to little birds

the facial expressions

the effortless sensuality

I AM SO GAY

the inexplicable moment in which the dynamic between the two shifted like they changed bodies

did china allow this to be shown? china?

DID I MENTION THE GAY

what is the lore of this? I figured that it was a malevolent spirit shifting from one body to another

the part with the leg. you know which one I mean

seriously are they actresses cause this level of portrayal is more astounding than any Hollywood actress has ever amounted to

the end with the smile and the head grab and the beating heart

the facial expressions

the effortless sensuality

I AM SO GAY

the inexplicable moment in which the dynamic between the two shifted like they changed bodies

did china allow this to be shown? china?

DID I MENTION THE GAY

what is the lore of this? I figured that it was a malevolent spirit shifting from one body to another

the part with the leg. you know which one I mean

seriously are they actresses cause this level of portrayal is more astounding than any Hollywood actress has ever amounted to

the end with the smile and the head grab and the beating heart

“Beauty Tahani wants to battle!”

“Trainer Chidi wants to battle! …Maybe? Actually, hold on, he isn’t totally sure yet. Trainer Chidi is debating the ethical implications of Pokémon battles with himself. It’s… taking a while. Maybe you should just go.

Trainer Chidi… has a stomach ache.”

“Holy shirtballs! Trainer Eleanor wants to battle!”

“Oh, dip! Trainer Jason wants to battle! “

“Trainer Janet wants to battle, and she can absolutely assure you that she does not have a Maractus!”

Giving Stella the ability to express herself has truly opened up a window to her mind. Everyday we learn more about what Stella thinks, likes, dislikes, and knows. Here are some of our favorite Stella quotes and 7 lessons we’ve learned through her words. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

Lesson 1: Stella is funny!

1/29/19: Stella said “Good Stella” and then rolled over for a belly rub.

1/27/19: I said “Stella…Stella…” sternly while she was getting into trouble. Stella walked to

her device and responded “Christina…”

3/2/19: Just like a little kid, Stella insisted “Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, play” while Jake was busy working at my desk.

2/8/19: I was getting a bath ready when Stella snuck into the bathroom, drank the bath water, and announced “Water good.”

Lesson 2: Stella has good ideas

4/23/19: On my lunch break I had just finished making food when Stella suggested “Eat, outside” and sat in front of the door staring at me. I took her advice and proceeded to bring my food and Stella outside where we had a lovely time sitting in the sun.

2/7/19: I was making rice and then went to the bathroom. The rice began boiling over when I heard Stella say “Help!” right before she ran in front of the stove whining. Thank goodness for Stella looking out for us!  

Lesson 3: Stella hates goodbyes

12/29/19:  We were getting ready for a hike the day after we picked up Stella from boarding when she said “Come, come, come, come, love you” then sat right in front of the door. I think

she was worried we were leaving without her again!

1/8/19: While grabbing my things to leave for work in the morning, Stella said “Love you, come” while looking as sad as can be. It was never harder leaving for work!

2/26/19: About 5 minutes after Jake left for work, Stella said “Jake, bye, love you.” Then she said “Help” and sulked by the door.

5/3/19: We came back from the airport after dropping off our visiting friends. Stella sniffed the air mattress and then said “Bye, bye.”

5/1/19: Our visiting friends reported that Stella said “Jake, Christina” several times right after we left for work. We missed her too!

Lesson 4: Stella knows our routines

2/23/19: At 5:45 on the dot (the usual time of our weekday alarm), Stella jumped out of bed

and said “Jake, Jake, Christina!” I don’t know why we think we need an alarm clock!

3/10/19: We made dinner way later than usual tonight. Stella said “Eat, no, eat.” Since she also consistently says “eat” while we’re making dinner, I think Stella judges time in the evening based on when we eat dinner.

2/1/19:  Stella commanded “Jake, walk, bye, Christina” right before going on a walk with Jake in the morning.

3/22/19:  Every morning we leave Stella with her Kong toy filled with some peanut butter. I ended up being home longer than usual this morning. Stella said “Bye, Stella, eat” then whined. She was ready for me to go so she could get her peanut butter!

Lesson 5: Stella has opinions

1/29/19: Stella said “Outside.” I said “Hang on Stella…” and she immediately responded “No.”

Stella waits for no one.

3/2/19:  Stella chugged some water from her dish and then declared, “Water, good”.

1/24/19: Stella said “Play” so I gave her a toy, and she clarified “No, eat” to request her ball filled with food.

2/16/19: While my sister and brother-in-law were visiting, Stella kept cuddling with them on the couch, jumping off to say “Love you,” and running back to cuddle more.

Lesson 6: Stella pays attention:

5/3/19: I modeled these buttons on Stella’s device: “Stella, Jake Christina walk” and Stella

replied: “Come, outside” and then nudged her leash.

5/3/19: I said, “Good girl Stella, good Stella” several times verbally. Stella walked over to her device and repeated “Good.”

4/29/19: Stella saw Jake sitting in his car on the phone and told me “Jake, outside” while looking out the window.

Lesson 7: Stella calls us out!

2/15/19: Stella: “Outside.” Jake to Christina: “Can you take her?” Christina to Jake: “Yeah one second” [a minute went by] Stella: “Christina…”

2/21/19: Stella said “Come, outside” early in the morning before we had gotten up. We didn’t move but Jake started talking so Stella said “Jake!”

1/27/19: During a busier week, we hadn’t gone to the beach in a few days. Stella said “Beach” seven times in a row while staring at us. We can always count on Stella to make sure we take advantage of living by the ocean!

Stella has a mind of her own, and I feel so lucky to get a glimpse into a few of her thoughts. I can’t wait to teach Stella more words so she can continue to express herself and we can continue learning. What do you think your pet would say to you??

The truth is that horses see what they think are nether beings, I guess. They have a perfect storm of sensory perception that, useful for prey beings, marks false positives on mortal danger all the time. Which is advantageous to a flight-based prey species: running from danger when you’re super fast is much ‘cheaper’ than fighting, so you waste almost nothing from running from a threat that’s not there. Versus, you blow everything if you don’t see a threat that is there.

Horses also have their eyes positioned on the sides of their heads, which gives them an incredible range of peripheral vision almost around their entire body with only a few blind spots you can sneak up on them in. But this comes at the cost of binocular vision; they can only judge distance for things straight ahead of them. Super useful for preventing predators sneaking up from the sides or behind, but useless for recognizing familiar shapes with the precision we can.

Basically we now have a walking couch with anxiety its going to get attacked at any second, that can see almost everything, but mostly only out of the corner of its eye. It has a few blind spots and anything that suddenly appears out of them is terrifying to it. Combine that with that it actually has far superior low-light vision than us, and that its ears can swivel in any directions like radar dishes, and you’ve basically given a nervous wreck a highly accurate but imprecise danger-dar.

To be concise: all horses, even the most chill horses, on some level believe they are living in a survival horror.

This means that you could approach it in a flapping poncho and if it can’t recognize your shape as human, they mistake you for SATAN… or you could pass this one broken down tractor you’ve passed 100 times on a trail ride, but today is the day it will ATTACK… or your horse could feel a horsefly bite from its blind spot and MAMA, I’VE BEEN HIT!!!… or you could both approach a fallen log in the woods but in the low light your horse is going to see the tree rings as THE EYE OF MORDOR.

However, they actually have kind of a cool compensation for this– they are social animals, and instinctively look towards leadership. In the wild or out at pasture, this is their most willful, pushy, decisive leader horse who decides where to go and where it’s safe. But humans often take this role both as riders and on the ground. They are always watching and feeling for human reactions to things. This is why moving in a calm, decisive way and always giving clear commands is key to working with this kind of animal. Confusing commands, screaming, panic, visible distress, and chaos will signal to a horse that you, brave leader are freaked out… so it should freak out too!

On one hand, you’ll get horses that will decide that they are the leader and you are not, so getting them to listen to you can be tough– requiring patience and skill more than force. On the other hand, a good enough rider and a well-trained horse (or a horse with specialized training) can venture into dangerous situations, loud and scary environments, etc. calmly and confidently.

Horses can’t see your hand, they smell the treat (and use very sensitive skin/whiskers to feel.) Some horses are garbage at doing this gently, just absolutely awful, but remember - they can’t see what they’re doing.

Horses also have partial color vision - they see horse relevant colors. Blue, yellow and therefore green. No red derived colors. If you want to see an anxious couch have a bad trip, ride it in an arena with alternating sections of purple and yellow seating. Grey grey YELLOW YELLOW HOLY SHIIIIIIIT. Every single horse would walk past the purple seats and go OH MY FUCK at the yellow ones. This is why the bright red (grey) bucket isn’t a problem, but oH my FfffffffffSHIttTTTT do they notice a stray yellow plastic grocery bag.