#this was very timely for me

[fayeandknight]

For a lot of reasons I am pretty much the only person who handles/trains with Forte.

But tonight my coworker (L) wanted to try demoing something for a class (taught by a different coworker) and didn't have a dog to do so with. So I offered them Forte. L asked if he'd work for them and I said guess we'll find out and handed them his leash and bag of treats.

The demo was for building eye contact/getting the dog to check in. The first few times L used the Watch cue Forte looked at me.

After a few reps he started earnestly offering L engagement and by the time they were ready to demo it was pretty much flawless. (The exercise was having the dog sit in heel position, place food on a nearby chair, wait for voluntary eye contact, then release to the food.)

It was really cool to watch because I seldom get to see his work ethic outside of working him myself. And it made me reflect on what an awesome dog he is and how much he really does have the handler focus I wanted.

Objectively, this is not new information for me. But sometimes I get too focused on our mistakes and miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.

But watching him pick up on the game and give L his rapt attention was a neat experience. I thought, damn that's a fun dog to train. Look at that focus. Look at that eagerness to work. And then thought, oh shit that's my dog!!

So I guess this is a gentle reminder to myself to occasionally take a step back and get out of my own head. That the foundations are there.

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[cork-run]

the names of certain mob-involved trans women have been changed

[wildbasil]

things haven't been great but i think they will be. eventually 🌻🌼🩷

[stil-lindigo]

lead balloon (the tumblr post that saved me)

if this comic resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you donated to this palestinian family's escape fund.

--

no creative notes because this isn't that kind of comic.

I know I don’t owe any of you anything but I still felt compelled to write about my long term absence. And I feel far enough away from the dangerous spot I was in to be able to make this comic. I have a therapist now, and she agreed that making this could be a very cathartic gesture, and the start of properly leaving these thoughts behind me. I am still, at seemingly random times, blindsided by fleeting desires to kill myself. They’re always passing urges, but it’s disarming, and uncomfortable. I worry sometimes that my brain’s spent so long thinking only about suicide that it’s forgotten how to think about anything else. Like, now that I've opened that door for myself, I'll never be able to fully shut it again. But I’m trying my best to encourage my mind in other directions. We'll see how that goes.

I am still donating all proceeds from my store to Palestinian causes. So far, I've donated over $15K, not including donations coming from my own pocket or the fundraising streams which jointly raised around $10K. In the time since I made my initial post about where this money would be going, the focus has shifted from aid organisations to directly donating to escape funds.

If you'd like to do the same, you can look at Operation Olive Branch, which hosts hundreds of Palestinian escape funds or donate to Safebow, which has helped facilitate the safe crossing and securing of important medical procedures for over 150 at-risk palestinians since the beginning of the genocide.

[bereft-of-frogs]

There’s that post that’s like ‘everyone should get into a tiny niche fandom at least once’ fully agree, that was really fun -- but I would like to add that everyone should get into a fandom where their opinions run counter to major fanon because it really teaches you about sticking to your guns and trusting your interpretation of the text without having to rely on peer validation

because WHAT are people talking about sometimes

[noodles-and-tea]

Haha whoops

[spacedace]

What is it about laying on the floor when you're overwhelmed that makes everything feel so much better?

[o0kawaii0o]

ROMANCE DAWN TRIO

[boochanz]

hey let's have this conversation again since the like/reblog ratio is getting SOOOO much worse. if you like content, reblog it. the people who follow you cannot see when you've liked a post, unless your likes are visible and they are routinely going through them, which i assure you they are not. by reblogging content, you are making it visible to other accounts. fanart, gifs, edits, etc. may be fun to make but they are very time consuming and it is much appreciated that if you enjoy them, you take the brief moment to reblog them to show that appreciation - and it helps. as fun as they may be, it is often kind of discouraging for posts to not do well because for every one person that reblogged it, five left a like and kept it pushing

[canisalbus]

✦ I've been saving all my summers for you ✦

[katsinspats]

Thematically appropriate comic for Make a Terrible Comic Day!!

I saw the original post this morning and it made me get out of bed to make something, so thank u Pseudonym Jones mission accomplished

[hinamie]

I'll rip in hands and teeth and take a bite

[pangur-and-grim]

I’m too gullible with people. I’ll have encounters and be like “aw they seemed nice ☺️” and then everyone around me will be like NONONONONO THAT WAS THE DEVIL!!!!!!!

[kimdokjas]

though the movie might be cancelled, yuri on ice will live forever in our hearts. thank you yoi fandom, it's been real ♡