Okay, guys, here’s what’s going down.
I’m gonna change the title of this blog. Then I’m remaking Railerat as a different blog.
Which means that in about half an hour, you’re gonna want to hunt down “Railerat.tumblr.com” and follow that.
Sorry for the nuisance, but that’s just how it’s gonna have to be.
I can’t clear out 4k posts on Tumblr without giving myself carpal tunnel in the process but I don’t want 4k posts of nonsense behind me, that’s like four years of Tumblr or some bullshit like that.
I’m not sure I want to be affiliated with 20 year old Raile these days, okay.
Man, you guys are getting pretty dang sassy.
I’m watching you.
@my deer friend
It… this blog has been really aimless for a long time, actually. I’d honestly like to purge its contents and just start from zero, but I don’t think that’s physically possible!
Instead I’m just going to blog about animals and science and once in a while a fandom or OC thing.
Which means if you don’t have a huge fondness for cows or dogs or my characters, you might wanna move your butt outta here.
So what if I gave in and made this a rat/dog/farm animal blog with OCs and the odd fandom post mixed in?
So here’s a thing: All these dogs pictured above are purebred German shepherds.
The top two are from American show lines. They are bred solely for appearances and are not required to have any working titles. They are not required to pass any temperament tests and are not even required to be free of hip displaysia. These are (generally) some fucked-up German shepherds.
The next two down are from German show lines. German breeding regulations require all breeding stock to have schutzhund or herding titles, but this is not the top priority for show breeders, who continue to produce dogs with absurd conformation.
The bottom two are from European working lines. They are bred for drive, health, and temperament. The goal is to produce a dog who will not just prove to be sufficient to obtain titles in herding or schutzhund, but who will excel in a variety of working endeavors. These dogs embody what German shepherds are meant to be: Healthy, hearty working dogs.
You can read more about the ever-widening rift between show GSDs and working GSDs HERE.
I have a lot of opinions about this, in part because I am a dog trainer and I see a lot of Shepherds, and in part because I really love GSDs. They are one of my favourite breeds, and the “shoe shepherd” is one of my least favourite things.
Show-line Shepherds are bred to have this “graceful,” gliding stride on the show floor, with the dropped haunches you see here. It’s much more pronounced in American line Shepherds–to the point that it is not only cosmetically ridiculous, but harmful to the dog. If you tried to herd with or work a show GSD, you would probably end up with an injured dog. (And that’s not including the question of drive, which is admittedly not something EVERY DOG NEEDS!!! EXCLAMATION POINT ETC. But which really should be more of a consideration for shown dogs.)
Anyway, I strongly recommend reading this, it’s spot on.
I like our vet, she’s sassy.
She was denutting and denuding our cow when the father of the guy who was looking at our rabbits came over to watch. He mentioned that he just held his calfs and burned their horn nubs off without first knocking them out and numbing their heads.
The vet responded by saying, “Well, you can’t loose your license for animal cruelty.”
Zing.
SHITTY PIRATES…
I’m sure they’re discussing something very important. Like booty.
Bune looks like he’s got some exciting plans for it. Adohre… looks like Bune’s plans may be impractical.
Oops, I used my 4000th Tumblr post to talk about friend ethnicities. Okay.
Also, the one close Asian friend I had was in fact an elitist, racist, sexist mediocre dunce who nearly got my dog run over by a bunch of cars because he thought it’d be okay to do everything I explicitly told him not to do and then demanded I be grateful he ran a red light to try and fix it.
Amongst other things.
I’ll take Joe and Zevon and Wolfy and Raina and everyone else over that, thank you.
I understand the problem some people have where they have white friends or whatever and these people are their friends but also sometimes microaggressions??? Or a lot microaggressions, even (although if that happens a lot maybe you should try different friends.)
But my friends are great and are absolutely cool about my ethnicity, my otherkin deal, my gender, and my disabilities. These are all important things–not the entire foundation of a friendship, but I can talk about these things freely in an open manner and know they’ll listen and care and frequently agree with me. We can talk about anything we need or want to, openly, without horrible undertones or overtones or microtones or anyone getting super uncomfortable and unwilling to say why. If someone is uncomfortable, then we talk about it and sort it out or else drop it and not talk about thing any more if that’s what they’d prefer.
And we share interests and worlds and opinions and fandoms and hobbies–a lot of them. That’s why we’re friends.
Having friends of your own ethnicity is often a valuable thing, and I would not deny that kind of relationship to anyone. But it’s also completely possible to have plenty of friends of other ethnicities–yes, even white friends–who are completely acceptable and wonderful and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Shaming someone because of the ethnicity of their friends is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.