bluesnek

[bluesnek]

[bluesnek]

Story of my life.

[bluesnek]

Hey there! It all started 3 years ago when we started renting our current home. The place is 2br, 1bath with a sunroom for our elderly cat. All for 690 bucks a month. Water included. Sounds great right? Wrong.

Fast forward to today. Our roof has been leaking consistently for 3 years. They sent out contractors 4 times and the water coming in has not lessened. Our furniture is ruined. Our carpets are ruined. The leasing agency says ‘we are sorry’ and we never see another maintenance crew again.

Our refrigerator died while we were at work. We came home to a loud grinding sound and all of our food had gone bad. We asked for a new fridge but they said we would have to purchase one ourselves. And when we leave, we have to leave the new fridge to “replace the one we broke”.

Our water heater burst into flames.  We came home from work and our home was full of smoke. Our waterheater had started an electrical fire and was spewing smoke. We contacted the leasing office about the fire. They tell us we have to buy our own water heater, but same thing, we have to leave it behind when we leave.

In frustration, we start looking at 'in-line’ water heaters only to discover that our current water heater was wired against code. And we would have to have the house rewired to put in a new waterheater!

We contacted the office and they said the same thing. “Sorry”.

And then they raised our rent without telling us. We accumulated so many late fees while we didnt know we were behind, that we had to pay 1200 a month for 6 months to keep from being evicted.

In this time, remember, we have no water because the power to the water tank was shut off, and we cant buy groceries because refrigerator is dead.

Weve been informed that we can sue the leasing company for refusing to replace the broken appliances and because the roof leaks and now we have to keep buckets to keep our carpets from rotting . But now the floor in the hallway is falling in.

We just want to move. We are so tired. We have started saving to buy a house so we never have to deal with these people again. We just need help with this last bit of money. Its so hard to save money when living in slum conditions like this. We have to drive half an hour to my mothers house to bathe and between gas for the week and our new 750$ rent its going to be cheeper to pay a mortgage. 

Please help.

Nate & Jayme

[bluesnek]

So I’ve seen the post he’s talking about around tumblr and twitter, but haven’t seen this on tumblr. I think it’s worth sharing.

(Also remember: do *not* pet service dogs!)

[bluesnek]

So I’ve seen the post he’s talking about around tumblr and twitter, but haven’t seen this on tumblr. I think it’s worth sharing.

(Also remember: do *not* pet service dogs!)

[bluesnek]

Don’t just accept the new Terms of Service

Tumblr’s at it again, thanks to the new European Privacy Laws. There’s probably nobody who will read this, but it pissed me off so much that I decided to make a post about it. (Ignore the weird language mish-mash, depending on your country the language might differ.)

OK, so many of us get this screen when we try to access our dash:

Realise how the ‘OK’ button is a nice, attention-grabbing blue? If you’re like me, you’re not exactly into reading a 100 pages document and tend to just click it.

My tip? DONT. Instead click on ‘Manage Options’ right next to it:

Now you’ll see this page:

Still pretty harmless, right? That ‘Accept’ button is looking really attractive right now. Instead, click on Verwalten (Probably something like ‘Manage Options’ or something in english) and you’ll get to this page:

Now that’s not too bad, right? I just switched all the buttons to ‘off’, because I’m jealously guarding my personal information and don’t want Tumblr to go off and do who knows what with it. Looks like we’re done! But wait: There’s a SHOW option.

When we click on that one, what we will get is this:

A HUGE list with OVER 300 ENTRIES of companies that can use your data by default if you’d just clicked ‘OK’ on that very first page. Coincidence that this list is hidden that much? Me thinks not. They’re all switched on by default, but I am still a petty bitch that doesn’t want to give out her data, so I switched them all off. All 300+ of them. There is no option to switch them all off at once, and even if you disable all the options above, the companies are still switched on.

(If you wonder how i got that number, I copied the list into excel and looked at the cell number. No way am I actually counting all those entries)

[bluesnek]

Photographer Captures Heartwarming Portraits of Blind Cats to Help Them Get Adopted

[bluesnek]

Is there something we can do to try and help change Nosey's Law?

There’s still a chance to keep this overly broad, massively damaging law from being passed as written - Governor Chris Christie has to be convinced to veto it. 

The best way to make that happen is to call his office at 609-292-6000 and tell them that Governor Christie needs to veto Senate Bill 2508 (Nosey’s Law). You don’t want to say too much - I suggest saying you want it vetoed because it will outlaw vital outreach and conservation programs as well as the intended targets, eliminating educational opportunities for residents and destroying local businesses. If you are a NJ resident, say so first. If you’re not, call anyways - the opinions of NJ constituents will have the most weight, but you’ll still help get the Governor’s attention. 

If you’re not able to make a phone call, you can tweet your message to  @ChrisChristie. Use the hastag #vetonoseyslaw. If you feel like doing multiple tweets, use your subsequent ones to tell the Governor about the impact mobile animal outreach programs have had on your life (for example: when educators brought snakes to your classroom and you fell in love with reptiles). 

Tumblr’s algorithms will not index this post in the tagging system because it contains outside hyperlinks. If you think this is important information for others to be aware of, please consider reblogging it.

[bluesnek]

I WILL BE CENSORED AFTER DEC 14TH

Good, I’ve got your attention. I’ve heard about this net neutrality bullshit returning. I fought it when it started popping up a few years ago, and I’m going to fight it again. Guys, it’s BACK AGAIN and even worse theres a big chance it will END UP PASSING!

https://www.battleforthenet.com/#bftn-action-form

This could literally mean a shit ton of you wont be able to see me anymore if your provider decides that they want to regulate/censor, sayyy overly sexual content. You’ll also have to pay extra money to even use Tumblr!

https://www.battleforthenet.com/#bftn-action-form

Please guys, we defeated this shit once, we can do it again. They’re trying to do it now while people are distracted by the holidays and fucking Justice League. As of today, it seems as though there have only been 266,810 calls made to Congress. This is NOT good enough!! MILLIONS of people use the net, and if each one of them took 60 seconds to call and protect it, holy balls do you KNOW how much of a difference that would make??? But noooo, you’re busy streaming an ecchi anime that wont be available to you soon!!!!!

Heres a direct link to make a difference (theres also links to other sites of the same nature on here), and yes, YOU can make a fucking difference because this is YOUR internet at stake here. If you’re not going to make the call, share this and maybe SOMEONE fucking will!! This is important as shit and we cant afford to lose. Dec 14th is the deadline.

https://www.battleforthenet.com/#bftn-action-form

[bluesnek]

The best teacher.

[bluesnek]

I live in the southwest united states and have NEVER had to kill a rattlesnake.

My dad’s dog has been bitten 5 times.

My pitbull mix was bitten once (she passed for an entirely different, unrelated reason)

I was housesitting for someone the other day whose dog ran up and stuck it’s nose in a rattlesnakes face and he was fine.

I don’t wanna hear any more of this “well you’ve never encountered one and have NEVER had to…” yeah fuck that. I live in the rattlesnake capital of the WORLD.

Somehow I’ve still never had to kill one. Funny how that works.

[bluesnek]

This is a callout post for snakes who do a really stinky poop in one corner of their cage and smear it all over their enrichment. We usually do a full clean of his tank immediately after a shed, and Nigel probably would have loved to live in his own stink for another few weeks, but this was unbearable. There was an undigested rat tail in it, for God’s sake. And now he’s sad that we rearranged and cleaned his environment. (Sorry for the terrible quality; our room is literally a cave.)

[bluesnek]

There are no cheap pets. You’re creating a foreign and livable environment in captivity, be prepared to spend money.

[bluesnek]

people who are afraid of snakes are fuckin’ WILD, like dude, just carefully step over these fat babies’ sausage bodies and gently move the burmese python chillin’ against the door, then you become unfathomably rich. i would do this for $10. i would do this for FREE. 

[bluesnek]

Source

(https://twitter.com/milknmuffins/status/861092198728609793)

[bluesnek]

On my schedule today was a  pancake tortoise that was coming in because it wasn’t eating. I got all of my examination equipment ready and went into the exam room to get started. A young man was sitting in a chair with a shoebox on his lap. We chatted for a bit and then I started asking him questions about his tortoise.

I found out he had purchased the tortoise from a reptile show 8 years ago and that it lived in a ten gallon aquarium with gravel for substrate. It’s diet consisted of lettuce and carrots. Only. The only water provided was from a spray bottle that was used to mist the cage every other day. There was no heat, UV light, cage decor, hide, nothing. I wrote everything down and asked him for the box.

I opened the box and looked inside and nearly lost my composure. Inside was a stunted, gnarled creature about 4 inches long with a grossly abnormal shell. I took him out and put him on the table and pulled himself across the table bits and pieces of his carapace fell off. I don’t mean the scutes, I mean the actual pieces of bone that make up the shell. You could see his organs through gaps in his ribs.

“I will be right back” I said and grabbed the tortoise and went into the treatment room. I was so angry that my hands were shaking. Calculating some dosages I handed them to my tech and asked her to draw up pain medication and a sedative. “Did he approve this?” she asked.

“No. I don’t care. Please draw it up and give this IM.”

Slowly I walked back into the room. I asked the owner how long the tortoise had been like that. He wasn’t sure. He had just stopped eating a day ago. Up until then it was perfectly healthy.

“Your tortoise has been very poorly taken care of. If he were a dog this would be considered animal abuse. Because he is a reptile I am not very likely to get far with the authorities so I’m gonna make you a deal. You sign him over to me and pay for the examination and you can go.”

He thought about it and told me no, it was his tortoise. I asked why he didn’t take care of it. “I thought I was” was his response.

“Why doesn’t he have any source of heat?”

“I didn’t know they needed it.”

“Why didn’t you give him UV light?”

“I didn’t know they needed it.”

“You are telling me that you never opened a book, magazine, internet care sheet, nothing to find out how to care for a tortoise?”

“Yeah. I just thought I knew.”

We talked some more and I finally convinced him to sign the tortoise over. I went back to check on him and he looked even worse. More of his shell had fallen off. I could see his lungs now. I decided it would be for the best to humanely euthanize him so he wouldn’t suffer anymore.

In this day and age “I didn’t know” is not a valid excuse. You can look up anything on your phone from who invented pizza to where the closest movie theater is. There are literally hundreds of books, websites, and internet forums all about reptile care. You can call any veterinarian before purchasing an animal and ask them about their care and I promise you they will talk to you.

I am no longer going to gently nudge people in the right direction husbandry wise. I will no longer tell them “well, lots of people make that mistake, it’s ok”. I am going to call it like it is and if an animal is suffering they will know it is abuse. There is zero excuse for this.

It is sad that reptiles and other exotics don’t have the “cute” factor other animals do. No one would allow an owner to get away with feeding their dog nothing but potato peelings  because they just “didn’t know” and yet it is perfectly fine to own a reptile and watch it slowly starve to death because someone “didn’t know” it needed to eat insects.

Iguanas that live in cages so small they can’t turn around. Tortoises kept without the proper heat gradient. Monitor lizards over fed until they are morbidly obese and can’t even walk. This is all abuse and it is wrong. Unfortunately reptiles are survivors and they can be dying for YEARS before anything is noticed. Owners confuse being alive with being healthy far too often.

I simply cannot stand by and watch this happen anymore. I allowed myself to be drawn into the “well, exotics are different, people just don���t know” mind set and did lots of hand holding while owners declined or refused my recommendations. From now on I promise I will flat out tell people it is animal cruelty and will have to make a phone call if things don’t change. It will not make me a popular vet nor a rich one but at least I will be able to sleep at night.

My challenge to everyone is that if they notice an animal being abused politely but firmly call the owner out. There is no need to internet shame, threaten violence or bully someone. Simply tell them what they are doing is wrong, their animal is suffering and they need to fix it. There are numerous reliable resources to find the proper information. If they won’t fix it the proper authorities need to be contacted.

[bluesnek]

Guys! Please help Yuri pay for upcoming vet expenses!

Dear sweet Yuri, first thing is first, you gotta sign up with Care Credit. Its a credit card (dont shoot me) specifically for pet medical needs. Every vet ive ever used accepts care credit! Whatever your bill is goes on the card and you pay a little bit off each week/month till your done. Super easy peasy! We recently addopted a very sick kitten who after 5 weeks, ended up passing away. He went to the vet every single Monday and had 2 surgeries and im already done paying off his bills. I only get paid 134.98$ a week :/ so i had to get care credit. But i also have an elderly cat named Kurtis who could start having age related problems and Care Credit is awesome to have for emergancies!

Secondly! You HAVE to ask the receptionist about prices on medications! Shop around! If you've got a sneaking suspicion that hes got an ear infection, ask each office how much their antibiotics run!

Also, the most important thing is that you take him and have him tested for FIV and FeLuke. The swollen lymph nodes are a symptom of this disease and its SUPER BAD. ASAP get him tested! FeLuke kills a lot of cats if it isnt caught early! Its agonizing. Right away. I had both my cats tested and was only 35 bucks each!

https://www.gofundme.com/3v6h95k?pc=fm_co_shareflow_a

Hi! My name’s Lauren. The picture above is my deaf cat whom I recently adopted, Columbus! He’s the sweetest thing, he sleeps in my bed, he kneads my arms while I’m trying to sleep, and he plays just like any other kitty! However, he has a range of medical issues. Currently, I believe he has an ear infection, possibility of a respiratory infection, possibility of stomach issues, possible conjunctivitis, the lymph nodes under his jaw are swollen, which could be a symptom of a major health issue, and his front teeth are missing and the gums don’t look too great. I’m currently working a part time job at petco, and I make less than 300 per paycheck. I have the money for the initial vet visit, but not much more than that. I’m projecting the cost of medication and tests to be somewhere in the low thousands, I’ll be safe and say around 2000. But I need help. Even shares will help!! Please, if you cannot donate, at least share. And thank you!