iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I had a failed print yesterday! It slipped on the print plate and ended up spaghetti printing about halfway through. I love seeing all the different ways these prints can fail! I added more supports and am reprinting it now. This is a German line braille print from le musée Louis Braille.

A green 3D-printed object, which is part of a page of a tactile book embossed with line braille. It is a failed print, and the top of the object looks like spaghetti.

A close-up of the spaghetti print fail at the top of the green 3D-printed object.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A big thanks to everyone who came out to my talk about my braille character recognition model at the @transkribus.bsky.social conference in Passau today! (And thanks to @melissaterras.bsky.social for the photo!)

Ellen presenting in a lecture hall. The slide above them reads Training Braille Character Recognition Using Transkribus.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's the first thing I have put on my door!

Display board on an office door, which says EFS post doctorate Ellen Forget 4-41. The board has one paper on it, which is Nick Sousanis's comic-drawn AI statement.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

A little birb wanted some love and attention while her favourite human was not at home, so her spare human brought her up to hangout while working. Spare human was reminded that birb time is not conducive to work time.

A green and yellow conure with a grey head and red tail sits on Ellen's shoulder.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Hoping a fellow Kobo user can help me. I've been reading books and articles that I downloaded from my university library on my Kobo. I download from the library then transfer them to my Kobo via DropBox. I was reading and suddenly got this notice and lost access to everything.

A kobo screen with a notice that says Your eReader is not authorized to open this book. This book has been protected by Adobe Digital Rights Management. You need to re-authorize your eReader with your Adobe ID using Adobe Digital Editions. Please visit kobo.com for more information.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Here is an example that has braille! The braille is in Dutch and the image is called The Talking Hand. The print object is at Perkins School for the Blind.

A blue 3D-printed object. It has the tactile outline of a hand and text written in braille.

A sheet of paper that has aged and darkened. It has a tactile outline of a hand and text written in braille.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

And it worked! The text is extremely subtle, but that's accurate to the materiality of the book. It's difficult to see visually—the sparkly filament doesn't help, but I used what was already loaded for this test print—but the texture is there. I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

A sparkly blue 3D print of a page that should have tactile raised type in French, but the characters are flattened. There are two horizontal lines imprinted on the page, showing the materiality of the original book.

A close-up of the same sparkly blue 3D print. Some tactile characters are slightly visible at this angle and zoomed in.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

It has been kind of a frustrating day, but my new cane just arrived and it's so pretty! 😍 I've only had plain-looking canes before, because I thought it would be a temporary need. Now that I know it's permanent, I figured why not get something more stylish.

A folding cane with a blue, green, and white leaf pattern and a brown handle, cane tip, and wrist strap.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I bought a label maker (for work purposes). This is the first label I made. Pippin is living up to it. She chirpped happily when I applied it.

A conure in her cage, which has a label that says "silly goose." She is clinging on to the cage sideways and seemingly looking down at the label. Her vibrant red belly and yellow body are prominent.

A conure in her cage, which has the "silly goose" label on it. She is upright and giving a look that suggests she is offended by the entirely accurate label.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

There is a pair of Canada geese who live on the U of A campus. Yesterday, I saw one goose attempt to attack someone—they got away, don't worry. Today, this is in the campus-wide email newsletter. Respect the geese! They own the campus, we just borrow it.

The Canada geese are back on campus
From: Health, Safety and Environment

It’s that time of year … nesting season. Here are tips to minimize conflict with our favourite fowl:
Geese are protected under federal law, so nests eggs and birds must not be disturbed.
Give geese plenty of space when travelling by, especially around nests. Proceed calmly — don’t speed by.
Geese typically provide warning signs before becoming aggressive. If a goose hisses, lowers its head or spreads its wings, slowly back away. Don’t turn your back: make eye contact instead.
Never feed the geese
Geese are wild animals and deserve to be treated with respect. It’s best to leave them be.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

More 3D scanning, now at Perkins. This book is in the incredibly rare Hughes type. I knew the tactile characters on this page would render, but what surprised me was that there is a bit of bite from the ink-printed characters that are visible on the scan as well. Curious if that bite will print!

The Hughes type alphabet with printed Roman characters and tactile characters in Hughes type, which consists of braille-like dots and dotted snowflake-like characters. The page also shows dipthongs, punctuation signs, and numbers.

A close-up screenshot of a rendered 3D scan of the previous page, which shows a few alphabetic characters. The tactile characters are clearly textured and tactile, and there is a faint rendering of where the printed text was that says "The Alphabet" at the top and a few letters below it.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The BlueSky algorithm is at it again. 🙃 (In case the whole image doesn't show, it's your post directly under one about a magazine article that could have used a fact checker.)

Screenshot of two BlueSky posts. The bottom is Iva Cheung's: "Happy International Fact-Checking Day!" The top is a quote-post of Alex Zalben's post showing an Esquire Singapore magazine article that was a generative AI fabricated interview.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I flipped through the book and picked the page that felt the most tactile, which was still very flat. I didn't get great results, but there are results. Very faint embossed characters are visible on the scan. I tried a couple other pages and other settings on my scanner. This is the best result. 9/

Another page from Valentin Haüy's book, which is ink-printed and, theoretically, embossed in French raised letters.

Close-up of a 3D scan render. There are very faint embossed characters just barely visible.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

To make this book double-sided, they glued pages together. This type of tactile text couldn't be embossed double-sided. I found a page that had already started splitting, and there's no evidence of debossing on the backside of these pages either. So the flattening is not simply from use. 7/

A large corner section of two pages that were previously glued together, but have since split apart. The inside of these pages are seemingly blank with no visual or embossed text.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

When this book was sent to be bound, the binder did what they knew how to do. They bound the manuscript in hardcover with a tight, firm spine. To do so, they had the book in a binding press to help sturdy the spine and the binding. Very typical production methods for printed books. 5/

The bottom edge of a book, showing red page edges and a typical hardcover binding with a firm spine.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

This is an "embossed" page in the middle of this book. The main pages in the book were ink-printed and embossed for the benefit of the sighted teachers at the school. You might notice that it looks significantly less tactile than some other embossed books. It is, unfortunately, no longer tactile. 3/

A page with 13 lines and a header in fairly large print. The text is in French.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

More adventures in 3D scanning tactile books! Today's object of interest: the first (that we know of) tactile book ever produced for people with visual impairments. This is Essai sur l'education des aveugles, in English: Essay on the Education of the Blind. Produced in 1786 at Haüy's school. 1/

Ink-printed title page for Valentin Haüy's book.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

What's really cool in this too is that it has captured all the texture of the paper. This book was embossed using a guide frame to help keep the embossed text on straight lines. You can see the evidence of that guide frame in the texture of the paper.

Close-up of a page of embossed text with a math equation.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

I'm spending this morning cleaning up some of my 3D scans from my trip to Musée Louis Braille. Starting with the book I've posted about before, which was embossed by Louis Braille in 1838. I love how the scanner is able to pick up the details of holes in the page and the rough edges of the paper.

Screenshot of 3D modelling program Rhino. The object being edited is the title page of a book embossed by Louis Braille.

Screenshot of Rhino. Close-up of the same page, which shows the rough edges of the paper and holes in the page.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Definitely not a tech bro. Thanks for sharing! Interesting concept.

Screenshot that says "You are not a Tech Bro. 0% agreement with tech bro ideas."

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Hi, folks! I'm looking for books embossed in moon. I'm particularly interested in finding as many copies, editions, and variations (even incomplete sets) of "The Gospel of John" that are in moon type, but if your library or archive has ANY moon books, please let me know? Example of moon type below.

Two samples of text in moon. The top piece has the English moon alphabet, with tactile and printed letters, and the text "god is love". The bottom piece also has the alphabet plus a paragraph written in moon.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

There isn't on his actual tomb—you wouldn't be able to reach the tomb easily to touch it. There is braille on the placard just outside the room (pictured above) and there's a table placard with braille info as well where the bust is sitting (pictured here).

A table placard with Louis Braille's signature, a quote in French "À celui qui a ouvert à tous ceux qui ne volent pas les portes du savoir" which also appears in braille. There are buttons for audio descriptors as well.

A map of the Pantheon tomb with notable figures identified and colour-coded. Their names also appear in braille.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Braille didn't start to become well used until shortly before his death in 1852. When he died, he would have had no idea that we'd still be actively using his code in 100+ languages 200 years later. These photos are from his tomb in the Pantheon in Paris, France.

The placard in front of his tomb. It says Louis Braille, 4 janvier 1809–6 janvier 1852, inventuer de l'Ecriture des aveaugles—inventor of the writing system for the blind.

The placard just outside of the room with his tomb. He shares the room with two other people. Paul Painleve, 1863–1933. Jean Perrin 1870–1942. Louis Braille 1809–1852. Braille is the only one to also have a braille placard here, which has his name and dates.

Louis Braille's tomb, which has his name and his birth and death years. In front of the tomb is the placard previously pictured and am artificial leaf.

A bust of Louis Braille, which sits on a table just outside of the room with his tomb in the Pantheon.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

This morning, someone asked me what the most interesting thing was that I saw on my recent archives trip. I had a lot to choose from, but this is definitely the coolest. A book that was embossed by Louis Braille himself in 1838, which is held by le Musée Louis Braille in Coupvray, France.

Title page for an arithmetic book. It is embossed in raised type in French. The name L. Braille appears in large letters in the middle of the page, and it is dates 1838.

A spread of the arithmetic book embossed by Louis Braille. The book is held open on an display and is pictured behind glass with an item placard. The verso page shows an embossed math equation and the recto is a full page of embossed text.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

From rare book (physical) to 3D scan (digital) to cleaned-up 3D model (digital) to 3D printed object (physical). This was a really fun process to think through texture and materiality of a tactile book object. This was a test, and I learned a lot from the process. More to come later this year!

The title page of volume one of The Gospel of John embossed in moon type.

The same moon title page, but a screenshot of a 3D scan of the page that is blue with scanner guide markers placed randomly on the page.

The same 3D scan but now white with the extra details around the page deleted and cleaned up as a 3D model.

The same title page in moon, but now a 3D printed physical object printed with purple filament. There are printed supports on the front, right side, and base still attached.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

The @sharpweb.org email just went out, so I can post about it now! SHARP awarded me the very generous 25th-Anniversary Fellowship to support research travel for my project "A History of Tactile Writing and Reading." I'm so grateful to SHARP, the awards committee, and the book history community.

Award announcement for the 25th-anniversary fellowship from SHARP. This year we've awarded two fellowships in recognition of the funding pressures on scholars. The recipients are: Ellen Forget, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta, for their project "A History of Tactile Writing and Reading." And Harrison Mmerenu, PhD candidate at Texas Tech University, for his project "The Farafina Era: Literacy in Public, Value and Agency in Postcolonial Nigeria Publishing."

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Do better, Edmonton. This is ridiculous. I know we live in a snowy area but leaving sidewalks inaccessible like this is awful. I was already having a bad pain day and I had a suitcase with me. I couldn't even walk around it in the street without serious backtracking.

A residential sidewalk. A small portion near the foreground is completely clear, and then there is a large pile of snow blocking the sidewalk for a few feet. There are large piles of snow on either side of the sidewalk also, so there is no clear path.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

I took my 3D scanner to Bruce Peel today to work with this moon bible that they acquired a couple months ago. It was able to pick up on the texture of the text extremely well. I stuck the guide markers on acid-free paper and placed them on to help with the scan but not damage the book.

Screenshot of an image in 3D scanning software. The image is the title page of the New English Bible Gospel of John, written in the tactile code moon. The entire page is blue and there are white circle markers placed randomly on the page.

A close-up image of a 3D scan of a book in moon. This image shows texture in the middle of an O-shaped character, representing a rip in the paper. The whole image is blue.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

If you want English braille, it would be ⠃⠕⠕⠅. The screenshot image shows the same word with ghost dots so you can better see the characters' positions in the braille cell.

The word "book" written in braille with ghost dots.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I could just use two flat circles and say they form two halves of a sphere, but in my head it looks better if they're bent/shaped that the spherical implication is obvious. Each half is split into quarters, and each quarter is further quartered (like a colour wheel, which is what I currently have).

A colour wheel with 12 colours from blue and purple to pink and red to orange and yellow to green and blue again. Each colour is sectioned into three shades.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

I'm not super familiar with the Bible because I grew up in a non-religious household. The spine and title page tell me that it's the New English Bible John in three volumes. So I assume it's only a portion of the Bible? Judging by the amount of text, it doesn't seem like the whole Bible.

The spine of a book that says The New English Bible John in 3 volumes, volume 1. The top and bottom edges of the spine are quite worn.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

The Bruce Peel special collections library at UAlberta recently acquired a Bible in moon, and I'm so excited—you might even say that I'm over the moon about it. It's a 1960s reproduction of a mid-1800s volume (moon was invented in the 1840s). Unfortunately. It's only volume 1 (of 3).

Title page of the moon bible, which is embossed in the moon tactile code. It says that it is volume one of three and that it was published by the Moon Society, a branch of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London.

The opening page in the moon bible, which just says "moon" repeatedly across the whole page, embossed in the moon tactile code.

A close-up of the interior spine and margin on a page, which shows the running head that is embossed vertically in the inside margin rather than at the top of the page. The page is embossed in the moon tactile code.

A close-up of the outside margin and top right corner of a recto page, which shows a page number in the very top corner. It also shows parantheses-like markers at the edge of the page, which are used to guide the finger as you read lines back-and-forth. The page is embossed in the moon tactile code.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Also a big shout-out to @diedofennui.bsky.social who came all the way to Toronto to celebrate this with me. And to Geoff, my husband, who also came to support me.

Ellen wearing their red and black convocation gown standing next to Jaime, who also has short red hair and glasses.

Ellen wearing their red and black convocation gown next to Geoff, who has a long beard and glasses.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

It's official! I had my doctorate convocation yesterday at University of Toronto. It feels good to have finally celebrated this milestone. Defending on Zoom just didn't feel quite final and celebratory.

Ellen is standing next to her supervisor, Alan. Ellen has short red hair, glasses, and is wearing a doctoral convocation gown in red and black. Alan is very tall and is wearing a convocation gown in purple and blue.

Ellen standing next to a large T at the end of a "U of T" sign. Ellen has short red hair, glasses, and is wearing a doctoral convocation gown in red and black.

Ellen holding their diploma and smiling. Ellen has short red hair, glasses, and is wearing a doctoral convocation gown in red and black.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

[TW pet death] It's snowing. The first snowfall of the season. My only wish when we found out that Moscato was sick was that he'd make it to the first snowfall. He loved snow so much. He missed it by only two weeks. I miss him. I'm not okay.

A brown and white greyhound–husky standing in a field of snow. He has a pile of snow on his nose, and he has very floppy ears.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Only one of us is going home happy tonight. 🏒

Ellen wearing a Vancouver Canucks jersey and Geoff wearing a Calgary Flames jersey. Both are wearing glasses, and Geoff has a long beard.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

[TW pet death] We said our final goodbyes to our sweet, loving Moscato this morning. I am heartbroken, but he was surrounded by love in his final moments. Please give your pets extra love and hugs today.

A brown and white greyhound–husky with perfect, floopy ears.

A brown and white greyhound–husky snoozing while snuggling with his human.

A brown and white greyhound–husky lounging in a dog bed in front of a large window.

A brown and white greyhound–husky lying in a dog bed with a handmade blanket made just for him.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Screenshots to more clearly show what I'm describing. The first character of the single closing quote mark should NOT line up perfectly with the apostrophe character.

A screenshot of a visual representation of a braille apostrophe and closing single quote mark. The text is correct, with the single closing quote mark as dot 6 then dots 356.

A screenshot of a visual representation of a braille apostrophe and closing single quote mark. The text is incorrect. The dot 6 character as part of the single closing quote mark looks like a dot 3, lined up with the dot 3 apostrophe on the line above it.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

I'm very sorry to hear this, and so is Moscato. He sends hugs and snuggles. He also suggests that you should go roll around in the grass a little to bring you some joy. It works for him!

A white and brown greyhound–husky sitting with his ears at attention and staring just to the left of the camera, intently as if the photographer was holding a treat.

A white and brown greyhound–husky lying in a bed with his legs all in a complicated knot and his back feet up by his face.

A white and brown greyhound–husky rolling happily in the grass, showing his belly with all four paws in the air.

A white and brown greyhound–husky lying in a dog bed with a blue and yellow toy in front of him. One of his ears is folded backwards, and he's staring right into the camera.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Grateful for every day we have together. 🥰

A brown and white greyhound–husky sitting on a brick patio with the sun shining on his face.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

My posts have been 99% Moscato pictures lately, but I'm posting more because it's his birthday! 🥳 This sweet, handsome pup is 9 years old. Choosing to celebrate this today. ❤️

A brown and white greyhound–husky wearing a black onesie. He is standing on a dog bed in front of a large window and looking to the left of the camera.

A close-up of a brown and white greyhound–husky, showing his handsome face snuggled between his two front paws.

Black and white photo of a greyhound–husky puppy snuggled in a way-too-large dog bed.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I have a greyhound–husky who is definitely more greyhound in personality. Definitely quirky, and very snuggly. He's on palliative care now, but he's the best boy. ❤️

A brown and white greyhound–husky with floppy ears. He's sitting and looking at the camera expectantly, almost like the photographer is holding a treat.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Friends, I have bad news. It breaks my heart to say that we received the final tumor results and they're not good. Moscato has an aggressive stage 3 hemangiosarcoma. Prognosis is 20–90 days. I'm not ready to lose him.

A very handsome brown and white greyhound–husky lying on a dog bed in front of a large window.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

It's staple-removal day! Moscato has a post-op appointment this afternoon to remove the staples from his incision. We're hoping that some of his restrictions (stairs, walks, jumping up on the couch) will be lifted with the staples removed. He's been so cooperative, but he wants to run again!

A brown and white greyhound–husky lying on top of a blue crocheted blanket. His eyes are closed and he looks relaxed and sleepy. Ellen's hand is gently petting his ear.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Feeling a little anxious and uncomfortable, as we're at the itchy phase of healing. Anxious puppy means snuggles to calm down. So I am trapped on the floor for the foreseeable future.

A brown and white greyhound–husky lying down in Ellen's lap for a snuggle on top of a blue crocheted blanket.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Work is going great so far this morning. 😅

A computer shut down menu that shows a required update that will take 20 minutes to one hour to install.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Today is one week since Moscato's health scare and emergency splenectomy. He's recovering really well and getting his energy back. So happy we were able to save him. ❤️

A brown and white greyhound‐husky wearing a black onesie and lying in a dog bed. He's alert with his head up and looking towards the camera.

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Moscato says good morning. 🥰

A brown and white greyhound–husky wearing a black onesie. He is snuggling in Ellen's lap on top of a blue crocheted blanket.

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