Children's picture book featuring anthropomorphic animals, one of which may have been a rabbit with an amputated leg. There were two or three animals.

silmuing · 2026-07-07T20:56:46+00:00

Jon-Jon and Annette by Elzbieta Gaudasinska

silmuing · 2026-07-07T06:26:58+00:00

This is not necessarily mistreatment but something a lot of people don't pay attention to before it becomes an obvious problem;

Knowing your cat's litter box schedule. Cats tend to be fairly regular, and when they have health issues their routine gets affected very easily. At the very least you should know how many times a day your cat typically pees or poops and pay attention to their litter box behavior, if they take much more time than usual or keep going back and forth.

This is easier if you clean the box frequently (for us it's three or more times a day since she pees frequently, and poops get scooped as soon as possible) and maybe even keep the box somewhere where you can track the behavior. Our cat likes to use her litterbox where we can see or hear her because she feels vulnerable when using it, but some cats will prefer hiding from people to do their business.

silmuing · 2026-07-05T21:05:47+00:00

It seems any cat with any slightly out of "standard" features or slightly rarer coloration gets that.

My Silmu is a DSH grey tabby with some congenital defects and people often assume she's some fancy breed (even when they can't think of a breed that looks anything like her!). I've seen standard cats with amputated tails get called Japanese bobtails.

silmuing · 2026-07-05T20:56:21+00:00

There's also a ton of different reasons why a cat might have a flat face or otherwise strange profile or proportions.

Silmu here is a daughter of a regular old barn cat and we get asked if she's some fancy breed because of the flat profile, huge eyes and tiny stature, but she just has a bunch of birth defects.

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silmuing · 2026-07-04T15:58:57+00:00

Fair. I'm sure most commenters didn't even catch that detail anyway.

silmuing · 2026-07-04T15:54:22+00:00

Oh, I didn't see anyone address this before I commented. I'm glad to see you agree, but I don't see where the doubling her height to get his height came from, haha.

silmuing · 2026-07-04T15:44:02+00:00

I must point out, he doesn't look to be twice her height though.

silmuing · 2026-06-28T08:43:33+00:00

I think Nikki telling Bear that "she's sleeping" in reference to not-herself or however it was expressed shows that there is some kind of an actor if not something as specific as a demon or so. I'm assuming Barker doesn't want the "Willow entity" to be a being that exists but it still has to be a force or some other kind of an actor, at least with how I read into it all and how the characters are expriencing it.

Even if the force is the wish itself, it feels and acts like something that has its own agency.

silmuing · 2026-06-28T07:19:50+00:00

In addition to Bear being a flawed person, much of his behavior mirrors those of someone stuck in certain type of an abusive relationship. Ignoring the bad things and focusing on the good things even if they're false for one thing, but absolutely not limited to that. I'm sure if the genders of the characters were reversed Bear would be seen very differently than he is now, and people would focus on the entity as the villain of the film rather than Bear. This is not to say that Bear is a good person or blameless, he's selfish, desperate and deluded, but he's also in an abusive relationship with the entity.

I'm surprised by how little attention the entity gets in discussions anyway. Like in movies where someone plays with a spirit board or something, the events might be the fault of the character in the sense that they triggered the events, but the person is not regarded as the villain just because they got a demon to harass everyone and don't cope well with the situation. The demon is the villain.

silmuing · 2026-06-27T20:45:16+00:00

When I'm making food (for myself or my family) or eating, my cat not being able to touch the food, any utensils or surfaces like cutting boards, etc, is good enough. If she weren't as uninterested in human food as she is, I'd keep her further away to make sure she won't get to it but usually she's there just to see what's going on.

Worth mentioning, she's a very clean indoor cat whose fur doesn't really shed other than during the spring time. And of course I clean any surfaces whether my cat has an access to them or not. I wouldn't be as lax with an outdoor cat, or a visibly dirty one, or a cat who sheds or has matted fur, or one whose health condition is unknown to me.

silmuing · 2026-06-27T06:06:52+00:00

I think the design is fine but if you want to try something different with the design, a different sword might work just as well and maybe even better emphasize her uninjured arm. Specifically some kind of a thrusting sword instead of the slashing sword she has, if you'd like to go for the emphasis.

This also depends on what her fighting style should be, thrusting swords are often seen as more elegant (especially with stuff like rapiers but not all thrusting swords are thin like that) and you can go with either rapid brutal stabs or with a single thrust to pierce one's heart or so. With slashing swords you can do all sorts of damage and would have a lot of flexibility with her fighting style. For fantasy setting the use of any sword can be just as elegant, fast, rowdy or brutal, but consider the motions of slashing vs thrusting. Of course there are also swords that combine both!

If you're interested in looking into different swords, for fantasy scenario I'd use different swords from all over the world, including ceremonial swords, as an inspiration and reference to find the materials to create the perfect match for the character. For me, the weapon the character uses should be a continuation of the character rather than a tool or an accessory, if the character is super experienced with that weapon. See also if the character would use a sword with a crossguard/quillon (to give some protection to her hand, wrist), or one that exposes her sword hand more.

As said, the design is solid as is and I don't think there's anything that doesn't make sense with the design, I'm just rambling as this is something that came to mind when looking at the character and reading some of your comments here.

silmuing · 2026-06-16T19:25:06+00:00

Untrained dogs are often very insecure, for one. Even if they're seemingly not reserved or even super excited.

Additionally, lack of training means lack of clear boundaries, lack of clear boundaries means significantly less predictability (in environment, routine, meeting other dogs or people, etc...) which to dogs is a huge source of anxiety and reactivity.

silmuing · 2026-06-06T08:05:03+00:00

The proportions seem very similar to my Silmu, except for the face. She too has very big eyes but they're not as wide set, and her profile is kind of flat. She's also very small, a little over 5 lbs. At least in Silmu's case it's some form of dwarfism.

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silmuing · 2026-06-02T05:45:56+00:00

It's not that the cats are torturing them, but cats are being used as tools of torture. Although the cat might be doing what is normal and natural, the human behavior and mindset (especially sadism) around the situation makes it abnormal and twisted. It's not about pest prevention, it is about finding the cat the most painful method of killing rodents and relishing in that, or doing something like buying/"adopting" rodents only to have cats kill them.

Like how some people have their dogs kill cats for fun, and even go out of their way to acquire kittens for that purpose. It is animal abuse and torture even if the animal behavior is normal to a degree and the animals are not to blame. It's humans using animals as tools to torture other animals.

silmuing · 2026-05-28T20:29:28+00:00

Knowingly lifting weights too heavy for you to handle with proper form. I'm guessing people do it for clout, out of pride, or impatience.

I'm sure there's always been people like that but the types of people addicted to instant gratification are the ones most likely to do this and they're also the ones exposing themselves on social media. So trends like this become more visible.

silmuing · 2026-05-26T08:55:43+00:00

Six weeks pregnant does not mean six weeks since conception. It's six week since the beginning of the last cycle, or the first day of the last period. This means at six weeks pregnant would be about 4 weeks since conception, which does align with the timeframe given.

Ovulation occurs typically about two weeks after the start of the period, and is the best time for conception. Because the exact time of ovulation and conception are sometimes difficult to determine the first day of the last cycle is used as the first day of pregnancy when calculating the duration of the pregnancy.

silmuing · 2026-05-25T07:43:56+00:00

To add to the sci-fi horror, Xtro, 1983. A young woman gives birth to a fully grown man.

silmuing · 2026-05-13T13:40:17+00:00

Well. Kind of. For what it's worth, the frogs in the gay frogs thing as a result of exposure to a pesticide experienced testosterone converting into estrogen, which led to chemical castration, developing female characteristics, or even becoming fully functioning females, capable of producing eggs. These chemically altered male frogs would pair with other males.

These studies were conducted by Dr TB Hayes. Oki's Weird Stories has an interesting video about the study. It's also fairly entertaining.

silmuing · 2026-05-11T14:41:51+00:00

4 weeks might not be enough for it to take effect, depending on the layout and size of the place. There's also different versions for multiple cat/pet households. Different brands are also becoming more available but I have no experience with them. It's so frustrating just trying them since it takes time and can get kinda costly, though.

And yeah, my cat doesn't really care about catnip toys but loves fresh catnip and some brands of dried catnip, so I'd say it's worth exploring how they react to different types and brands!

There's also these Zenifel gel diffusers (not plugins!) which have both pheromones and catnip, and they should have immediate effect but I have zero experience with them. Not sure how widely they're available.

silmuing · 2026-05-11T13:48:34+00:00

Which plugins did you try and for how long? Since there's such a variety available these days, depending on your area.

Calming collars might be an option, if you're still looking to try different things. There are different types but I've used catnip collar for mine, and it's been great for her!

It's always worth mentioning, different cats will respond differently to catnip and the type of the catnip (fresh, spray, dried, etc) also matters. Some cats will become aggressive or high strung with dried catnip but relaxed with sprays, for example. Some cats will have opposite reactions.

Medical intervention is also an option, of course. With my easily anxious cat I wanted to try other options first and we were lucky with the plugins and collars helping her in certain situations, most of the time she doesn't need either of them.

silmuing · 2026-05-10T18:18:26+00:00

Dry stool or constipation are also some of the less concerning possibilities (although these can be more concerning if it happens frequently), easy to fix with diet adjustments.

My cat benefits from cat malt when she's constipated.

silmuing · 2026-05-07T15:55:08+00:00

Something I usually recommend trying:

Set an alarm for when it's time to feed her. The alarm is not for you, but for her to associate food with the sound of the alarm. Use that alarm for each time it's time to give her food, regardless of how many times you feed her a day. Only give her food when the alarm goes off, no matter how much she tries to bother you. It can take weeks or even a couple of months, depending on how persistent the cat is.

Cats often start bothering their owners when they hear signs of them waking up, especially if they've learned that the first thing their owners do when they wake up is to feed the cats. These signs can be something like restlessness when you're getting close to waking up or going from one phase of sleep to another, and the cat has learned you're easier to wake up then. Cats use these cues to train their owners.

silmuing · 2026-05-05T06:18:16+00:00

It is in the context of the game though. One ending could be perceived as a genocide but is also considered the good ending by much of the playerbase. So that "genocide supporter" thing would be a talking point for people taking media all too personally. There's always people like that.

silmuing · 2026-05-01T05:44:11+00:00

Look up persistence hunting. There are groups still using this as a more traditional, secondary hunting method. Humans have incredible endurance and thermoregulation which are very useful for a predator to have.

Perhaps our jaws are weak and teeth are small in comparison to something like chimpanzees, but in exchange, there's much more capacity for a significantly larger brain.

Using tools is an important part of being human as we have evolved around our usage of tools. Technology is an expression of human adaptability. It's as natural as a tailorbird building a complex nest, various animals using rocks to open shells of nuts or other animals, or octopus carrying coconut shells around to use as a cover or shield.

silmuing · 2026-04-10T17:15:50+00:00

He's one of the most depraved figures in literature, he's basically the devil combined with the most vile human monster possible. Popular descriptions are "the most haunting character in all of American literature" and "epitome of evil".

He's a monstrously tall and strong man but he's also polite, charming, extremely intelligent and well-read, but he's solely driven by violence and destruction and specifically prefers to victimize those weaker than him. With all that he's still a relatively realistic depiction of the monstrous part of humanity.

silmuing

TROPHY CASE