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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Addendum to Dr Garlinghouse's essay by another veterinarian, Dr. Eleanor Kellon - I have pressed deep into my heart her words: "Forget about anything and everything that anyone else is telling you and take a private moment to look into their eyes. You'll know."

In addition to the excellent advice below, I'd just like to add that before making the decision make sure you know the cause of the pain, what the usual course of the specific condition is and last, but most important, forget about anything and everything that everyone else is telling you and take a private moment to look deeply into your horse's eyes. You'll know.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The 2 key sections in 2 screenshots - Dr Garlinghouse is an equine veterinarian, but with ALL pets I've always found this essay both helpful and comforting when faced of one of the most difficult decisions we ever have to make:

When I'm talking to clients that are asking whether or not it's time, I suggest that they make a handwritten list---don't just keep a mental tally in your head, because then it's easy to give yourself a selective memory when you want to avoid a difficult decision. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe and easily found. The list should entail all the things you know about that animal that define a quality, enjoyable life for THAT animal---maybe not even at the prime of its life, but as a happy, healthy animal with some good miles left. They can and should include big things like eating with appetite and enjoyment; the ability to move themselves to different areas to eat, drink, relieve themselves, thermoregulate and socialize; and they can be little, individual things like flipping their tail over their back to skip across the pasture, or playing fetch with the stuffed bunny, or wanting to go for an outing of some sort, etc (obviously, things appropriate to the species involved). It should, if appropriate, also balance the need for invasive, uncomfortable medical therapies---a gram of bute a day obviously isn't a big deal, while daily care of deteriorating, painful, non-healing wounds are another.

Just as with anything data-point related, the longer the list, probably the more accurate it will be in defining the animal's life. Then start marking off the things as the animal no longer can or will do them, or only does with great difficulty. And don't cheat. If the animal can only turn around by slowly hopping, or limping so that bystanders wince, or won't move at all when it easily would have a few years earlier, then it's time to cross off "gets around with reasonable comfort".

When you've crossed off half your list, it's not time yet, but definitely time to be paying more attention, and monitoring little extras to make their life easier. When two-thirds to three-quarters of the list is crossed off, it's probably in the not-too-distant future, depending on whether the remaining list-points are big things, or little things. It's pretty individual. IMO, when 80% of the list is crossed off, it's usually time to say thank you, I love you, and goodbye; and if you've crossed off 90% or more off the list, you've waited too long, which is a pretty poor thank you to a good friend.

These are just guidelines, not rules. The concept isn't mine, it was originally put together by some counselors that specialized in pet-loss issues, as well as other veterinarians and a random ethicist or two. I think it works pretty well, and not only helps avoid too-late animal suffering issues (sometimes), as well as hopefully some of the feeling that many owners subconsciously get of "I'm murdering my animal, I'm a bad person", which has been well-documented in multiple studies.

I think the key element in deciding "when" is not based on when is the kindest time for *you*, but when is the kindest time for your animal. It's rare that the two coincide, and if we're to be responsible caretakers for our animals, we have to choose to take on some extra pain for their behalf, so they don't have to for ours.
JMO.
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Rescue puppy Julia, my overnight guest on her Pilots N Paws journey, agrees! The world is full of strange and wonderful things, and it's important to let them all know your opinion of them.😊

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Links (there are multiple preemie-octopus patterns, this is a good basic one) Octopus: youtu.be/8rhYKbo1Y_A?... Eyes: youtu.be/iqu9tWXEuM0?... I found YouTube close-ups / slo-mo / rewind to be the best crochet-teacher. Satified customer in video - good for cats who like to bunny-kick!

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"Octopus for Preemies" makes a wonderful cat toy, all single crochet, stuffed with fiberfill and finely-ground catnip. I sew on crocheted eyes. Links are in second post. Cat-crocheter tip: only use acrylic yarn - some cats will suck on wool/cotton with ingestion risk.

close-up photo of a crocheted octopus cat-toy in pasted pink-blue-cream yarn, with big blue eyes

photo of multiple crocheted octopus cat-toys in many different colors, arranged in a circle

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It's all there: the shift in gaze, the ear, the subtle preparatory tightening of the right shoulder & movement of the right front paw - while motionless tail & left front paw maintain the illusion of "No, nothing's happening here - why do you ask?" Masterful!

$Collage of two photos of a ginger cat reclining under a lawn chair: from the first to the second photo, the cat's head lifts and tilts just enough to shift the gaze upward - the left ear turns outward ever so slightly to scan for other intruders coming from behind as battle plans are made for the primary target in front - the right shoulder muscles subtly tighten, moving the right front paw just a fraction in preparation for action. The toes of the right front paw appear to be making a tiny little fist. The left front paw, tail and both back paws remain in their original positions, which may be for the purpose of disguising the planned attack or perhaps just to make it easier to lie back again if it's too hot and humid to bother moving from the shady spot under the chair.$

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

What is going on here? Pencils? Baby snakes? Worms? Extra-long extra-skinny hair curlers? Halloween ghost fingers? Leftovers from Natalie doing a soothing scalp massage? Whatever they are, they're fixed in place, moving with his head. 😬

Close-up from Aaron Rupar's video of DJT, showing very weird, long, fixed, skinny, horizontal lumps on the top of his head. They are the color of his "hair" but not hair-like. They are raised enough to cast shadows.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Love this! Your gardening philosophy is right out of Saki's "The Storyteller" in which a gentleman in a railway carriage quiets two unruly children by telling them an "improper" story. A noble decision: Pigs >> flowers, & raccoons >> landscaping! 💖👏🥰👏💖

Screenshot of a portion of text from Saki's short story "The Storyteller," in which a gentleman in a railway carriage entertains two noisy children by telling them an "improper" story about a "horribly good" little girl who comes to a bad end while walking in a Prince's park:
"He is still alive, so we can't tell whether the dream will come true," said the bachelor unconcernedly; "anyway, there were no sheep in the park, but there were lots of little pigs running all over the place."
"What colour were they?"
"Black with white faces, white with black spots, black all over, grey with white patches, and some were white all over."
The storyteller paused to let a full idea of the park's treasures sink into the children's imaginations; then he resumed:
"Bertha was rather sorry to find that there were no flowers in the park. She had promised her aunts, with tears in her eyes, that she would not pick any of the kind Prince's flowers, and she had meant to keep her promise, so of course it made her feel silly to find that there were no flowers to pick."
"Why weren't there any flowers?"
"Because the pigs had eaten them all," said the bachelor promptly. "The gardeners had told the Prince that you couldn't have pigs and flowers, so he decided to have pigs and no flowers."
There was a murmur of approval at the excellence of the Prince's decision; so many people would have decided the other way.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

He had a great six months after he was rescued. (He chose the right couple to walk up to asking for help in a frozen parking lot last winter - they got him into rescue and rescue got him to me.) Fred would have told @gandalf24-28.bsky.social that "true beauty" is to be found indoors in a sunbeam. 💖

Photo: an orange and white cat lies stretched out on a piece of carpet laid out on a wide windowsill, with brilliant sunshine warming his thin body. His left front paw is folded up next to his chin and his head rests on his outstretched right front leg. His back half is obscured by vertical blinds. A soft flannel purr-pad is in the foreground where he can continue his nap in comfort after he was finished his sunbathing.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Among all the many other reasons, you can "be awed by the true beauty of" feline leukemia.🌈 (My hospice rescue-foster Fred)

Photo of a single feline pawprint pressed into clay, on a wrapper with a pastel purple heart shape and printed text:
Lap of Love
Because Pets Are Family

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

As a couple of others have noted - Cica's wisdom is still being passed along through many generations of kitties:

Photo of the cover of a slightly tattered 1964 book - text on the upper half of the cover reads
"The Silent Miaow - a manual for kittens, strays, and homeless cats"
Translated from the Feline by Paul Gallico
Picture Story by Suzanne Szasz
The text is set above a color photo of a green-eyed, gray and white cat standing on a brick surface with green grass in the background. She is looking at the photographer through a window with her mouth slightly open, showing her top-notch irresistable Silent Miaow form.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

With dogs and cats it is mandatory to say "oh, biggggg stretch!" - we need to find out the rules about spiders because that is a praiseworthy biggggg stretch! 😄

closeup screenshot from @cameratrapsue's larger image: an hours-old black widow spiderling on a web does a biggggg stretch

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

A small role that has stuck with me: Inez the bomber's wife in "Airport." As the main celebs were all hamming it up & chewing the scenery, she took the careworn Inez from disbelief to horror to grief quietly but memorably. I'd have given her that Oscar.

Screenshot from the movie "Airport," showing Maureen Stapleton as the bomber's wife Inez talking to her husband across the counter in the run-down diner where she works as a waitress.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Mine came yesterday - I love it! 🥰

Photo of a black t-shirt on a hanger. It has 28 images arranged in a square, each showing a disheveled stick man drawn in white with an orange stick kitten and a reddish-brown blob dog sleeping together curled up in varying positions, from Matt Ramsey's "How I Slept Today" series of daily posts that bring happiness and big smiles. Below the images, small text reads
Awful Doodles by Matt Ramsey
@onenerdyopinion
Wearing this t-shirt will also bring happiness.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Water bottles have been problematic throughout the Trump years - from Marco's stress indicator to Pence's nauseating obsequiousness.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

An exceptional book I recommended many times in my internal medicine practice : "Learning to Speak Alzheimer's" by Joanne Koenig Coste - pub 2003, but still available and still very relevant / helpful / practical.

screenshot of the cover of a book:
Joanne Koenig Coste
Learning to Speak Alzheimer's
A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease
Foreword by Robert N Butler, M.D.
"Promises to transform not only the lives of patients but those of care providers... This book is a gift." Sue Levkoff, author of Aging Well

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

A new & evil use of AI: scammers are taking lost-dog images & using AI to create photos of the dog, supposedly found injured & in surgery. The "I've got your dog give me $" scam has been around forever, but generating horrific images with AI is new & awful. Burning the planet to torture pet owners.

Screenshot of FB post by lost-dog search-&-rescue specialist Smoky Mountain K9 4/16/26: PSA - Also wanted to make mention of something that really upset the owner, and family- and made me livid mad - so now these scammers are sending AI photos of dogs in surgery! Trying to get the owner to pay, without seeing their dog first - and this happened with Lilo! Folks- no shelter or pound has emergency services- for surgery- and no veterinarian will ask you to pay for services over the phone- for a dog you’re not sure or they’re not sure its your dog or refuse you to come down and see your dog-
These scammers are calling and caller id is from the actual number of the shelter, or vet office- and it’s appearing legit- when it’s yes their number but not legit- please don’t fall for this scam. (Special place down below waiting for these kind of sick evil people)

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Love the t-shirt design, 100% would buy! The squares-within-a-square layout reminds me of my favorite theater poster / t-shirt. I have sooo many mugs, but that tumbler with a close-up of Dandy's sweet face would be lovely.😊

2002 Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration design by Frank "Fraver" Verlizzo, used on posters, window cards and t-shirts - 9 small squares representing the 8 productions + Sondheim event are arranged inside a larger square on a black background. A large circular yellow "stamp" partially overlaps the bottom of the square, with text reading The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration and a listing of all of the shows.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

"Quinctilius Varus, where are my eagles?!!"

Screenshot from the TV series "I, Claudius" showing Augustus, magnificently played by Brian Blessed, furiously exclaiming "Quinctilius Varus, where are my eagles?!!" as the steely cold Livia stands holding the dispatch about the loss at the Teutoburg Forest.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

You didn't grow up on "I Love Lucy" reruns, but OpenAI's business model is just Lucy Ricardo in 1954, going on TV to sell her homemade "Aunt Martha's Old Fashioned Salad Dressing" & taking mailbags full of orders before Ricky does the math & figures out she will lose money on every jar.

Screenshot from the 1954 "The Million Dollar Idea" episode of "I Love Lucy" - Lucy and Ethel are on a local TV show promoting Lucy's homemade "Aunt Martha's Old Fashioned Salad Dressing." Ethel is the over-the-top enthusiastic product presenter, and Lucy is dressed up as "average housewife Isabella Klump" who does a taste-test and proceeds to rave about the salad dressing much as AI promoters rave about ChatGPT now. This generates mailbags full of orders, before Ricky does the math and figures out there is NO path to profitability at 40 cents a quart. Apparently we have learned nothing since 1954 - or actually we've gone backwards, since Lucy did accept the reality of Ricky's math and managed, after comedic complications, to extract herself from the salad dressing business by the end of the episode.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

20 years ago isn't quite "Yore" yet, but this basket of Siamese Rescue babies from 2006 supports your thesis. A photo session I will never forget! 🥰😄🥰

Photo: a blue and white woven cloth basket sits on a pastel blue, yellow, and tangerine striped couch. Inside the basket is a litter of five lively 8-week-old Siamese kittens, one blue point and four seal points. They are standing up and looking in different directions, but at least they are mostly pointed towards the camera and not completely backwards. The blue point kitten is on the verge of escaping the basket. Name labels on the photo are Casey, Cleopatra, Cocoa, Caleb, and Cody. The photo gives the impression of being the most successful of a multitude of photos taken in a kitten photo session. (This impression is a correct one.)

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Me too! How about one of each? 😊

Photo collage of three photos taken during a pet rescue transport: the first photo shows River the dog, a black young-adult Lab-mix, sitting up on soft blankets in a wire travel crate, looking off to his left with an alert expression and a big smile. The other two photos show Dale the kitten, a white and gray-tabby kitten with green eyes and a pink nose. Dale is also in a wire travel crate with soft blankets. One of the blankets is suspended from the top of the crate to form a big hammock. In one photo Dale is seen lying on his back in the hammock with sunbeams shining on him. He is sound asleep and very happy. In the second photo he sits up in his hammock with his right front paw on the edge of the hammock and a curious, "are we there yet?" expression as he looks out at his driver.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

I was delighted to see that they have the Bake It Forward option! For those of us who don't really need more cookies - or who know our local scouts will be set up outside the neighborhood grocery & there's no way you can walk past those happy faces without stopping. (both things can be true😄)

Screenshot from the Girl Scout Cookie order page detailing the option to donate cookies for distribution in their local community instead of having them shipped to you:
Donate Cookies
Your donation helps Girl Scouts in my community give cookies to local heroes.
Donations go to Bake It Forward.
No shipping cost.
If ordering cookies for yourself, donations do not count for shipping 4 pkg minimum.
$6.50

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

72° in east Memphis on Dec 28 and the flowering quince that always blooms around Valentine's Day has buds opening up, as does the spiraea prunifolia. Pretty but doomed in tomorrow's freeze, and ominous in our warming world.😔

Photo: an extreme close-up of 3 rosy-pink blooms side by side on a flowering quince shrub. They are in 3 stages of opening, from barely open on the right, to mostly open in the middle, to fully open on the left. Out of focus in the background is a twig-tip with another trio of not-quite-open buds.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Noel Coward (notably not an introvert 🙂) described this perfectly long ago:

Screenshot of a Noel Coward quote: "I love travelling, but I'm always too late or too early. I arrive in Japan when the cherry blossoms have fallen. I get to China too early for the next revolution. I reach Canada when the maple leaves have gone. People are always telling me about something I haven't seen. I find it very pleasant."

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Are any of your kitty residents fond of / allowed to have catnip-filled toys? Starting a new batch of these for my local cat-rescue group and would be happy to put some aside for your Herd House babies if they would like them. 🐙🐟

photo of 3 crocheted cat-toys: an octopus made with pink yarn with multicolor specks, and two smaller fish, one made of the pink yarn and one made of orange yarn with white stripes

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Also - tacky game show host is using tacky game show font on everything. Not HIS game show, true - the United States of America is now a Chuck Barris production. 😔

screenshot of the title screen of "The Newlywed Game," with its overly-elaborate whirly-swirly font

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

My calendar arrived safely in the mail today and it's beautiful!!! ❤️🐶🐶🐶🐱❤️

Photograph of the front of the 2026 Bunsen, Beaker, and Bernoulli calendar, with the subtitle "Science, Empathy, and Cuteness." It features a lovely photo of the two Bernese Mountain Dogs and one Golden Retriever sitting side by side in a beautiful mountainous setting, all looking very happy. A photo of Ginger the cat's head and neck is cut in to the larger photo at an angle off to the side - it looks like she is peeking around from inside a picture frame to get herself into the picture. There is also a cute sticker with a cartoon-style drawing of the three dogs plus Ginger, all in science lab attire.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Be sure to note the "GAME WARDEN" cosplay on their uniforms - screenshot from the same article. In another image their truck has "Wildlife Resources" on the door panel. Call me skeptical of "game wardens" having legit duties carrying out a chase in Frayser.

Uniformed men standing around after a multivehicle crash caused by a pursuit - "GAME WARDEN" is clearly visible on the backs of their uniforms.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Lovely - just needs the wonderful voice of Danny Kaye. (and some marigolds)🥰

Screenshot from the film "Hans Christian Andersen" showing Danny Kaye and young friend leaning in close to a clump of yellow marigolds as he sings the song "Inchworm."

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

I found at least 4 different arrangements since he moved in, & if I looked harder there may be more - can you imagine he's spending time pacing in front of the mantel yelling "More urns. Did you hear me - I said MORE URNS!" Insane.

Screenshot of a Getty Images photo of the Oval Office Feb 4, 2025 cropped to show 9 assorted gold items lined up on the fireplace mantel, tallest on the outer edges and shortest in the center. The following 3 screenshots show how the objects have been repeatedly shuffled / replaced since then. In their proper places they are all valued, beautiful objects with histories of their own - but now they are just being treated as knick-knacks. Shameful.

Screenshot of a Getty Images photo of the Oval Office Feb 28, 2025, cropped to show that there are now 7 gold knick-knacks on the mantel, with the tallest in the center and shortest at the ends.

Screenshot of an official White House photo of the Oval Office on July 9, 2025, cropped to show that there are now 9 gold knick-knacks on the mantel, with the center item now being a hefty gold base supporting a clock with a dark figurine sitting on it. The two matching end knick-knacks are smaller and lighter overall than the rest.

Screenshot of an AP photo of the Oval Office on August 18, 2025, cropped to show that there are still a total of 9 objects on the mantel but the weird clock is gone and there are more urns. The center item is the tallest but overall there is much less height difference across the top-line of the knick-knacks.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Agree - and for another use, I drive 🐾rescue relay-transports, and FB groups are key to hooking up transport coordinators with drivers and the multi-state routes where we are needed. That's just not reproducible at scale elsewhere at present. Reilly says "Please don't boycott me!"

An orange kitten with white paws and green eyes, wearing a paw-print collar with attached bell, rests in a hard-sided travel kennel with pellet litter in a box in the front and soft blankets and a plush toy in the back. He looks out past the camera with a mixture of concern and hope.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

just the very comfortable-looking chair left now - but it can't be shipped to a gift address 😟

screenshot of text from Amazon order page: We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to a Wish List or gift registry address.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Yes and it's charming how the WaPo buried that fact way down towards the end...

screenshot from the article: Del Monte Pacific Ltd., which acquired Del Monte Foods in 2014, had also taken out loans to finance that purchase, adding to its debt burden. A rise in interest rates caused its cash interest expense to nearly double — from $66 million in 2020 to $125 million in 2025 — putting enormous pressure on its cash flow.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Here's my recent transport-relay rescue pup Stella - so happy and confident in spite of her past hard times, and how Is she real????? 🥲

A small, adult, caramel and cream colored Yorkie? - Havanese? - Benji - mix shaggy (but well-groomed) dog is sitting up on a turquoise blanket inside a wire travel crate in the back of a vehicle. She is wearing a purple harness with a pink collar and a pink leash. She has a cheerful expression and appears to have a merry disposition as she looks out at her drivers, with bright button-eyes, an adorably boop-able black nose, and a big smile showing her little pink tongue.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Gotta be Flubber - others have posted already, but I don't see one with a pic from the inimitable Fred MacMurray "The Absent-Minded Professor" original. 😃

Screenshot from the classic 1961 B&W movie "The Absent-Minded Professor" - Fred MacMurray as Professor Brainard and his shaggy dog Charlie "drive" through the night sky in the professor's Flubber-powered Model T. In this close-up view from in front of the car, Profressor Brainard leans over the steering wheel with an expression of intense exhilaration while Charlie, ears flying in the breeze, appears to be enjoying the ride.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Lipton's reply to criticism of the word "potentially" is even more maddening. I guess if DJT doesn't call him up and say "Hey Eric here's my explicit quid pro quo, write this down!" then it's all fine and dandy. And that dismissive "what social media wants" - totally missing the point.

Post by Eric Lipton NYT May 12, 2025 at 8:02 am, responding to criticism of using the word "potentially" about DJT's corruption: Corruption requires explict quid pro quo. It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift--a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Forever haunted by the the dates on the gravestone of the healthy-until-he-wasn't older brother my mom never knew. Three days before his 11th birthday - had they planned a party? Bought presents? My grandmother would have welcomed a vaccine.

Screenshot from Find-A-Grave
Photo: Gravestone of Wallace Orr Hall, son of F. K. & Jane Hall
Text: Birth 12 Aug 1910
Death 9 Aug 1921 (aged 10)
Burial Glenwood Cemeter, Tupelo, Lee County, Mississippi, USA

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

You'd no doubt have yelled at Sam Gamgee for thinking of Rosie Cotton for a moment on the final trek to Mount Doom - maybe just maybe we all need a spark of joy to lighten our hearts, remind us of the good not yet lost from the world, AND inspire us to keep going. Also Snickers says fuck off.

Photo: an adult tortie-point Siamese cat is enjoying a beautiful afternoon in dappled sunshine on a brick step in a courtyard. Her head is twisted sideways to give the underside of her upraised left rear paw a thorough cleaning with her pink tongue.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

They're actually valuable parts of the White House collection - they'd be lovely displayed in their rightful places but DJT destroys beauty as usual. I'm imagining distressed curators cringing being asked to move them there & line them up together like that.

Screenshot of a paragraph from Washington Post article 3/18/2025, "The Growing Legend of the Missing Oval Office Ivy": No, the gold vessels are not golf trophies. They’re artifacts from the White House’s own collection. The central gilded bronze basket, called a compotier, was made in France around 1815 and gifted to the Nixon administration in 1973. To its left and right are a pair of urns from the Monroe Plateau, a set of gilded tableware acquired by President James Monroe in 1817, shortly after the British burned the White House. The outer two sets are from a collection acquired during the Eisenhower administration that are usually displayed in the Vermeil Room, which is named after its contents. (Vermeil is gilded silver.)

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Those are actually from the White House collection - picturing some really stressed curators trying to meet impossible demands the best they can. "But these will just look tacky on that mantel - they are beautiful & belong where they were!" "We don't care. Boss wants it. Do it."

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

My camellia (40 yr-old cutting from a 90 yr-old parent) was blasted w/ single-digit temps + snow in Feb just as the buds were plumping up. It's now covered in blooms, & I love the many brave, bruised, battered survivors as much as the one perfect bloom. Camellia's just out there giving me hope.

Photo: A ruby-red Camellia japonica bloom sits among dark green leaves. It looks battered, droopy, and freeze-burned due to severe weather that hit as the bud was plumping up - but it survived and opened. If a flower can be said to look proud of surviving adversity, this one looks proud. "Nevertheless, she persisted."

Photo: The one undamaged ruby-red flower on a 10 foot-tall, 40 year-old Camellia japonica sits among dark green leaves. Other blooms with varying degrees of freeze damage are bravely open in the background. The bloom sits quietly and modestly in a sheltered spot and is not trying to show off to her battered cousins. They are all in this together.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

He's going to destroy entire effin' ecosystems but Graham the forestry technician thought he would boost the economy and close the border so here we are... www.bridgemi.com/michigan-env... (Can we breed lampreys with a specific taste for orange bronzer?)

Screenshot of text from the linked article: Peters feels betrayed by politicians he helped put in office. He voted for Trump in November, impressed by his vows to bolster the economy and slow immigration across the southern border.
“If I had known that this was going to happen,” he said, “I wouldn't have voted for him.”

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Serious response: I hate what ICE is doing. I also hate what the owner of this 🌮🚛 has been doing to workers for a very long time. Exploited & abused, now carted off who-knows-where - those poor men. Screenshot from reddit & I think you can see this news link without a paywall: tinyurl.com/db4yyk7t

October 16, 2022 reddit post by Hotasbutterscotch:
Incoming rant.
So this absolute monstrosity of a person was not only a taco stand owner, BUT ALSO A LEADING PASTOR FOR NEW DIRECTION. He was supposed to be a religious leader. He shamelessly and successfully tried luring taqueros from Mexico City without proper authorization “but safely” (aka he had the plug to bring them in illegally). And then: he would hold their undocumented status over their head. It wasn’t legal action as in “going to the police bc they stole a soda can”. No. The real threat was being turned in to ICE which has some of the worst police brutality- happy individuals. All the while boasting on buying his kids 50-60k dollar cars in king cash. Hope he roasts in hell.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Driving rescue transports 🐶🥰

An adult black Lab-mix dog with a frosted muzzle, wearing a black harness and blue slip lead, stretches her head out the open back window of an SUV to give kisses to her next driver, who is standing right outside the window and lovingly cradling the dog's chin in her hands.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

A perfect book title in its category:

photo of the front cover of the paperback 1985 Limelight Edition reprint of 1961's "Harpo Speaks!" by Harpo Marx with Rowland Barber

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