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Heh, at least your cats are affectionate and appreciative! I’m another crazy bird lady, only the current manifestation involves chickens. At this moment we have over fifty pet chickens in six separate flocks and seven hens with chicks plus two more on nests. There is also a sick elderly Speckled Sussex hen on her third week of living in the kitchen (she has already received one blood transfusion for her Mystery Illness, and keeps angling for another) that cadges handouts every time I open the fridge, a blind hen that I hand-raised and who still gets carried inside every night, a real-live Chicken Boo rooster who started out as an orphaned feral chick last December, and a rooster in a home-built wheelchair.
Weird, I got weird . . . 😈
The jackdaw was certainly “fighting smart”! Did you notice how it grabbed one of the kestrel’s feet right off the bat? With that foot immobilized the poor kestrel couldn’t use her other foot to grab the jackdaw, although she kept trying. It was also interesting to see that both birds used the roll-on-the-back-with-feet-ready fighting tactic when they started to fight in the box. I’ve seen raptors do that often, but never corvids. Just like with cats, the bird with her back to the ground has the advantage in a fight; the jackdaw was too smart to engage first, and when the kestrel took the initiative she ended up losing the fight.
And of course, the kestrel’s mate was no help at all. :nea:
Well, I write fanfic based on an anime series. The original series is Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, but the version I tend to write is based on the first-round American translation, Battle of the Planets. It’s old-school . . . very old-school by today’s timeline. 😉 You can find my stuff at http://www.gatchfanfic.com under the authorname Barrdwing. (The page listing authors is http://www.gatchfanfic.com/authors.php?list=authors )
Wow, this is my first run through this thread, and I cannot believe what I’ve been missing! Purpleturtle, you have the most wonderful sculpting ability; I knew you were one heck of a fine painter, but seeing your paintwork on your own sculpts is even more amazing. I am in awe of what you’re created here. I think it’s the most wonderful thing ever that you are sculpting again! You can add me to the (rapidly growing) list of people who would be interested in buying your work should you ever decide to make pieces available. 😀 Your creations are marvellous!
I really like both Summer Dusk and the Cuttlefish Keeper! Dusk has all the rich jewel tones I slobber over, beautifully combined and layered, while Cuttlefish is bright and bold. On Cuttlefish, I particularly like the way you accented the sweeping curves of the sculpt. And the way you set the metallics in on the big side scales makes them peep out past the brighter colors like jewels. You’re onto something great with both of these guys! 😀
They’re beautiful! What a great idea, and I agree: the violet/purple dragon looks even better with his cousins than the gold one did. 😀
Those eyes look marvellous with his colors, drag0n! I love DreamingTree’s eyes. What size eyes did you choose for him, and what profile? I found that 9mm eyes work better on the griffins and small dragons, but haven’t pried the eyes out of my Keeper blank to see if 11mm is right for him or not. (Prying the eyes out scares me; I’m glad they ship them with the eyes separate now!)
I am very happy that these will be production, because I want one! (Jeeminy, I miss the site for two days, and something ultra-cool comes up . . . . 🙄 ) This is a beautiful color combination–I really, really like it. And, being a color fiend, I wonder what a “warm trio” might look like next to it. 😉
Crikey, we just made an offer on a house; this is not the best time for me to be drooling! 😳
I miss my SoCal desert so much. Moving up to Sac was necessary and has been a positive experience, but its appeal lies in “human things” more than natural: convenient stores, more jobs, swimming pools, restaurants. One of these days I’m going back to my happy place of sand and restless wind, with its cactus, creosote bush, zebratail lizards, red boulders on the canyon walls, and stars at night so brilliant you don’t even need a flashlight. Sharing all of this with critters like rattlesnakes, scorpions, and those dagblasted skittering fangfaced sun spiders . . . well, I don’t love them, but it’s still worth it.
Dragon Master wrote:bodine6127 wrote:
Too funny are those real or photo shopped??
LOL! Photoshopped, definitely–those aren’t dog or cat teeth; my bet is on some kind of monkey. The manipulation was very well-done, wasn’t it? But the end of the ostrich that’s really dangerous is the one with the feet! 😆
Merciful heavens, grayfire, is that a gigantic baby binky around your neck? They use pacifiers for otters? 😆
Drag0n: congratulations on your vacation! You’ve earned it, big time! 😀 And congrats to Shaun also for his new job!
Darjeb: sorry to hear that Spanky is being a stinker! 🙁 But seriously, stick to your guns. Some dogs need to hear the same thing many times over before they decide that you really do mean it. How old is Spanky? Most dogs go through a phase starting around four months old and lasting three to six months where they challenge you endlessly, do things they used to understand they shouldn’t do, and generally drive you bananas. It’s a normal part of growing up for a dog, but it does mean that the family has to present a united front regarding house rules for the dog, and be more stubborn than he is. Some breeds are worse about this than others: terriers, herding dogs, and some of the high-energy small breeds seem to be the toughest to outlast. Hang in there.
We have a tiny Yorkie who weighs less than four pounds even when dripping wet. He is cute as a bug and would love to be a dreadfully spoiled little monster, except that we’re not having any of that. Our other dog is a border collie whose motto is, “You couldn’t possibly have meant that to apply to me!” Never a dull minute . . . . 🙄
Thrippa and ghostndragon have made some good suggestions. You absolutely have been helping out in sales through your signs, and the managers should be giving you credit for that. They clearly think the signs are important: look at how they each went off trying to convince you to do their project when you faced them down! So if their projects are important to the managers, those clowns can jolly well start giving you credit for the sales that you have helped make happen. Heck, most shoppers are a little overwhelmed in a big store; it takes a good sign to draw their attention to an item or a sale. Ergo, YOU get credit for sales in those departments too.
A percentage? Shards, yes. The fact that they haven’t been giving you one yet only means that there’s a loophole in the system, and these jackass managers are exploiting it. The free ride can just stop right here: renegotiate your contract with the higher-ups (not the ones who’ve been exploiting you) and make them acknowledge what you contribute. Go over the managers’ heads. Use those photos. Collect the data from sales and show how your signs boost sales in those departments. And if the higher-ups are stupid enough to say no, then you can sweetly tell the managers that sorry, no free signs from you.
Regarding the pets: Well, the dog at least is just making a power play. Reassert yourself as the leader over him, and he’ll toe the line. That will be easier when Shaun isn’t there. Ein growls at you? Ein gets his furry buns in a five-minute time-out. Ein leaps at your plate? Ein gets a knee in the chest and a time-out. Ein sits for his food, thankyouverymuch; when you open a door for Ein, he sits and waits for your OK before he goes outside. Good dogs get praised; bad dogs get gently but firmly shown that that behavior isn’t acceptable to you. It will be harder when Shaun is present, because Ein knows that Shaun is causing you a lot of stress, and therefore Ein thinks that your position as a leader is weakened. Ein just wants to follow a strong leader. And frankly, you make a much better leader figure than Shaun: both because you were the original leader, and because Shaun’s methods are not doing Ein any favors at all. And dogs do not, repeat do not, respect a human who lets them do whatever they want. That’s not a leader; that’s a subordinate. Bad pattern to give a dog, believe me.
The cats? Well, they perceive the stress in the home too. The scratching may be their exercising it out, or they may be doing some territorial marking. But the same general methods apply. Cat goes after your plate, cat gets pushed to the ground. Cat jumps up on the kitchen counter, cat meets the squirt bottle. Gentle but firm. You are under a lot of stress but you are still a strong person and not even the beloved pets are allowed to push you around.
Anyway–I don’t want you to feel that the animals have turned against you. They’re each reacting in their own way to the tension between you and Shaun. They don’t hate you. They’re frightened and confused. When Shaun’s not there, take time to have positive interactions with them, but also make sure they understand that you are a strong leader figure. That will help them. When Shaun’s present, it may be harder because 1) he stresses you, which the animals know, and 2) he may decide to turn it into an argument. Keep it low-profile and hopefully he won’t notice.
