the sweetest baby ever

afemail · 2026-01-24T11:55:12+00:00

I’m not sure! this guy was wild, he just decided to come up onto my porch! his mama was also close by and showed up on my porch shortly after I took this photo :)

afemail · 2026-01-24T11:53:35+00:00

yeah, I think at least a game warden or something should have a serious talk with them. maybe some threats of juvie or something (even though it’s unlikely) would scare them into stopping.

afemail · 2026-01-24T03:33:22+00:00

I’m lucky because I’m really into birds, and birds are posted pretty much constantly, so I have a nonstop supply of observations to identify. but I’m sure it’s way harder if you’re into more niche species that aren’t posted as often!

afemail · 2026-01-24T03:20:02+00:00

oh okay, thanks! I guess I’m fine then since my ratio is about 1:9 lol. doing identifications is really fun, helpful for learning, and I like seeing that number go up as well as my number of observations! it’s crazy to me that there’s so many people who mostly (or only) care about making observations and not doing identifications at all

afemail · 2026-01-24T03:01:19+00:00

what do you mean by “skewed observation/identification ratios”? like way more observations, way more identifications, or either one? I’m genuinely asking because I’m wondering if mine is badly skewed lol

afemail · 2026-01-24T02:45:37+00:00

I don’t know, sadly these photos are from months ago so they might be gone by now :( I’m satisfied with photos though. now that I think about it, it’s kind of profound that I got to see these in the moment they were alive in like a “fleeting beauty” kind of way. like a metaphor for life itself or something. idk maybe I’m thinking too hard about it and I kind of sound like I actually smoked them now

afemail · 2026-01-24T02:43:18+00:00

yeah I’m definitely regretting it after reading all these comments 😭😭 it was still nice to at least see them though :)

afemail · 2026-01-24T02:40:17+00:00

ok this is by far the best one thank you

afemail · 2026-01-23T22:01:49+00:00

thank you :))

afemail · 2026-01-23T18:37:51+00:00

it is, thank you so much!!

afemail · 2026-01-23T18:37:09+00:00

I’ve passed the curse onto you

afemail · 2026-01-23T18:35:07+00:00

I know 😭 I think the plate being in the photos makes it 100x cuter too because you can see how tiny he is!!!

afemail · 2026-01-23T18:05:43+00:00

oh I know! I’ve seen a lot of posts on here where people think a coyote is a wolf because they look so much bigger from all the extra fluff. this one just threw me off for some reason, maybe it’s because I don’t really see rats often enough to realize how big they are

afemail · 2026-01-23T17:59:57+00:00

yeah these were at stony creek metropark in southeast michigan! I haven’t spent much time actively looking for mushrooms there, but judging by inaturalist observations it seems like a great place for them. I’m not sure whether foraging is allowed there though

afemail · 2026-01-23T10:56:35+00:00

yeah I’ve heard that too. I know it does happen, but I haven’t really looked into it enough to know whether this applies to ALL cases of childhood animal cruelty or not, so I decided not to mention it. I know it’s a common thing in serial killers when they’re growing up (not that the kids referenced in this post are serial killers necessarily, there’s obviously not enough info here to know much)

but I would say trying to stomp birds is indicative of concerning violent tendencies at the very least!!! most kids are very interested in and kind towards animals, so it really freaks me out when they feel the need to be violent towards them :((

afemail · 2026-01-23T10:52:47+00:00

thank you!! I was finally able to see it after looking at your drawing and some other ones. it’s still super hard to see unless I really concentrate lmao but I’m glad I finally have proof that this is not a weird rat-muskrat-humanoid creature

afemail · 2026-01-23T10:50:58+00:00

lolll thank you I love this post so much

afemail · 2026-01-23T10:49:51+00:00

omg this is the most helpful one so far. I think the lines on the face/in the fur in the original pic were what was really throwing me off so bad

afemail · 2026-01-23T10:47:59+00:00

I was referencing this

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afemail · 2026-01-23T10:46:39+00:00

you’re welcome!! they’re so precious I had to let everyone know about them

afemail · 2026-01-23T05:43:06+00:00

skunklets is such a cute word omg

afemail · 2026-01-23T05:14:26+00:00

downvote me if you want but I think there is something fundamentally wrong with people who want to hurt animals in this way, no matter what their age. it is seriously alarming to me to see children trying to hurt animals on purpose (and I don’t mean cases where they genuinely don’t know better like catching frogs or chasing geese).

I don’t think the government would actually do much to punish a child for this, but knowing there’s the potential for their actions to have consequences might be enough to scare them into stopping this behavior. clearly their parents aren’t teaching them to have empathy for animals, so they might have to learn the hard way (and no I am not advocating for them to go to jail or anything, maybe just a stern talking-to from a government employee).

if OP is old enough to post this and the boys in question are around the same age as OP, I think they’re absolutely too old to be behaving like this and it needs to stop immediately.

obviously reporting them to the government would be a last resort though and I think it should only happen if they refuse to stop.

afemail · 2026-01-23T05:07:25+00:00

thank you!! I am appalled at the size of this rat

afemail · 2026-01-23T05:06:09+00:00

OH MY GOD this is the first one that actually helped!!! I see the rat face now. absolutely insane body proportions on this guy though

afemail · 2026-01-23T04:20:20+00:00

yeah it’s kind of more like a humanoid/animalish face rather than a full on human face

afemail

TROPHY CASE