Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@001zlnv congratulations of sorts :) relieved to hear!

Oh, and if y'all go characteristically overboard with your generosity, we'll discuss whether to return some of the cash, save it in a Kitty College Fund, or pass it along to the many, many worthy NOLA animal charities! Or maybe we'll expand our little Bast-Believer Kitty Mission to include feeding some of the adjacent colonies.

I'm a little bashful about mentioning, especially since the Drive-In Saturday fundraiser went very well (and we're so grateful), but several of y'all have asked, so...

We would still gratefully accept donations for the kitties! The best route is Paypal to egypt@urnash.com but if you prefer other options just ask me or @anthracite

We've already spent a bunch on furniture and supplies, but there's LOTS of kittenproofing left to be done and we still need to get some vet visits in.

@Phorm @anthracite Oh, the donation drive was centered around Drive-In Saturday, an old friend's bi-weekly MST3K Discord event. (I could certainly get you in on it if interested!)

Best way to donate is probably Paypal to egypt@urnash.com. Thanks sweetie! I'm sure Sugarfoot would be very grateful too if she had any abstract reasoning ability or non-mew language skills! :)

Should be a while before they're ready or able to leave the Mother Box without assistance, but they're definitely moving around. It's a great sign, and a LOT less scary since Chief Engineer Anthracite acquired the boards and tools needed to squirmproof the undersides of the kittenarium doors, but... yikes this is all happening so fast.

OH LAWD THEY TODDLIN'

granted last time i thought "gosh, sugarfoot has settled down so nicely, it's finally peaceful" she went mewl-crazy and pooped on peg's yoga mat half an hour later

but gosh sugarfoot has settled down so nicely, it's finally peaceful

it's fine. i knew the job was dangerous when i took it.</superchicken>

today i am profoundly likely to get into both blaseball and hades thanks to you little morsels, so maybe it's time to take a good hard look at my memetic immune defenses XD <3

@LexYeen @JulieSqveakaroo tagging @anthracite into this because it will probably be reassuring. Thank you so much for the affirmation, yeen! <3

@anthracite @Phorm :O~~~~~

@kauko Hmm, good point. No future I wanna live in is gonna have that shit. How about as a decoration in public parks?

@kauko In 2300, this is the new Inflatable Dancing Tube Man. Every shop has 2 or 3 of these dancing around in place outside to lure in customers.

@JulieSqveakaroo Yeah, I petted Sugarfoot thoroughly and explained that while the Food Humans are both pretty tense, we don't blame her, she's a good kitty, and we were kinda braced for this happening eventually. Honestly just kinda relieved it didn't turn out to be her deciding she was DONE being an indoor cat...

oh god

sugarfoot started mewling DESPERATELY to get outside to the point where she was leaping futilely at the door

i thought she was just going stir-crazy which would have also been very stressful...

but it turns out she really had to poop, and apparently the new litter we picked up for her (little kitten-safe sticks instead of clumpy sand) does not read as litter to her

yyyyyup right on Anthracite's yoga mat, mere seconds before she got home with our delivery food for the evening

peg is now super stressed out and snarfing down dinner before she rushes out to the grocery store for litter sand, and now we have to figure out a way to make it kitten-safe when the kidlets finally leave the box

my only real idea is that we mix the sticks and sand 20/80 for a while to get her used to it and gradually vary the mix until it's clear that "yes, this is poopie place"

blllllllaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh i knew this is the sort of stuff we were signing on for as cat parents, but these are the worst parts -- where the cat is clearly distressed and you have NO IDEA what they want or what will help them...

oh god i had a horrible thought

what if blaseball goes full Electronic Arts or Livejournal and ends up getting bought up and assimilated

it seems unlikely given how much the whole thing's success relies on the genuine love between the devs and players, but... tell me we haven't seen it many many many times before

(sigh, yeah, i read a blaseball pamphlet and got converted daaaaaaamn you @mawr :p <3 i don't think i'll get invested, but it just reminds me so much of other metagaming experiments i've loved, like the Legend of 5 Rings tourney stories and the inter-campaign stuff they attempted in the Torg RPG, after watching the People Make Games "What is "Blaseball" and why is it taking over the Internet?" i'm definitely convinced blaseball is of the Nice Things the internet was supposed to give us.)

@001zlnv @zx3 oops that was supposed to be a DM anyhow! we are in GREAT shape now, at least until it's time to get the adolescent cats snipped in a couple months, so i'm a little embarrassed to ask for more -- there are a LOT of other worthy causes out there and I should be able to cover the rest with income and savings!

@Phorm What if I can't find metal stucco lath?

posting this on behalf of kirschbaer before somebody inevitably tags me with it ​❤️​

@xinjinmeng Are you perchance familiar with Alice Trillin's Law of Compensatory Cashflow?

Blergh.

It's really getting to me. The cats are a HUGE source of stress right now.

Sugarfoot is still having trouble adjusting to being an indoor cat, and I feel terrible every time she mewls at the door.

The kittens are good. They're doing what they need to be doing.

Shadow is not only being super-bitchy and aggressive by her standards, she's got what we are PRAYING is not a babybump under her belly. And our last vet trip with her lead to mutual misery and frustration, so we are ABSOLUTELY DREADING having her snipped, especially since we've realized we have to get it done REAL SOON and might already be too late.

And Shemp tried to follow us four blocks away from home today, way outside his usual range. And kept refusing to let us pick him up and guide him home. So we eventually just shrugged and said, "Listen, Shemp, if this is it and it's time for you to wander off..." And then I kinda broke down in tears and never finished the sentence.

We ended up carrying him home. He didn't fuss too badly. He's a good boy. I'm not ready to lose him, too.

And Artie and Peebs are just a big handful, though they were SUPER good girls yesterday when Sugarfoot needed some company and distraction.

Thank you again for your donations, advice, and support. I think I am all in with these cats, because my heart just won't give me any choice, and I really don't know what to fucking do. I was already at the end of my wits from COVID.

I guess it's healthy, though. I'm trying to look at this like a good Daoist Farmer and remind myself that the risk of suffering is huge but so is the risk of joy. I've already broken down blubbering twice singing to those freakin' newborns.

I think maybe here at what is hopefully the END of the Trump era and the near-end of the COVID-19 era, I needed something that was worth upping my game for. I am really really running on fumes right now but last month I didn't even think I had fumes.