#it was either this or domestic dog

[habeascorpseus]

"just dont lose yourself, okay?"

"i cant. i've tried to."

"Don't forget to enjoy this, today. Cuz if you lose yourself in trying to hurt the people who took it, you might....just don't forget the good stuff, okay?"

"i cant. i've tried."

godddd cellbits recurring motif of "i cant. ive tried." whenever someone tells him not to lose himself, both the bad and the good is so.. the implication of a perpetual fruitless spiral of turning man to monster and monster to man, and failing at both because loves too deeply and instinct is ingrained into him deeper than the carvings in his knife. he cant fucking stand himself. he can't stand how he can't be normal and has to rely on drinking copius amounts of coffee to stay awake enough to not lose it. he can't stand how even in the depths of his desire for vengeance, he hears the pain in his loved ones' voices and still stops to listen. these two parts of him have to be incongruous, because he knows he was happier when he was one without the other. and yet, time and time again the people who care about him tell him not to lose himself like they view him as whole. and again and again, he tells them that he can't. because he's tried to break himself in half and it doesnt fucking work like that. and he'll continue until he destroys himself because hes fucking Tired of being whole.

[blueboyluca]

I am not a scientist (duh) but I don't see why the dog domestication argument is always between hunter vs scavenger. It always comes down to these two options (I've read a lot of dog books).

Seems more likely to me that it would have come about from deliberate feeding rather than scavenging or hunting food. Like, humans across the world and across cultures all do this really specific thing with animals: feed them. Seems likely to me that feeding the wolf was just the first step in the domestication process.

I agree with Derr that scavenging seems unlikely given that plenty of animals scavenge from humans and haven't become domesticated so far. I also see Wynne's point that the hunting story seems a little too romanticised to be based in reality. But what's the best way to make an animal tolerate you, if not like you? Give it something to eat.

[figofswords]

hey any furries out there know how to draw a goat

[mvmnbnv]

Seeing all these braindead bozos boil vis decision to become an enforcer down to just wanting to fuck caitlyn is going to make me lose my shit

[joonebugg]

Guys just hear me out...therian cross

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

teen sugu is a wolf but geto is a fox . u wouldnt get it

[max-iwtaco]

wolf fortress two

[saintpallis]

I feel awkward about the word "owner" so here's a couple alternate words for domestic animals to refer to their humans :3

- Human

- Caregiver

- Carer

- Best friend

- Watcher

- Trainer

- Dogsitter

- Pal, Buddy, or any other term for a friend

[teetkmost123]

Shadow*eating pancakes that Sonic made*:

Sonic: sooooooo, how are the pancakes?

Shadow: it's as fucking dry as Amy's sense of humour, and did you poison my coffee again?

Sonic:

Sonic: you can have my chilli dog instead if you want?

Shadow: and risking the food poisoning? no thanks.

[unknownarmageddon]

killer’s tail, long and spindly, whipped against cross’s flank, weaving and dancing in the air in time with the quick, sharp snaps of killer’s thin but brittle wings.

cross snapped at his companion, his sharp maw bared at the gangly, runt-ish beast that continuously struck that damned tail to cross’s leathery hide.

he had half the mind to twist and rake his claws down the fucker’s underbelly, if a reprimanding whistle didnt force him back into his lane.

killer’s fierce, scarred face contorted in a snarl of delight at how quick cross obeyed his rider’s sharp tongue.

either way, at the rate it was going, neither dragon was meeting their goals, and cross was forced to land, his claw pointed wings hooking to the floor. he grounded himself with a heaving breath, a rumble in his throat as his rider slid off his saddle.

killer landed a moment later, damn near throwing his own rider off and prowling over to cross, who rumbled in warning. it went entirely unheeded, killer circling around him and nipping at cross’s tail, chuffing his amusement at the irritation cross hissed out.

killer’s thick, but long neck twisted, turning in an unnerving way to peer back at cross’s rider, a low rumble of distaste in his chest, a thick, black puff of smoke rushing from his nostrils at the sight of the damned training whip.

killer was like a snake, thin by dragon standards, but no less, making up for it in speed. cross was more built, thicker, with denser hide and powerful muscles, his head rounded where killer had a more triangular head, with rows of tightly packed little teeth, like a piranha, where cross had a single row of massive teeth, two of them jutting so low that they made resting his head on the ground difficult.

killer was also making it difficult for cross to rest, the damned creature poking at cross with his wings, the thin, jagged clawed tip annoyingly jabbing right between cross’s thick scales. cross have a halfhearted snap but begrudgingly rose, shaking himself off.

killer, the untamable thing he was, contorted, and with a harsh snap, bit through the straps of his saddle. fourth one this week.

cross snorted, but lifted his own massive wings to let killer get his saddle off, killer’s snout dragging over cross’s underbelly as he nipped more carefully at the straps, and unlatched it rather than ripping through it. at least he was learning to not ruin cross’s equipment.

killer glanced again at their riders, and the flesh of his mouth pulled back from his teeth in a glittering grin and he batted at cross’s flank again with his tail, rumbling a challenge, and he was off with a strong beat of his wings, and cross lept into the air after him.

////

erm dragons au

i had this idea in like two seconds its wayyy undeveloped but here u go /silly

- storybook anon

YOOO ohh this fucking slaps actually. fuckign creatures dude

[blueboyluca]

Foremost among these, and the one most geneticists seem to prefer (even though I suspect many of them have never seen a wolf), is that wolves became accustomed to human company by hanging around their camps and picking up scraps of food from rubbish tips. As well as being dreary in the extreme, this explanation falls down simply because ‘domestication’ was already well under way by the time humans congregated in large enough settlements to produce sufficient waste to sustain an animal with the appetite of a wolf. Nor does it explain why, of all animals including coyotes, jackals, badgers and bears capable of surviving on refuse, none ever developed a bond of the strength and depth that comes close to matching that between human and wolf – in its modern incarnation, the dog. Almost nothing remains of human activity on the open plains, so evidence of cooperative hunting is always going to be hard to find. Only in the dank recesses of subterranean caverns can we find physical evidence of our distant ancestry. At Chauvet it is not bones nor teeth but paintings and those enigmatic footprints that are the lens through which we glimpse the live of our ancestors.

— Professor Bryan Sykes, The Wolf Within (2018)

Ray and Lorna Coppinger argued that the earliest dogs did not occupy a niche as hunting companions for humans. Rather, it is far likelier that dogs evolved to fulfil a much more prosaic, even pitiful, role: that of scavengers around early human settlements. ...I recognize that the idea of dogs coming into being on trash dumps is much less appealing than the alternative story of hunters picking up wolf pups that will help them pursue prey… But the truth is, for all that we love to imagine our ancestors as lords and ladies hunting on horseback, most of us have to face up to the fact that we are derived from a long line of peasants, eking a living from recycled remnants. And what’s true for us is most likely true for our canine best friends too.

— Clive D.L. Wynne, Dog Is Love (2019)

So here they are, the two camps. Sykes' position is sentimental in an annoying way, but also makes very good counter arguments. Wynne's outlook takes on this holier-than-thou tone, which is even more annoying. I find them both frustrating because to me it's very much a "nice dichotomy, IDIOT!! what lies outside it???" situation.

[shopcat]

i literally think the aquarium that has the pregnant stingray claiming it's "possible" a shark impregnated her do not deserve to be open i'm sorry 😭 you cannot be so... plain stupid to mark down something like this as "oooaaaa you can't say it's impossible because we don't knowww science is about discovery okay ^_^" WRONG. SCIENCE IS ABOUT FUCKING SCIENCE...

in a real way it's honestly concerning that any facility that holds animals and i assume does their part to participate in conservation education and rehabilitation of animals which is the POINT of public aquariums and zoos ... would try to garner sensationalism in such a way and hide it behind "it could be possible we don't know yet!". like it literally could not be possible. and now there's like hundreds possibly thousands of people who genuinely believe blatant misinformation bc they were taken advantage of so they could get views on fucking tiktok. eyeroll. at the end of the day i'm just hoping it's a horrible pr team and the person who runs the social media accounts is braindead bc the idea of the actual qualified people working with these animals thinking these things is ... concerning at the least.

[rxttenfish]

............ i’m starting to worry that all the talk of “trash pandas” and people calling themselves raccoons have unfairly given people the idea that raccoons are safe or docile or easy to handle

like, the original wish to talk of them in more endearing terms was in reaction to the overarching narrative that they’re pests and should be exterminated, but that absolutely DOES NOT mean you should get close to raccoons nor treat them as pets. they are still a dangerous animal that you shouldn’t disturb, much less come within biting distance of a raccoon.

[feral-reverie]

Listen, I like dogs. I'll cuddle with and hang out with them, and I even have a dog but she's become the family dog. However, she's an exception, just like my mom's wolf hybrid was when I was younger. I just really don't want to get drool on me or smell like them... and I am not good with being near a dog that's barking, which is for various neurodivergent reasons. Whenever I come home she barks SO LOUD and SO AGRESSIVELY that I will growl and hiss at her when she greets me at the door barking. She feels bad when I do it, but like DUDE PLEASE YOU KNOW NO ONE LIKES THIS. YOU KNOW IT'S ME PLEASE REMEMBER. Meanwhile our other dog is chillin, but is so needy I feel bad for ignoring her but I have no energy.

[fyanimaldiversity]

in love w your blog thank you taking it home and feeding it soup

Thank you so much!

[neofelis----nebulosa]

I’m sorry but why do we as a society not acknowledge how insane it is that these are both the same species