#cat genetics ESPECIALLY are wild

[nsfwitchy2]

Why does Batsquatch have such a Maine Coon face or am I making that up ebakwbwkhwje

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

if you watch Monsters Inside Me, you get a peek into the life of how many real doctors are legitimately like this in real life. Or if you go to a doctor and happen to be fat.

"Watching my dad (a GP doctor) watch House is more entertaining than the show"

[amber-tortoiseshell]

i know youre primarily a cat genetics blog, but what do you MEAN theres multiple merle alleles?? i thought it was just one mutation

Merle genetics is the coolest thing: there are basically unlimited amount of alleles. (Well. Or at least there are about a hundred.) You see, this isn't a simple point mutation like most variants we deal with on this blog - what we have here is called a SINE or "Short Interspersed Nuclear Element". This is a piece of DNA that inserts itself into the gene.

Without going into specifics, this SINE region doesn't have a predetermined length, and the longer the insertion is, the more pronounced the merle phenotype becomes.

Under 200 bp we have the non-merle, wild type m allele with no insertion. Over that, well, different people have classified it differently, but basically there's a continuous scale of merle M* alleles. Nowadays the most reliable merle tests don't just give you an allele name like M or Mc, but an allele length like 264 or 222, too.

Winnie's merle allele has the length of 273. Very merle!

The alleles are additive: a shorter one in itself can't cause a standard merle pattern (although sometimes they have a kind of dilution effect), together with another they might be able. The "dangers" of merle and especially double merle also rises with the insertion length: combining two short alleles is safe, while longer alleles together are to be avoided by all responsible breeders.

The unstableness of the insertion means that mosaicism in this gene (when the dog has slightly different merle alleles in different body parts) isn't rare either.

Bibliography:

Advanced Merle Genetics

Educational Charts and Diagrams

Defining the Scale of Merle

The History of Merle

Length variations within the Merle retrotransposon of canine PMEL: correlating genotype with phenotype

Being Merle: The Molecular Genetic Background of the Canine Merle Mutation

Merle phenotypes in dogs – SILV SINE insertions from Mc to Mh

[serpentface]

The two populations of native Wardi lions, a wild male and captive semi-domesticated (maned) lioness

Lions are one of the last extant true felids in this setting. The native Wardi lion population is low in density and could be considered endangered, (though relatively stable and not in active decline), having survived the continental interchange, changing climate, and sophont expansion that wiped out most other felids. They are most common in areas outside of the range of king hyenas (notably the deserts, edges of the salt pans, hills, and oak forests). The Wardi population is characterized by relatively light coloration and dark, scruffy 'mohawk' like manes. The only other known surviving lion population in the world is in the forested region east of Imperial Wardin, genetically isolated by the Blackmane mountain range and spared competition with hyaenadontoid 'cats'.

These animals had great significance in ancient 'heathen' Wardi culture (prior to colonization by two former Burri empires and development of the contemporary monotheistic faith). The exact details of these traditions have been lost to time, though they were clearly venerated, either as gods themselves or as sacred animals of a key deity (known from relics depicting a deified maned lioness)

Two distinct strands of this tradition survive into the contemporary. One is in the folklore of the Wogan people (an ethnoreligious minority in contemporary Imperial Wardin with common cultural ancestry with ethnic Wardi, displaced from their original homeland during the time of the last Burri empire). Wogan folklore casts maned lionesses specifically as minor deities who can shapeshift into human form, often to mate with men (with the resulting children being demigods). The Wogan culture hero Ianobi (semi-mythological founder of the ancient city that was sacked and rebuilt as Erubinnos) is claimed to have a lioness as a mother.

The other remaining branch of this tradition is Odomache (the 'lion face' of God in the imperial Wardi faith) and Its Odonii order of priestesses. Though their contemporary role is primarily interlinked with the military and as physical embodiments of imperial soverignty, they are also ceremonial keepers of a captive, semi-domesticated population of sacred white lions, raised primarily for roles in routine animal sacrifice (both as a conduit for God in consuming offerings, and as sacrifices themselves)

These white lions compose a solid third of the remaining Wardi lion population. The captive population is characterized by very light fur (which is not albinism but a result of selective breeding) and extremely small size. Maned lionesses occur with a higher frequency than in wild populations, and will be intentionally selected for breeding, seen as the most perfect representations of/ideal sacrifices to Odomache. They can be considered semi-domesticated, well accommodated to human handling, entering estrus more frequently, and showing phenotypical signs of domestication (especially spotted skin, some coat variations). While aesthetically pleasing, this captive population is heavily inbred and commonly overfed, and most animals have an unusually short lifespan.

[thebookishwallflower]

I want to make a post to inform people about the current situation with the bird flu (/avian flu/H5N1) outbreaks.

I don't want to cause panic but do want to spread information.

This is especially important if you live in an area that has a news system you don't trust to give accurate, timely, or honest news about something like a possible new pandemic, use your own judgement.

If that applies it is going to be very important to make sure you stay informed and follow these H5N1 outbreaks yourself and know how to best protect yourself.

I am no expert, but I do know a good bit about disease and influenza in particular, and have been following the H5N1 outbreaks as they've been happening, so under the cut I'm going to do my best to inform everyone I can.

Please stay safe, stay informed, and spread information, not germs.

What's bird flu and why do I care? (What's bird flu and why do I care?)

Avian flu and bird flu mean the same thing, an influenza virus that (primarily) infects birds. H5N1 denotes a specific strain of avian influenza. H5N1 can spillover (when a pathogen spreads from it's normal host organism to a new host organism) from animals to humans.

How could I get H5N1? (How could I get H5N1?)

Human to human transmission has not been observed yet (12/1/24) during this current outbreak. You can get this from contact with wild birds, especially water fowl, domestic birds, cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, and bats. It is also possible to get from raw (unpasteurized) milk and undercooked meat from infected animals.

What's the big deal then? (What's the big deal then?)

The common flu is not very pathogenic. How pathogenic something is determines how sick something makes the host, something that is highly pathogenic can cause severe disease. H5N1 is considered a HPAI, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

H5N1 is also a Type A influenza virus, most known Type A influenza viruses can infect birds. There is one Type A human flu in circulation at the moment, however it isn't very prevalent.

"IAV poses a significant risk of zoonotic infection, host switch, and the generation of pandemic viruses. IAVs can infect humans and a variety of animals, such as pigs, horses, marine mammals, cats, dogs, and birds (S1)."

IAV - Influenza A Viruses | Zoonotic infection - when an infectious disease of a non-human host infects a human host | Host switch - when a cross-species transmission of a pathogen can lead to successful, stable, and continuous infections

Every species the flu infects, the more strains that pop up under a sub-type IAV, the possibility for recombination increases. "Recombination occurs when at least two viral genomes [or strains] co-infect the same host cell and exchange genetic segments (S2)."

The flu is pretty good at recombination, when given the chance. It is also really good at mutating, and fast. If there were to be a recombination event and a new strain evolved (this would be called an antigenic shift) that was highly pathogenic, highly infectious (good at spreading, which H5N1 is), that could then infect humans and cause human-to-human transmission we might have a pandemic on our hands. This has not shown signs of happening during this outbreak*, this is what to look out for.

This (a recombination event) is what caused the 1918 pandemic during WW1. This pandemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people in 1918, in a world with a population of around 2 billion. 7.1 million died of COVID 19, as of 11/9/24 (S3), from a population of around 8 billion.

We know more, we are prepared, it's not guaranteed to happen, and it's not guaranteed to be as bad. But the possibilities are endless and it's extremely important to be prepared and stay informed.

So what do I do? (So what do I do?)

Again, stay informed, and that might mean checking independent news sources, the CDC website, and more, to keep yourself updated, especially if you know your local news won't do it for you. You should also familiarize yourself with the symptoms of influenza, if you have it, stay home.

Keep yourself safe, we had a pandemic already, you know the drill. Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing/coughing, wash your hands, sanitize your hands, and get your flu shot. And, in addition, avoid contact with wild birds, poultry, pigs, and cattle if you can.

In the event that this gets worse, social distancing is very important, being outdoors, wearing a mask, and all the stuff above, you can shed the virus for around a week before you start feeling bad. Keep yourself safe and don't infect anyone else.

If that doesn't sound like it'll do much, I promise you it does. Those are all classified NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) and even epidemiologists were shocked at their impact and importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. They did work, and they were incredibly effective—as long as they were carried out.

I don't want to cause panic or worry anyone, but that is how information ends of suppressed. I want to make everyone aware of what we might face so that we can fight it and be strong and stay safe.

If anyone has any questions, wants any clarification, any corrections, or wants to know some good places to learn more about this stuff please don't hesitate to contact me (@'s, dm's, or asks), I will answer as best I can.

Here's the CDC's page covering the H5 bird flu current situation.

S1 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5578040/

S2 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7106159/

S3 - https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths?n=c

*with the exception of this coverage (as a possibility): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/19/bird-flu-cases-mutation-canada

[chimkin-samich]

Hiya! It’s been a while since I asked you lot a question. (Also I’m sorry if I ask to many questions. My friends call me Whiskers cause I’m curious like a cat 🐈.)

Anyways, I have two strange questions: 1. In the Mermaid AU, are Sun and Moon more fish-like, reptilian, or mammal-like? Also, how exactly do mer people… breed/reproduce? It’s a weird question, I know. It’s been bugging me for a while. If you don’t know, just say nothing or make shit up.

I also created characters inspired by your artwork for my fanfic The Royal Blooded Assassin. Thank you for creating such amazing artwork and stories, I really enjoy them 🫶

Aaaaaa so happy you asked since we got into the deep world building of this not long ago, ima put it under a read more cuz it’s prob gonna be long lol

Also added some merboys lore at the end of how they met since with the world building it makes more sense

AND AAAAAA VERY HAPPY WE INSPIRED YOU TO MAKE CHARACTERS BITING BITING

The merboys are a combination of fish and reptile, their skin is more reptile scale like (think of a shark skin but not as sharp) since it helps them cut through the water much easier which allows them to be able to shoot through the water with a sudden quick flick of their tail (especially Moon since he hunts like a great white, attacking with a burst of speed from below)

Although there are mammal like Mers based on whales and dolphins that have blubber like skin, mers come in large variety’s just the boys are in the similar subspecies Sun is a lion fish, moon is an angler and eclipse is a hybrid of a non-venomous lion fish (that’s why he doesn’t have spines like sun) and angler

As for mating and breeding, fish like mers like the boys are polyamorous, they tend to mate in groups of 3 and more with usually 1 female and multiple males, the males aren’t always mates with each other but it’s not a must, it’s usually done since it allows them to provide for their young and the female more efficiently as well as genetic diversity (a mer can genetically have 3-4 parents)

They are able to change their sex so if their are say 2 females and 1 male one of them will change to make the ratio be 1 F and 2 M and vice versa If say it’s 3M one of them (usually the most dominant) will become the female, the only difference is those that swapped sex aren’t as fertile but it’s not a major issue just a bit more difficult to conceive (females that were originally male do have smaller clutches tho so instead of the usual 5-6 it’s 2-4)

Mammal like mers are the opposite but they do have larger family pods with more generations, they are also matriarchal like the boys pods (it’s the majority but not the rule that all mers are matriarchal)

Fish mers either group in just mated partners like Moons pod was only his parents and siblings, but sometimes another group will be in the same territory, its never more than 3 family groups to a pod, Suns pod was the opposite being a much more social species they group into large groups of up to 3-5 family groups

Gonna add some more stuff like their habits and such since ima already typing lol,

Mers stay in their pods up until their about 12, once they reach that age their forced out to prove themselves in the wilds on their owns, and they can’t attempt to return until their at least 18, it’s a way of both making sure the most adaptable make it to adulthood and population control, they want to make sure the mers in the group are able to help sustain the group, but most mers usually end up forming their own groups since it’s also a period for them to find possible mates, sometime (in Suns species case at least) mers will return with their partners to add into their original family group, making the pod a bit bigger but it’s not very common

Mers also begin having heats near the age of 14 so that’s where the mate finding part comes in

And for a bit of lore with the boys now that y’all know this

Eclipse was a hybrid, his mother (sun sub species) was attacked by a lone desperate mer (moons species) in heat and eclipse was the only one to survive in the clutch, he stuck around until the age of 10 due to his mother protecting and teaching him, but when she was killed in a hunt he was casted out by the dominant male (rare but it happens that a male can lead the pod), he was already nearing the size of an adult (he has gigantism and double arms due to being a hybrid) at that age so it felt like a threat to them, so off he went into the wild until later finding Sun at the age of 15 and Moon at the age of 17

Sun was separated from his pod during an attack when he was about 10 and was on his own for a few months before Eclipse caught him snooping around his territory, Sun would have been terrified of Eclipse if weren’t for the fact that the fins around his head look similar to his own, so he figured it was someone of his species and latched on immediately, Eclipse being lonely and a complete sweetheart adopted him into his solo pod on the spot

Moon joined the group at around 13-14, he had been having a horrible time during his coming of age trial since he was a bigger loner than his species already once and refused to really sit down and listen when his parents tried to teach him survival skills, He meets sun first when he enters their cave looking for food, which Sun was eating, Sun seeing him starving hands it to him and once he’s finished Moons exhaustion and loneliness catches up and he cuddles up to sun, Eclipse finds them and just adopts Moon on the spot as well

Their ages go (at least once they mate with Tari)

Sun:32 Moon:33 Eclipse:37

Sun and Moon were separated from Eclipse when they were 15 and 16 when they were captured, Eclipse does end up finding them since a few years after they disappeared he goes back to his nomadic lifestyle of before, so they rejoin together when sun and moon are about 30-31, Since he caught their scent when they went back to their old cave hoping eclipse would be there before beginning to look for Tari after she helped them escape the aquarium

Eclipse does end up trying to kill Tari when he sees her for the first time cuz he smells their scent on him and assumes she did something to them, she blinds him for a few days cuz she pokes his eyes escaping his grasp before getting attacked by Sun and Moon, Hes cold towards her the first few months but warms up as he sees the interactions between her and the other 2, his hard shell fully cracks tho when she first says she thinks he’s pretty

The only others that had called him pretty were the researchers constantly searching for him (he has forums dedicated to him cuz of how unique he is) but it felt detached like just saying a painting is pretty, and Sun and Moon but they preferred calling him cool, so when someone hes starting to get along with calls him pretty that hard ass attitude basically disappears and he begins his own courting not long after lol

Eclipse isn’t considered attractive by his species standards because of the discoloration and double arm mutation so he has some self esteem issues in that regard, they went away when Sun and Moon were in his pod since they never judged him but came back in his isolation, Tari helps to ebb that away again once they start getting along and more when he begins his courting

Also Their basically immortal (like lobsters) but it’s really rare to find one that’s lived longer than 2 centuries most tend to die at the age of 70-90 due to you know living in the wilds

[caesarsaladinn]

I've been posting a lot about mustangs lately, but I realize I never defined the term:

a mustang is a member of a landrace horse breed that lives on federally protected land in the American West. they're often called "wild horses," but they're technically feral; they're descended from animals that escaped from captivity over the generations, and while they're pretty genetically diverse, on the whole they tend to be medium-sized, smart, and hardy. with few natural predators, these feral horses are overpopulated by the tens of thousands, so to protect the land, the government occasionally rounds some of them up and auctions them off to private owners.

they start at $125 a head, which is absurdly low for a horse--the only catch is that 1) they've never been checked by a vet, so you don't know what problems they might be harboring, and 2) they've never been handled by humans, so you have to put in a lot of work to make them friendly and rideable. most of them have the potential to become great horses, especially for western-style riding, but you never quite know what you're adopting. a guy I know bought a stunning black horse for $400 (a steal!!), but even after six months of training, it's so skittish that he can barely touch it. maybe six more months will fix that, and maybe not. that's the gamble.

among farmers and horse enthusiasts, mustangs are fairly polarizing, because some people see them as pests who ruin their grazing land, while others see them as a symbol of the west, the cowboy, and the wild frontier spirit, who deserve to be kept wild and free. to be clear, they're "wildlife" in the same way that a feral cat is "wildlife," but, well, it's a debate nevertheless.

the best part is, they're auctioned online! you can browse some of the available horses here.

[sorrel-system]

List of my kintypes and theriotypes and such ^>w<^

Warning there are so so incredibly many oh gorsh -Jasper

|| * for especially strong kinship! ||

|| • for spiritual! ||

|| ~ for mental! ||

|| ` for past lives! ||

Red fox •

Red classic tabby and white Turkish angora •`

Sichuan takin ~`*

Long-tailed pangolin •~`

Fossa ~`

Western long tailed brush lizard `

Maned wolf •

Honey badger ~`

Mourning dove •

Blacktip reef shark ~`

Honduran white bat •`

Eastern indigo snake `

Harpy eagle •`*

Black fox mouse `~

Piebald roosevelt elk ~•`

Pumpkin toadlet `~

Striped hyena •

South African coati ~

Eurasian wolf `

Polyphemus moth `•

Western parotia •

Greater lophorina •

Crab-eating raccoon ~

Short nosed bandicoot •`

Lion head rabbit •`

Northwestern salamander ~

Red winged starling `

Serval •~

African wild dog ~•`

Gerenuk •*

Velociraptor `*

Frilled-neck lizard ~

Pachycephelosaurus `•~*

Spotted hyena ~`

Frog fae •`**

Sand cat ~`

Mohave Ground Squirrel ~`

Common Genet •~*

Caracal •`

Black shuck •~`***

Polydactyl black American short hair cat ~`

American pika •

Blackbuck •~

Western Tanager ~`

Barreleye fish~`

Northern flicker (male) •`

Fiddler crab •

Border Collie ~`

Kitsune with cross fox pattern, 7 tails, and 6 ears ~•`

Spider Orchid •

Moon •

Black hole •

Belladonna •

Porcelain clown doll •~******

CTX VL501-1 Ivory 15" CRT Monitor 0.28mm Diagzonal Dot Pitch (0.24mm Horizontal Dot Pitch) Dot Pitch D-Sub with Windows 98•~*********

Extra mystery thing!!

I have yet to find this in fiction and am not sure if it exists in depictions (conceptkin?) but a fossa-like being with long spindly legs and a long body and impossibly fluid movement and powerful, built back legs. It could think as a human and feel reasoning and somewhat shifted it's form as it ran. It had a long thin tail with spikey fur at the end and it jumped like a rabbit and I am positive that it was me but I have no clue how to describe what it's called (I was shifting for one of my other kintypes and accidentally discovered another I guess??)

[cryptidclaw]

Lynxstorm!

Design Notes:

In my last design for him I made him a light gray tabby colorpoint, but I decided to make him a black tabby colorpoint this time because 2 of his kits are black, and despite the fact that RoC does not follow realistic cat genetics... it still bothers me bec it makes no sense that two dilute cats would have non dilute babies LOL

I actually really like this change tho!!! I think it looks really cool!

Also fun fact! His white is the exact same as Tigerclaw's and to make his gray I took Thistleclaw's gray and made it the hue of Snowstorm's blue!

Character Bio:

Lynxstorm

(Whitestorm)

Cis Tom; he/him

Age as of 1st arc's beginning: 4 cycles, 4 moons; ~33 Hyrs

Title meaning: -storm =   a cat who is powerful in battle; strong and fights like a storm; Was specifically given this title in reference to his mother.

Warrior -> Second of Thunder Order; was in line due to being Star Bluefrost's nephew

Mentor: Star Bluefrost

Mother: Snowstorm

Father: Thistleclaw

Siblings: Sky; Shine; Shimmer; Star Tigerclaw

Mate: Willowchime

Kits: Sootfur; Rainwhisker; Sorreltail

Step-Kits: Darkstripe; Graybelly

Grandkits: Cinderheart; Honeyfern; Poppyfrost

Step-Grandkits: Ashfall; Ferncloud; Willowfeather; Oakfeather

Other notable kin: Star Pineheart (grandfather); Leopardfoot (Grandmother); Swift (nephew); Brambleflower (nephew); Star Tawnyclaw (neice); Mothwing (neice); Star Hawkfrost (nephew)

Extra notes: I changed his name to Lynx bec White is boring and it matches with Tiger!

Lynx was mentored by Bluefrost bec I think thats cute, and it also just adds to why they are so close <3

another fact! Blue wished she had chosen Lynx to be her Second instead of Tiger... but tbh Tiger probably would have killed him, even if Lynx was his brother.

Character Summary:

Lynxstorm and his littermate Tigerclaw were Snowstorm and Thistleclaw's second litter, the first being a litter of 3 which all sadly died due to a premature birth. It was many cycles before Snow and Thistle tried for a second litter as the death of the first had left Snow distraught and fearful of it happening again. However their second litter were healthy and strong, and because of this Snow named them after two kinds of powerful and strong wild cat.

Thistleclaw took far more interest in Lynx's brother Tiger, as Tiger was the larger and stronger of the two, it was obvious that Tiger took after Thistle, which Thistle loved. However Lynx was smaller and more empathetic and kind, he spent far more time with his mother and found his father's more cruel nature unappealing.

As Lynx grew he also took far more notice of how toxic his parent's relationship was. Thistleclaw was so obsessed with power and strength, that he would often judge his own mate for doing things he deemed "weak" and Snowstorm would refuse to let anyone think her weak and would feel the need to prove Thistle wrong. Thistle didn't just put this pressure on his mate either, he put it on his sons, especially Tiger, and Lynx grew to hate Thistle for it.

Snowstorm died during a border dispute early into Lynx and Tiger's apprenticeship, and this drove Thistle to be even more cruel. Thistle would take his sons out on extra night time training sessions that were far more brutal than anything a normal apprentice would be doing. Lynx knew that he only rarely was taken on these training sessions, Tiger on the other hand was trained constantly by Thistle. Lynx wanted to tell someone but Tiger made him swear not to, as Tiger wanted those sessions to learn how to be strong, even if he hated Thistleclaw for how brutal he was during them. Lynx never learned that Thistle had also been training Tiger in the Dark Forest as well...

As an adult, Lynx stayed far away from his father, choosing to go about his live happily and without any Thistleclaw bullshit. This would be made truly permanent when Thistle was found out for his grooming of Spottedleaf, Lynx was horrified by this (though not 100% surprised by his father's actions). Lynx joined Bluefrost's plan to assassinate Thistleclaw instead of simply banishing him, and though Tiger was the tom to serve the killing blow, Lynx was certainly there to make sure the deed was done. This not only felt like vengeance for Spotted, this felt like vengeance for his childhood, for his brother, and for his mother.

During the first arc plot Lynx becomes a big role model to Fire, being something like a father figure along side Lioheart.

Lynx got closer to and fell in love with Willowchime around the time that Gray was an apprentice, Willow always wanted to chat with Lynx and Lion about her son's apprenticeship and they started bonding from there. Lynx is also one of the only cats to learn the full story of Willow's past romance with Dark and Gray's kittypet father, and he holds not judgement towards her for it.

Lynx and Willow both died in the great battle against Tiger Order.

...

[Image ID: A digital drawing of Lynxstorm an au version of Whitestorm from Warrior Cats. He is standing tall and proud, with his right side showing, and he has a calm expression and smile. He is a long furred, white tom with dark gray almost black tabby color point markings, and white on his muzzle , paws and tail tip. His eyes are blue with yellow-orange irises, and his inner ears and nose are pink./End ID)

[queer-starling]

☆ Starling (or Foxx, if we've known each other that long.)

☆ She/Her/They. Late 20's married (wow!) lesbian with an affinity for women in horror. My heart belongs to the wild places. Satanist. Werewolf. World's 1st & #1 Clairlee fan. Mother to two (2) spoiled cats. Big fan of 70s-90s aesthetics, mostly horror & video store aesthetics. Starting a VHS tape collection. Occasional artist & photographer. Every lady in my banner is my wife :) Feel free to talk to me about things you like, especially horror movies!

☆ Favourite Artists: Bring Me the Horizon, Lord Huron, Motionless In White, Ethel Cain, Knocked Loose, Noah Kahan, The Amity Affliction, Empty Graves, Fleetwood Mac, The Midnight, Ice Nine Kills, Spiritbox, We Came As Romans

☆ Favourite Movies: Silence of the Lambs, Longlegs, Twister, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Pet Sematary, Saw III, Nope, Alien, V/H/S 85, The Rocky Horror Picture Show

☆ Favourite Shows: The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The X-Files, Ghost Files, Midnight Mass, Fallout, The Midnight Club, Mystery Files, Stranger Things (1-3), The Walking Dead, The Fall of the House of Usher, Arcane

Twitter | Youtube (the occasional edit)| My Fallout OC

if you talk to me about Clarice Starling I'll give ya a kiss :]

[infodumpingaboutnature]

Here’s some sad news: the Scottish Wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) is now genetically extinct due to interbreeding with domestic cats.

(Photo credit: Project Saving Wildcats)

The Scottish Wildcat was a subspecies of European Wildcat that lived in the highlands and forests of northern and eastern Scotland for thousands of years. For the past 2,000 years they lived alongside domestic and feral house cats without too much interbreeding going on according to genetic analysis of wildcat fossils. However, around 70 years ago the wildcats and house cats started interacting more since the wildcats were rapidly losing habitat. House cats began breeding with the wildcats and now their populations have become so intertwined that the species is now genetically extinct. This is yet another reason as to why you should not let you pet cats outside without supervision, or at the very least spay and neuter them! Over 63 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians have been hunted to extinction by cats and that number is only growing. Cats are one of the most destructive invasive species in the world, and this is coming from a cat lover!!!

(Photo credit: Charlie Bishop)

However, there is some hope. There are efforts to try to breed genetically pure Scottish Wildcats in captivity and release them into the wild as well as talks of bringing in different subspecies of European Wildcats to help bring in more genetic diversity into the population. Sadly, rewilding projects in general are facing a lot of pushback and this is especially true in the UK.

[tilbageidanmark]

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK #211:

SABELLE HUPPERT X 3:

🍿 ISABELLE HUPPERT, A LIFE TO PLAY is a wonderful biography shot in 2001. The director followed her for a whole year during her work with Chabrol on 'Nightcap', just before her 'Piano teacher' premiere and winning in Cannes, and documents her preparations for the live performance as Madea on stage in Avignon. Pure pleasure to anybody who loves to see her anywhere.

🍿 THE SWINDLE (1997), an old-fashioned grifter caper and my 12th crime comedy by Claude Chabrol. Huppert and her much older partner Michel Serrault con small time dentists and insurance men at conventions, but then they move on unto bigger and more dangerous scams. Chabrol's accomplished handle of the story is a joy to behold. 8/10.

Chabrol directed Huppert in 7 movies, of which I've seen three. But I must see them all, with the first being 'Violette Nozière'!

🍿 Narrated by Isabelle Huppert, FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT, MY LIFE, A SCREENPLAY is the new documentary about the auteur "Frank Truff". It was a project he started himself, before dying too young at 52. As such, it's not great: fragmentary, unfinished and it jumps randomly from period to period. But it offers many wonderful clips from his personal life, with some new insights as to what influenced him the most: His pained relationship to both his parents, how important were children to his world view, his early friendship with Jean Genet and André Bazin. Recommended at any Truffaut fan. (I need to hunt down the last few of his films that I didn't see, especially 'Mississippi Mermaid', which is hard to find). (Ending Scene From His 'Les Quatre Cents Coups' Above).

🍿

First watch: MIRROR, my 6th or 7th poetic film by Andrei Tarkovsky, and without any doubt my favorite film by him. I can't understand why I waited so long to see it. An emotional and visual masterpiece, about fragments of dreams and small pains of memories. Why is this film so magnificent? The boy's mother, who was Tarkovsky's real-life wife, was angelically beautiful. I am going to re-watch this film again and again. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 10/10.

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"Basically, I show up at work in the morning and ask: Who's dead?"

What goes into creating the right, balanced obituary? I did not expect to find the 2017 documentary OBIT so engrossing. It's a straight-forward, talky look into the writers of the small obituary desk at the New York Times, and how they do their work. The journalists interviewed were intelligent and reflective people, with insights and stories to tell. It turned into thoughtful study of fame and mortality. And their enormous, defunct "Morgue" of paper files! The NYT of today is just a shadow of what it was only a decade ago, and I'm sure most of all these smart people are no longer there. 9/10. [*Female Director*]

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2 BY WILD HUNGARIAN PAINTER MILORAD KRSTIĆ:

🍿 MY BABY LEFT ME (1995) is a psychedelic, erotic vision of having sex in all the most explicit ways, but drawn in a cubist, surrealistic style. 1940's Picasso would have loved it! A must see for anybody who loves abstract pornography.

🍿 "My nightmares are getting stronger and stronger..."

How come I've never heard of his first eccentric feature film RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR from 2018?? Not too crazy about animation, especially when mixed with crime-Noir trops like kung-fu fighting, car chase, action killings Etc. But this original pop-art story of kleptomaniac, circus-trained acrobat art thief Mimi is rich with so many throwaway references and avant-garde Easter eggs, that I was compelled to watch this extraordinary Art History Course twice back-to-back.

The beauty starts around 0:12, and doesn't stop until the end. The end credit mentions some of its inspirations: CIA subliminals, Warhol's Double Elvis, Hitchcock ice-cube cameo, Joan Miró soup, Peckinpah’s 'Convoy', 'Oops, I Did It Again', Soviet propaganda, the black cat from Manet's Olympia, hundreds more...

This will surely become my January's most memorable viewing: Highly recommended - 9/10 and 10/10.

EXTRA: So I had to watch my other Hungarian animation favorite, Réka Bucsi's SYMPHONY NO. 42 - again, for the 15/20 time... I think I'll just put it on every week, like a record of a song you love.

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2 JAPANESE DRAMAS:

🍿 THE INHERITANCE (1962), my 4th jazzy Noir thriller by Masaki Kobayashi. A dying industrialist wants to divide his $7M estate between his young wife and 3 heirs he bore out of wedlock, and everyone around him schemes to get a piece of it. The corrupting influence of greed, lust, betrayal and selfishness. It includes a rape scene which radicalizes the only impartial character, the CEO's loyal secretary, and turns her into another revenging vulture.

Next on my list - his nearly 10 hour epic 'The Human Condition'.

🍿 MEGANE (GLASSES) (2007) is my second film by Naoko Ogigami, and a companion piece to her 'Kamome Dinner', which I enjoyed so much last week. It even features 2 of the same 3 actresses who played 'lost in Helsinki' in the previous story. But the super-minimalist, "eclectic" plot of an anti-social woman on vacation on a tiny, remote resort inn, where nearly nothing happens, and where everybody takes comfort in doing nothing, bore me for 25 minutes. ⬇️Did Not Finish⬇️ - Sorry! [*Female Director*]

🍿

ETERNITY AND A DAY (1998), my first Greek Magical Realism work by Theo Angelopoulos. It's a story about me, memories of an old poet who's about to die, remembering the many people in his life who are no longer there, and regretting all the decisions that brought him to where he is now. In the end, the only person sharing this last day in his life is a random boy, an Albanian "Squeegee kid" whom he rescues from the police. ''My only regret, Anna... is to not have finished anything. I left all as a draft, shattered words here and there.''

🍿

3 WITH TILDA SWINTON:

🍿 CAPRICE (1986), my first by Joanna Hogg, was also Swinton's very first film, credited here as "Matilda Swinton", made while they were both in art school. An Alice in Fashion-land trifle about a young woman who enters and lives inside a fashion magazine. British New Wave /Duran Duran style nonsense. [*Female Director*]

🍿 THE SLUGGARD (Also 1986, starts at 38:00) was a wordless artsy film school-type attempt at symbolism. She plays a dirty slob.

🍿 Joshua Oppenheimer's new apocalyptic THE END was hailed by David Ehrlich and other critics, as a ground-breaking achievement and the best musical of 2024. So I was excited to finally be able to see it. It opens with a TS Elliot quote, and it stars oil tycoon Michael Shannon and wife Tilda Swinton who fortified their family in a salt-mine luxury bunker 25 years after everybody on the surface of the earth perished. A bold and ambitious project, like 'The umbrellas of Cherbourg', it combines a meditation on the lies and the guilt of being left behind, with characters who burst out singing whenever they want to underscore a painful emotional point. But in the end, it didn't work for me; Except of one beautiful song, If only I, the rest of the score, as much as it tried to emulate Stephen Sondheim, was forgettable, and at the end of the 2.5 hour run, the dramatic interactions of the family felt like an unfocused soap opera. 5/10.

(I was going to follow up with his 'The Look of silence', the companion piece to the masterful 'The act of killing', but never got to it.)

🍿

"You took your shot, now I'm taking mine".

When Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou, of 'Every Frame a Painting' fame, stopped producing terrific videos 8 years ago, they penned a thoughtful 'Postmortem’ piece. When they returned last September with new essay, THE SUSTAINED TWO-SHOT, they teased of their first live-action narrative short.

THE SECOND is that short, and it feeds on all the insightful knowledge seen in their videos. How exciting!

It dropped yesterday together with another essay, WHERE DO YOU PUT THE CAMERA. It all makes sense now!

And then, they also posted a bonus video of 'Behind the scenes - Animatic vs. Final'.

More: IN PRAISE OF CHAIRS.

🍿

2 BY ISRAELI DIRECTOR SHIRA HAIMOVICI:

🍿 THE HISTORY OF LONELINESS (2013) tells of a young woman who's addicted to attending 'Shiva' sittings. Like Harold of 'Maud's, she clips death announcements from the papers, and visit the homes of the grieving families. Until that time...

🍿 SUMMER SHADE (צל בקיץ) (2020) starts as an un-interesting story about a vacationing teenage girl cooling off alone in a waterhole in the mountains. But then it becomes very interesting when 4 ultra-orthodox Jewish young men arrive at the little pond for a ritual immersion "tevilah", and chase her off. [*Female Director*]

🍿

METRONOM (2022) is an anxiety-filled Romanian drama taking place in Ceaușescu's oppressive Bucharest of 1972. The first half is an unfocused story of an ordinary teenage girl who's boyfriend is about to leave the country with his family. It's a drab and noisy world, boring and joyless.

But in the evening she goes to a party and they dance to the corrupting music of Jim Morrison. It is being transmitted from an off-shore 'Free Europe' station which was illegal at the time, and everybody's life changes dramatically when the Romanian secret police bursts in and arrests all the kids for treason against the state. It turns sharply depressing very quickly.

🍿

MY FIRST TWO WITH ROBERT TAYLOR:

🍿 THE LAST HUNT was a hard watch. A revisionist western about the genocide of the American Indians, told via a story of two buffalo hunters, one evil and one who had a nominal change of heart. The American original sin, even before importing black slaves from Africa, was the deliberate extinction of all Native Americans. When not slaughtered outright, their way of life was destroyed through the annihilation of the massive herds of buffaloes which sustained them. This movie shows some of the killings, simulated or not, and is generally very unpleasant, even for meat-eaters. It was made in 1956, and unsurprisingly did not do well in the box office.

Robert Taylor plays the Bad Guy as a cruel, self-loathing sadist, an open racist and a mean rapist. But he ends up frozen to death, in a similar position to the one Jack Torrance found himself.

🍿 THE HOAXSTERS (1952) was a shameless piece of American Cold-War, anti-communist propaganda, a "Documentary" made during the height of McCarthyism's reign of Red Terror Scare. Wow! The virulent demagoguery is hysterically prescient. Capitalism version of "Triumph des Willens". You have to see it to believe it.

Robert Taylor was one of the narrators. It's strange that his real-life good friend Ronald Reagan didn't participate.

🍿

SPLASHBACK (2024) is a black-and-white, old-fashioned comedy about a "Milton"-type mousey guy who works in the supply room at Cape Canaveral during the Apollo 11 launch, and who invent the "pee net" you put in the urinals. It looks like an elaborate American production, but it's actually a small-time Croatian gig done on a shoestring. The best part was the title sequence done in 100% Saul Bass style. 3/10.

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THE ONLY LAUREL & HARDY PREQUEL-SEQUEL COMEDIES:

🍿 "He who filters your good name, steals trash."

TIT FOR TAT (1935) was apparently the only sequel these two made, a perfectly excellent 2-reel comedy. A feud between two neighboring store owners with a fine escalation of grievances, while a customer helps himself to free goods from the store which they neglect. 7/10.

🍿 THEM THERE HILLS, made 5 months earlier, was so successful, that they went ahead and followed it with 'Tit for tat'. But that was of distinctively lower quality. Oliver Hardy was really abusive to his pal, here and actually, always.

🍿

THE GRANDMOTHER (1970) is my 7th or so film by David Lynch. I swear that it was on my planned watch-list for this week, even before the news of his death broke. It's a 33 min. experimental short about an abused boy who "grows" a grandmother from a "seed". I'm sorry that he dies, but I never liked any of his films too much, and didn't like this one either. 1/10.

RIP, David Lynch!

🍿

THIS WEEK'S SHORT FILMS:

🍿 NIGHT BUS (2019), a strange and nightmarish Taiwanese animation with a mysterious plot that get weirder, more violent and uglier for 20 straight minutes. Atmospheric score and unusual visual style. CW: Monkey death, brutal vengeance, unrequited love.

🍿 In WILD LIFE (2011), a young Englishman moves to the Canadian prairie province of Alberta in 1909. A wonderful short by Canadian animator duo Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, and their first of two nominations for the Academy Award. Brilliant imagination, extremely well told. This is my third shot by them, after 'The flying Sailor' and 'When the day breaks'. 9/10 - Recommended! [*Female Directors*]

🍿 A STAR IN THE NIGHT, Don Siegel'e directorial debut, earned him one of the two Oscars he won in 1946 (The other was for his documentary short 'Hitler Lives'.) It's a modern day retelling of the Nativity story plus some elements from 'A Chris!mas's Story' thrown in. 3 cowboys riding in the desert and find a motel somewhere in Arizona or so, with Nicky, its mean owner with the thickest Italian accent you ever heard. I've never seen a more sentimental hogwash in all'a my life! But it worked! 8/10.

🍿 A PURE SPIRIT​ (2004), ​my ​5th by Mia Hansen-Løve​ , and her very first short. Basically, it's just a poetic exercise of a young woman walking in the park. [*Female Director*]

🍿 THE WINDSHIELD WIPER won the 2022 Oscars, and I'm sure I disagree. Interesting Rotoscope cell animation, but otherwise it's a collage of unrelated snippets about modern dating. There's some hipster sitting at a cafe, smoking a whole pack of cigarettes and asking himself 'What is love?'. 2/10.

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THROW-BACK TO THE ADORA ART PROJECT:  

The whole Adora Art Project!

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(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[amber-tortoiseshell]

hello!! i just found your blog and am absolutely fascinated with cat genetics! i was hoping you might be able to answer a question i have (maybe its for a warrior cats OC who could say....)

is it possible for a cat with a calico type coat pattern to not have any orange patches? like is there a type of cat that exists where instead of the orange its blue/grey so the cat is basically a monotone "calico" (white, grey, black) ?

you have a really amazing blog!! definitely know what i'm scrolling thru for the next few hours :D

Wow, i'm happy to hear it 😸 And warrior cat OCs are more than welcome here...

If I understand correctly, you're asking if it's possible to have a tricolor cat without orange, yeah?

There are of course tabbies, where the agouti background is differently colored than the pattern itself, which can look very patchy on a high-white cat, especially with blotched tabbies:

However this might not be what you're looking for.

Normally a "monocrome calico" isn't possible - torties (including calicos) all have a black-based (black, blue, chocolate, amber ect) and an red-based color (red, cream ect). The dilution level of the different colors have to be the same: you can't mix black (dense) and blue (diluted).

But now to the good news: there are chimeras! A chimera happens when two embryos fuse in the womb. If they have different phenotypes, the resulting cat will look like a patchwork of these colorations. So chimeras can absolutely mix any colors, go wild.

source, source

(I can't guarantee that these cats above are true chimeras. There could be gene malfunctions and somatic mutations at play, but the main point of this to show that such effect is possible, so i think it doesn't really matter now.)

[everybody-loves-purdy]

A criticism I saw someone give for Ivypool's Heart was it just seems like a series of Quick time events

Some criticisms were just because it is a traveling book.

Then you obviously have the criticisms about Ivypool being rude to Dove

(You know despite this book being about her learning to deal with her grief)

This one is more worry but I have seen some people worried about indigenous coding of the wild cats

Though one criticism was like Galestar intermingling and speeding up the endangeredness of the wildcats

Comparing it to indigenous erasure

One criticism I kinda agree with is that some of the characters were flat but like we see them for a short time so of course they'd be flat

Then just people not liking Stormclan

The quick time events thing I do get, it did sometimes feel like “do thing then move on” but given how the warriors community do not like travelling books on the whole I feel that specifically may have been a lose-lose situation with the Erins (especially since it’s got criticism just for being a travelling book anyway,). It was a little jarring for me but I didn’t mind it personally, I get why it would bother people though.

The Ivypool and Dovewing stuff I’ve made a few posts on before and thankfully that seemed to die down mostly before the book was released.

Ok so about the wildcats. I absolutely cannot comment on the indigenous coding allegations as I am not indigenous. However, the thing about Galestar and her kids intermingling. I have full faith that was done to directly reference how no Scottish wildcats are genetically “pure” as it were. All Scottish wildcats (to our knowledge) have domestic cat DNA in them thanks to hybridising with domestic cats. This seems to have mainly begun about 70 years ago, which tracks for the kind of timeline you would expect Galestar to have come across the wildcats (I would say since SkyClan were still in the forest you’re probably looking at this whole affair happening anywhere between 50-80 years ago ish). So this does mean that the Scottish wildcat is, in a way, effectively extinct. (Although there is hope to reintroduce genetically “pure” populations thanks to selective breeding and gene mapping).

Here’s a pretty good article I found on the whole thing.

But yeah to go back to warrior cats. There is no doubt in my mind that is what was being directly referenced here. The similarities to indigenous erasure is just unfortunate coincidence I feel.

Characters being flat is a subjective thing I can’t really comment on that, if you feel that the characters were flat then fine, if you don’t then also fine.

If you don’t like StormClan then fine, it really does come out of left field and I can easily see why opinions would be divided on such a big lore drop/retcon. But I’ve seen so many people not like them but they haven’t read the book and have gone off of the opinions of others or from reading summaries. To that I will say. I think people should read the books themselves before casting full judgement on something. Obviously an opinion can be formed without reading the book but I think full context is always important. For example, when I first read summaries of AVOS before reading the books themselves I hated the concept of Darktail! I thought he was forced in and a pathetic excuse to conjure up another Tigerstar. Then I actually read the books and my entire perspective changed. The story was the same but since the way it was delivered to me was different, so was my opinion. Now I love Darktail so much, he’s my second favourite warriors cat character. You could always read the books and then still hold the same opinion, but at least you know that opinion is fully informed.

[not-poignant]

hiya pia! I just saw your new puppy on Instagram!! congrats, he's so cute! I was just wondering, is he a rescue?

cuddles to him and Maybe 🤗

Hi anon,

He's not a rescue! We've always had rescue cats, which is actually part of the reason we can't get a rescue dog, lol. I'm about to talk a lot about it, so get ready! Lol

So firstly, in Western Australia, poodle x rescue puppies don't really exist at all in rescue organisations , and Glen and I are both allergic to highly shedding dogs as well as dogs with very short hair, and we needed a trainable / biddable puppy because we have a cat with a lot of behavioural issues. We've had to litter test each litter of puppies we've met with to see which ones were suitable / not suitable with our allergy issues.

Unlike other places in the world, poodles are actually very hard to find here, and as someone who's had my eyes on rescue organisations on and off for 10 years I can say with a lot of confidence we were never going to find a non-shedding puppy or dog without significant behavioural issues in a rescue. It was nearly impossible before the pandemic, and it's been impossible since.

Western Australia has a dog breed bottleneck, because before frozen sperm existed, most people had to pay around $10,000 to get a new dog of any kind because of the flight fees. On top of that, we have the strictest quarantine in the world. Any dogs to introduce new genetic lineages into a breed from overseas had to spend three months in a concrete cell, with no comforts and only allowed short visits per day. As a result, many of these dogs developed behavioural issues.

But this has meant that some purebreeds don't exist at all in Western Australia, or are just extremely uncommon. There's no medium poodles in Western Australia. There's only two active miniature poodle breeders. Borzoi aren't here. The list of like... fairly common dogs that don't exist here, or only exist in small numbers, is huge. And this means what filters into the rescues tends to be the most popular breeds - staffies, kelpies, malamutes, huskies, german shepherds, labradors and their mixes - all dogs we can't have as pets :(

So, we looked into purebreeds for a long time, and fell in love with some standard poodle puppies we met several months ago, but they were just too big for our cottage, and for our 12 year old 'I have so many behavioural issues Pia learned clicker training just to manage me' rescue cat.

We actually consulted with a trainer who specialises in PTSD dogs quite a few months ago before making this decision and deciding on Tobermory, and she was the one who suggested we go this path.

Rescues are great, I'm a huge rescue animal proponent, I've worked in both wild animal rehabilitation, animal fostering, and in animal rescue at various times in my life. For most people who aren't dealing with allergies (and keeping in mind that a low-shedding dog isn't hypoallergenic! Glen and I are still having allergic reactions, they're just not hives or asthma attacks, and we can manage congestion/breathing issues etc. with antihistamines + rescue inhalers), or who don't already have problem pets to worry about, it's absolutely one of the first avenues people should try!

But puppies from reputable and trustworthy breeders (whether mixes or purebreed) are often bred for qualities that can be more reliable in people who are trying to meet certain needs. And I advocate people go in that direction too if that's the only way they can have or live with a dog. Especially if they can meet with the breeder, meet the parents, meet the puppies multiple times, see (and check) health testing results, and those dogs are being registered, if not through a Purebreed Register (which honestly guarantees nothing except conformation, and often puts health and sometimes even temperament by the wayside), then through a reputable Register that has a code of ethics where you can report a breeder for poor practices and trust that they will be held accountable.

A small fluffy cutesy dog is actually not my favoured kind of dog in terms of how he looks. If I were picking a dog for cosmetic reasons, it'd be such a different dog!! :D I prefer borzoi, or leonbergers (two dogs that don't exist here), or landseer newfoundlands (doesn't exist here), or large munsterlanders (doesn't exist here) etc.

But in terms of temperament and what we need him for? He's perfect. Plus I can still breathe through my nose today and I'm not covered in hives, which is a win!

Anyway, I realise I could've answered this with a short 'no he's not a rescue' lol, but I feel like a lot of folks don't understand what it's like in Western Australia, one of the most isolated major cities in the whole world geographically, and what that means for genetic bottlenecks, issues with finding certain kinds of dogs in rescue, and how the chances of finding a rescue that works can drastically plummet if you're already dealing with pets that have stress, anxiety, and behavioural issues at home.

Maybe was this kind of rescue. She would have been euthanased before we got her. In fact she was literally 20 minutes away from being put to sleep, before we got her. She went on to develop multiple behavioural issues being a multigen feral with Bengal background, which is a pretty bad combo in Western Australian bushland (multigen feral cats are something else here, and have been mistaken for mountain lines in the bush). She's needed intensive and time-consuming management since we got her, and it means every other animal around her needs to be as easy to manage as humanly possible.

But yeah it's put me in an interesting quandary for about 7 years? Longer? At any rate, TL;DR not a rescue! :D

[bonefall]

Clanmew Expansion: Fruits

And the way Clan cats classify them.

DISCLAIMER: For this lesson, I will ask everyone to bear with how these words are approximate translations, and not always botanically accurate! This is so there are some cooler words everyone can use for their OC names <3

A Clan cat's definition of FRUIT is, "The objects produced by trees and bushes that are not leaves or flowers." This concept is quite different from the casual English concept of a fruit, which is a category of food! This is because cats are OBLIGATE CARNIVORES, and it's mostly ThunderClan that is able to taste sweetness at all thanks to a genetic mutation (known as Sweetness Tolerance).

So remember! Clan cats do not believe that trees produce "seeds"! Every solid object produced by a tree or a bush, which is not a leaf or flower, is a "fruit" by Clanmew definition.

Fruit (from tree or bush) = Praw

Seed (not from tree or bush) = Hi'i

This means that their definition of fruit includes MANY things, which are then sorted further into 5 categories.

Below the cut:

Clanmew Fruit Classification

What is a Deathberry?

A nearly exhaustive list of all the berry-producing plants in this region. 26 words!

Here's a little diagram to make this easier!

[ID: The five categories of Clanmew "fruits."]

Acorn = Kong

Any solid object which could be further ground up into a powder. Most praw contain a kong, but all of the praw of oak trees are kong alone. This could be translated in several ways; Acorn, seed, core, pit, kernel, etc.

Many kong are an active poison to Clan cats, and carefully avoided! A poison kong is called a "deathberry," which will be explained more further down.

Nut = Nekboq

Because of how deadly certain 'kong' are, Clan cats believe that nuts exist to keep them safe from accidental poisonings. A good example of this is the plum pit, which is a hard nut to crack, containing a core that can be ground up into potent cyanide.

Any hard, inedible shell around another component of a praw makes it a nut, by Clanmew standards. To a Clan cat, bananas, avocados, and mangoes would be nekboq if they somehow encountered them.

But, of course, those are tropical fruits! Generally, the nekboq they encounter in nature 'make sense' to us. Conkers, plum pits, beechnuts. So on.

Cone = Krriki

The woody objects produced by conifers, of all shapes and sizes.

A pinecone that's opened up, bristly, and has released all of its pollen or kong is called an Urrk. This word is no longer used in names by the modern era because it has become vulgar slang.

Berry = Lepe

This is what humans think of when we say "fruit." It's a fleshy, usually juicy praw that wild animals like to eat. Unlike English, 'berry' refers to any size of sweet fruit, from huge apples all the way down to tiny rowanberries.

ThunderClan has a high concentration of Sweetness Tolerance, a simple gene that's turned their ability to taste sweet back on, and so are the only Clan that has a culinary interest in berries! This is why Clanmew doesn't have the same 'concept' of fruits that we do.

If you were to say, "Wobe," "Crab Apple," you would be referring to the tree. Not the apples. "Wobe lepe" would refer to the berries on the crab apple tree.

Samara = Frass

A sort of "other" category for anything else produced by trees that doesn't fall neatly into the other categories. Catkins on willows, the real winged samaras that maple trees produce, and the fuzzy streaming bits that birch trees make are all "frass" to Clan cats.

What is a Deathberry?

A deathberry, or a Worrpraw is any fruit that can kill through ingestion. There are LOTS of deathberries, though the bright red, widespread yew is the most well known.

The berry of the rowan, Mabrre, is only a deathberry until it's ripe!

BIG OLD LIST OF BERRY-FRUITS

Deathberries are marked in red! Fruits especially valued for eating are marked yellow! Plants with a noteworthy non-culinary use are marked with blue!

Domestic Apple (Malus domestica) = Shobe Not all apple trees are equal. This tree is defined by producing sweet, delicious apples that a ThunderClan cat wants to eat. Nothing else about its foliage is different from a 'Wobe' apple tree.

Wild Apple (Malus sylvestric) = Wobe We might call this a 'crab apple.' Creates fruits much smaller and more bitter than a Shobe tree, but is generally quite hardy and enduring.

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) = Bayab The most common and readily used fruit plant in all the Clan territories, also called 'brambles' in English. This plant is used for TONS of crafting purposes, grows readily, and produces some thorns

Plum (Prunus domestica) = Neob

Damson (Prunus domestica ssp. insititia) = Meob Remarkably similar to a plum, but smaller, longer in shape, with a tangier, 'spicier' flavor. Preferred by ShadowClan; an oddity, as most non-Thunder Clans have no interest in fruits.

Pear (Pyrus communis) = Rrobe

Juniper (Juniperus communis) = Raerrai ShadowClan's BELOVED spice, the closest thing to peppers they have. Sometimes described as bearing "Lepekong" for being an odd mix of Acorn and Berry, its fruit is dried, crushed, and powdered before being used to cook. IMPORTANT: Pregnant cats cannot have juniper spice, as it can cause a miscarriage.

Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) = Reyab Makes one of the most delicious and sought-after fruits, especially in ThunderClan. Resembles a red blackberry.

Elder (Sambucus nigra) = Heegyai Edible when cooked but not delicious, and causes vomiting when eaten too much.

Currant (Ribes rubrum) = Mwayaa BRIGHT RED AND POISONOUS. A DEATHBERRY.

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) = Lupi A deep blue berry that tastes somewhat like blueberries.

Dewberry (Rubus caesius) = Oopri A big, waxy cousin of the blackberry. Known as a more disappointing version, because it's sour even when ripe.

Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) = Sspele Sometimes called by a longer name, 'Gawsspelepe,' because this berry is so fat it's often used for ThunderClan jams.

Crowberry (Epetrum Nigrum) = Yayirr A WindClan-exclusive berry that isn't usually eaten, because of its acidic taste and tendency to cause headaches. It's used as a rich dye.

Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) = Urryab A hardy bush that produces tiny, bristly, delicious red berries. Notably, this is a wild type that is much smaller and seedier than what humans are used to.

Cherry (Prunus avium) = Obeo A tree that produces gorgeous blossoms and a dark red berry, but must be eaten in moderation and the pit must ALWAYS be removed. Associated with being a strange mix of apple and plum. A cherry to a Clan cat is the size of an apple to a human.

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) = Awlgoo From a contraction of Sun + Bite + Dewberry. A plant introduced and naturalized, Clan cats find this plant IDEAL for treating all types of burns. Especially because Awlgoo is fire-resistant, and easily found after bad wildfires.

Knoutberry (Rubus chamaemorus) = Soob THERE IS NO BERRY MORE BELOVED IN THUNDERCLAN THAN THIS. It grows primarily in marshy, open territory, and was previously quite rare in the ThunderClan Forest territories. In the Lake, there's a big knoutberry patch on the border between Thunder and Shadow, and organizing clean, honorable battles for this patch became a big consideration in diplomacy between Blackstar and Firestar. It is often kept preserved by ThunderClan through the winter, and fed to sick cats as a health booster. Kits and apprentices will occasionally pretend to be sick to be given a taste.

Sloe (Prunus spinosa) = Mweek'ka In English, this is also called Blackthorn. This plant is used most often as camp reinforcement thanks to its huge thorns and thick branches. The fruits are usually disgustingly bitter, but ShadowClan alone has realized that the fruits can be frozen to remove the horrible taste. They use this to their economic advantage, making sloe jam to trade to ThunderClan during the winter when they can't find any fresh fruits.

Yew (Taxus baccata) = Remwr The most notorious deathberry, one of the only plants that can grow in the understorey of non-native trees like the sitka spruce and beech. All parts of a yew, from needle to berry, are deadly poisonous. Poisoning from yew causes heart failure.

Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) = Palimwr Better known by its common name; Deadly Nightshade. Said to grow in the territory of inexperienced and careless Clerics, or sprouts as a warning to mind their skills. Poisoning from belladonna causes neurological damage.

Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) = Ssloop A plant that really likes wet areas. Not particularly delicious or sought-after.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium) = Wask A tree or bush with famously waxy, thorny leaves... and bright red, toxic berries. Like most deathberries, it can be safely eaten by birds, but this tree goes even further by providing birds a place to rest and hide. Clan cats can't hunt in holly.

Lingon (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) = Kroob A hardy berry-producing plant mostly seen in WindClan. Used as a laxative.

Sea-Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) = Remgubu From Yew + Stomach, for its use as a medicine for some stomach and intestinal treatments. Has a similar color to knoutberry, which can result in a disappointing surprise for a young cat who pretends to have stomach issues hoping for a taste of awlgoo

Cotoneaster (Various) = Lepigu From Berry + Bird. Red, bitter berries that attract birds.