3: Be ready for noise.

Oh they YELL. Sylveon are talkative little buggers, and the moment something goes amiss they will cry about it. If they're having fun they will cry about it. If they're bored they will cry about it. If they know Hyper Voice, Lord-in-heaven they will cry about it. You can train one to be quiet on demand, but use such commands sparingly, as frequently telling them to "quiet down" will make one start to question if you're mad at it or appreciate it. Which leads us to-

4: Temper your emotions.

Another aspect about Sylveon is they use their feelers to channel a calming Fairy-type energy that quite literally reads your emotions and dulls hostility. This makes them great therapy Pokemon, as it makes it damn near impossible to be mad if one's around, and great hunters, as it makes it damn near impossible to fear for your life when it goes in for the kill! It also, perhaps frustratingly, makes it damn near impossible to be mad at them if they misbehave. And they're a fairy-type, they will misbehave at some point. All a Sylveon wants to feel is love and joy, understandably, but other emotions exist for a reason, and both you and your Sylveon will have to learn to channel and process those emotions in a healthy, controlled manner, as this will reliably get the both of you back to feeling the love and joy you're likely seeking. This process is different for everyone, and Arc-knows I'm far from a licensed therapist, but it's still important to learn how to figure out anger and sorrow with a Sylveon around, and the both of you will need to train yourselves to work through your feelings.

5: Be ready to play.

I'm lucky, I have other mons that'll be playmates for Vivi at the drop of a hat. But one thing I've observed with Sylveon as a whole is that they all need playtime and playmates, and if you don't have other Pokemon that can be your Sylveon's playmate, guess what, bud - that means you're the playmate! Even if you do have other mons you are still a valid playmate!

Buy toys.

Squeaky toys, tug-ropes, ribbons, balls, feathers, and dolls are all fantastic toys for your Sylveon, and if one brings a toy to you, you'd best engage, unless you want an express example of lesson 3. Thankfully, most Sylveon are happy with short and quick play sessions. My own is happy with maybe three rounds of fetch or a brief tug-o-war session before it'll go back to happily cuddling up next to me, but all Sylveon are different in varous ways. Trust your instincts and you'll be able to easily tell when your Sylveon is content.

6: They are smart.

Sylveon are beat out only by Espeon in the overall intelligence category. Being mostly modern/urban life adapted Pokemon that usually spend all their lives around humans, they pick up pretty quickly on language, social cues, tools, and so on. Intelligence is always a wavering factor among all Pokemon, but, on the whole, expect your Sylveon to be far more clever than your average Growlithe or Yamper, and respect that intelligence. It may not ever speak Galarian to you, but it could very well learn to read, open doors, work a TV remote or even keyboard, steal your phone, visit and buy from stores, and so on.

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And there we have it! Past all this, all the standard methods for training and caring for Pokemon apply! Sylveon, on the whole, are quite amicable, and most are perfectly content to chill out and cuddle when they aren't being high-chaos gremlins. They're fantastic battlers as well, with great durability, utility, and surprising potential for damage, amplified only by the love and friendship you provide one.

a care guide for plushies that have just joined your collection 📦🧸

first- give em a good squish! they might be a bit lumpy from the trip in the mail, or you might just wanna fix the face. don't forget to brush the fur out of their eyes and make sure the ears are flipped the right way :3

now- decide if you want to keep the tags or not. there are two types of tags, the price tag and the brand tag. the brand tag is the one you see above ^ usually these are kept on so you know the brand- it also adds a lot to the value of the plush. price tags are normally taken off, but for some rare plushies or expensive brands I would recommend keeping the price tag on to add value! it's of course up to you, and if the tag bothers you when you're cuddling your fuzzy friends, then don't feel bad about cutting it off!

next- check all the seams! your looking for extra string, lose fur/fuzz and any fur that's caught in the seam.

here I found some fur that got caught in the seam, probably when this little guy was being sewn together. I take my mini scissors and softly scrape against the fur to get it out of the seam. you can also take a pencil or something skinny to put under the loop of fur and pull- that should get that fur unstuck!

heres an extra thread I found sticking out of the paw- this is totally fine to cut off!

if your nervous about cutting string, just avoid cutting loops and string with knots on the end. cutting those could unravel the stitching

heres some other examples of things that I trimmed! if there's some fur that's sticking out in a way you don't like, don't be afraid to give em a little hair cut :3

[This is the start of my writings on Eury care. This will be edited and updated as necessary, and should be treated as a reference, but not as a comprehensive care guide. For Eury care, this site by JeckosGeckos ended up being very helpful. This guide will be helpful if you already have knowledge on the husbandry of other New Caledonian gecko species, such as the Crested Gecko, Gargoyle Gecko, Leachianus Gecko, and Chahoua Gecko.]