Sign in

Isabel

@isabelott.bsky.social
12K followers 2.3K following 3.8K posts

Evolutionary & population biology of vector-borne viral disease systems. 🦟 genetics PhD candidate in NC. Arbovirologist, orthobunyavirus wonk, feral reference librarian, & public health advocate. 80s mosquito. Coaster-sized earrings. (she/her) 🏳️‍🌈

PostsRepliesMedia
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
why did my white monster 1-pack come in such an oversized box?? smdh
A tiny white flamepoint kitty with a slightly unhinged mid-shenanigans stare sitting perched neatly in a white monster cardboard box filled mostly with shoes. She was a true menace immediately before and after this brief reprieve
2394
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Hard to say if it’s more infuriating if they’re “reinventing USAID But Worse from first principles” or “using the pretense of reinventing USAID But Worse to siphon cash from infectious disease research to fund illegal wars in Iran and the Caribbean”
"Circumventing Congress to divert money intended to help Americans who are exposed to
HIV, influenza, tuberculosis, and other deadly diseases-and directing those funds to the Department of Defense-is beyond the pale," DeLauro added.
The Democrat said the agreement would pull from the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), its leading institute for infectious-disease research.
DeLauro did not say the NIH signed the agreement.
The NIH and the Pentagon "explored potential avenues of collaboration to support the development of medical technologies, such as therapeutics, diagnostics, and personal protective equipment (PPE), to protect against infectious diseases [and] other health risks that Americans face," a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to The Hill.
A partnership between the NIH and the Pentagon "would enable nimble multi-agency resources to collaboratively respond to public health emergencies, such as the recent Ebola outbreak," the spokesperson added.
2114
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I suspect this has more to do with why this crew is under the microscope right now than anything else in the article, unfortunately. Winning college football coaches get away with…a lot. Expensive useless losers, on the other hand…
UNC won't owe Lombardi additional money after his resignation, a person familiar with the matter told WRAL Thursday. Had UNC sought to fire him for cause, it wouldn't have owed any additional salary, according to his contract. If UNC were to have fired Lombardi for convenience, it would have owed him the remainder of his contracted salary. The same applies to Steve Belichick, who is being paid $1.4 million this year and is the highest-paid assistant football coach at UNC.
Bill Belichick signed a five-year deal worth $50 million. The first three years are guaranteed. If UNC decided to fire him without cause, the university would owe him everything he was set to earn up until Dec. 31, 2027. If it were to find cause for termination, the university wouldn't be on the hook for any salary, bonuses or supplemental income after termination.
050
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Coyote vs. ACME was an instant classic. A fresh and unique and deeply relatable narrative, both timeless and timely. A core message for any audience, tight writing, nonstop jokes. I‘ve spent years of grad school feeling like old-school Wile E. Coyote & cried a very normal number of times.
Screencap of an old wile e Coyote cartoon where he’s dangling from a rope and almost certainly about to plummet dramatically to earth, looking weary yet unsurprised and holding a sign reading, “IN HEAVEN’S NAME — WHAT AM I DOING?”
2534
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
a fitting Dolly Tribute Beat takes a decent bit of time, a whole lotta glitter, and some real glass mirror clip-ons, if you’ve got em
A half-selfie of a smiling dark-haired white woman (me) with iridescent purple-pink-yellow eyeshadow, winged eyeliner, glittery burgundy lip gloss, and enormous clip-on earrings made of real glass mirrors that reflect the light in a way that matches the eyeshadow. (I’m inside at a desk)
0230
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Fun update!! Just got a pretty sweet secondhand penBBS bundle (3 pens in great condition, including a 469, plus some fun extra nibs) on r/pen_swap this morning 😎 ($88 for all this plus international shipping!)
Three penBBS brand fountain pens with swirling grey/blue patterns and extra nibs
140
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
there are a couple of species of mosquito around us that make enormous larvae (pretty rare to spot and usually 1-2 per container) - they’re often very orange and carnivorous towards other species’ larvae, so let them hunt!! a close-up of a murder in progress feat. some porch skeeters I found in CH
110
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
if you’re wondering “do tadpoles eat mosquito larvae”: yes! if you’re wondering how to tell them apart: a 5-minute shitty infographic i just doodled up 🫡
A quickly hand-jotted guide to distinguishing mosquito larvae from tadpoles
key points are: body:”tail” ratio (tadpoles shift with age), maximum size for mosquito larvae (1.5cm, unless it’s orange and bigger than that, in which case it’s a mosquito species that’ll eat other larvae), swimming motion (tadpoles wriggle but move pretty smoothly; mosquito larvae twitch around and travel to/from the water surface to breathe through their butt snorkels)
221
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
it reminded me powerfully of a corny old Prairie Home Companion ‘Bad Jokes!’ bit (which apparently was sung between John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson??) that I heard 15+ years ago but still recall whenever I’m reminded of that variety of suburban white dads
When God created woman
He gave her not two breasts, but three When the middle one got in the way God performed surgery
Woman stood before Him
With the middle breast in hand
Said, "What do we do with the useless boob?" And God created man
110
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
She has such a sweet sleepy smile that I haven’t been able to bring myself to dislodge her 😭 I gotta go to work but I’m not a monster…
A very cute flame point siamese kitten lounging & sleeping on my hip with a serenely pleased expression on her faceSame kitten, but even more luxuriously sprawled and contented!!
2604
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Two recent “post-morning shenanigans lounging” shots. We had to do a LOT of fetch this morning.
A lounging flame point siamese kitten looking sweetly up at the camera with her big blue eyes from the bed. She’s on her side and her gangly disproportionate limbs are showcased. A flame point siamese kitten lounging and peeking out around my knees on a mattress. (Integration isn’t going smoothly but she’s a Velcro baby so we take turns sleeping in the office with her.) she’s looking curiously and adoringly towards me.
3170
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
an occupational hazard of being fabulous and having a darling little white cat: lipstick staining the baby’s noggin!! (she grew SO much between these two pics, omg. the second was a few weeks ago)
An overhead shot of a little white flame point cat with a big pink smooch mark behind her ear (from today)A tiny white flame point siamese kitten curled up on my lap on a tile floor with a big red smooch mark between her two big orange  ears
2341
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
many such chickens are coming home to roost in the first week of august, unfortunately
Meme of Fred from scooby doo triumphantly unmasking a “ghost,” only to find his own mirror image.
030
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Thanks for the recs! Btw - they do make EF kakunos that are super duper fine (& scratchy). I found one new in its box (near the Jinhao shark) in a dumpster recently (a hardcore pen nerd mid-moveout dumped two cheap ones and a bunch of ink samples/a nice case). It’s my go-to for detailed marginalia!
Sample (on an unused half page from my leuchtturm planner/notebook from last week) of writing with my three main pens atm - the samples just say the pen + ink combo. 
- clear pilot kakuno extra fine inked with anderillium pompadour cotinga burgundy
- aqua TWSBI ECO-T Fine inked with Kaweco palm green
- a teal jinhao shark pen (fine tip) inked with LAMY turquoise (I’m pretty sure? They stopped printing the name of ink on the boxes so it’s my best guess from the website)
100
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
you’re coming on this journey with me for a sec. like.look at this nonsense.
A lot of bizarre pictures of ticks mating. The enormous engorged female is either actively feeding or on her back. The males have embedded their mouthparts in her thorax to inseminate her. It’s pretty gnarly tbh
6101
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
just for you, bears
A google shopping result 

Frongello Portable
Pet Rocker Bed...
$39.99
Wayfair

And a cat in a goddamn torture contraption that no cat on earth would tolerate for even ten seconds
111
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Gretl update: she knows how to fetch now! (Also, how to dribble, which leads to the occasional detour)
0395
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I pulled this up earlier, but got distracted by a tornado warning for a bit - Leon Rosen was a famous old arbovirologist who refused to believe that dengue hemorrhagic fever was caused by antibody-dependent enhancement (it very much is). This was massively detrimental to public health + the field!
From John Aaskov’s chapter in History of Arbovirology, Vol 1: Memories of the Field

In Strasbourg, I met Leon Rosen and Scott Halstead for the first time - in that order. After chatting for some time, Leon suggested we go and hear Scott "deliver the party line". During question time, Leon stood up and asked "Scott, do you really believe that stuff"? This wasn't the sort of scientific debate with which I was familiar, and at that stage of my career, I hadn't read Leon's Presidential address to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
"The emperor's new clothes revisited, or reflections on the pathogenesis of dengue haemorrhagic fever" (Rosen 1977), and I had yet to cross swords with Leon over Ross River virus infection in pregnancy.
1101
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It looks like the first report was in 1977, in a conference proceedings - could be worth requesting an interlibrary loan scan. Conference proceedings from that era have been more generous with backstory than papers, in my experience with the contemporary Nematocera genetics lit
A new approach for identifying and mapping structural genes in Drosophila melanogaster
Michael W Young, David S Hogness
Proceedings of the 1977 ICN/UCLA sumposium:
Eucaryotic genetic systems (eds. G. Wilcox, et al.),
315-331, 1977
310
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Gretl is still recovering from her spay. The cone fills her with great despondency. Unfortunately, she tries to lick her incision every time she thinks we aren’t watching, so. (She gets a couple hours of Supervised Nude Liberty every day, never fear.)
A deeply aggrieved tiny flame point siamese kitten wearing a tiny translucent grey cone. Her apricot-colored bat ears are pressed down by the cone’s weight. She looks ridiculous.
2686
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The cone actually facilitates this quite well 😅 (from earlier tonight; she’s currently doing the same thing in a cat bed next to me on the guest room mattress, relocated to the floor of a different, kittenproofed room.)
A tiny flame point siamese kitten in a big grey cone. She’s suckling contentedly on a pom pom made of old scrap bin t-shirts. I’m cradling her in the crook of my elbow.
011
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
oh 100%. stray kittens all look like gangly bat-eared aliens, so it’s always interesting to see the Siamese mutts either outgrow or double down on those traits 😁 classic example is my sister’s cat (left) (went DSH route) vs my mom’s (right) (meezer central). (their tabby sisters got all the brains)
Two cats next to each other on the corner of a craft room island. The one on the left, percy, is a chinchilla plush grey snowshoe siamese. He is looking at the ceiling and seems profoundly unamused. His body type is “plush domestic shorthair.” The one on the right, walter, is a chocolatey brown siamese mix with much more classical siamese features (lean, lighter coat, gangly limbs, bat ears). He is looking at the camera in a weary and exasperated way.
010
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Little baby is dropped off at the doctor 😭 I miss her already
A sweet-faced flame point siamese kitten looking wide-eyed yet trustingly at the camera
3140
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Gretl appears to be having a largely leg-based growth spurt 😭 she still has her baby face, though. She’s off to get spayed tomorrow and I’m worrying - I think she’ll be fine, but I don’t quite know how to keep her from ricocheting around for two weeks!
A 3-month-old flame point siamese kitten standing and drinking from a water bowl at a comfortable height. Clearly her legs have gotten long before the rest of her grew to catch up!Selfie of a dark-haired white woman (me) lying on the ground with a tiny flame point siamese kitten in front of me. Her face is still so baby. We are both staring wide-eyed at the camera.
5460
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Gretl is hard at work preparing for her deputy research assistantship 🫡 (exploring during zone swapping in an even slower intro than before…lord.)
A tiny flame point siamese kitten staring at a wall of heavily annotated maps, graphs, diagrams, and charts. A phd is a real doozy.
1121
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Omg, sorry, I saw and then totally forgot to reply to this!! What an excellent elephant. I am hanging in there - a lot of very tedious bioinformatics troubleshooting atm, but I get to come home to an adorable baby kitty (Gretl! A new family member), so at least there’s that 😁 how are you?
A teeny tiny flame point siamese (cream with orange tabby ear/face/tail markings) curled into the smallest ball imaginable on my lap. I’m holding my hand curled around her to keep her steady and wearing red penguin patterned pajama pants.
140
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Got an anonymous comment filed with enough specifics & personal touches to require response & be a bother. Many thanks to Gretl, who dozed adorably on my lap through it all and kept morale afloat in the face of deep existential dread.
A flame point siamese kitten snoozing deeply and adorably. She’s on her side, wedged between my knees/calves (I am wearing red penguin printed pajama pants, for contrast)
8804
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
she’s literally an angel when she naps 🥺 i have so so many photos about this. (this has been my kitten room dress all week for bb quarantine reasons)
I’m holding a tiny fast asleep flame point kitten in my lap and supporting her butt with my hand for stability. She is a perfect angel
070
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
very busy with kitten socialization and enrichment lately. a few choice Gretl shots from yesterday & today: 1-2, her craziest nap pose yet. 3, baby’s first post-vacuum proximity (eek!) self-soothing (note the double paw lock-in); 4, the subsequent deeeeeep nap (we’d played pretty hard beforehand)
A very silly flame point siamese kitten taking a nap on my lap with my knees up. Her body is mostly at the base but her torso is nearly vertical, with one paw reaching for the stars. I’m wearing a colorful Portuguese floral patterned dress.Same kitten and pose, but from the side, so you can appreciate the improbable verticality of it more clearly. A stressed out flame point siamese kitten (just heard a vacuum in the hall for the first time) self-soothing suckling on a pom pom I made out of old grey and white t-shirts. She’s in my lap and has both front paws intensely kneading my forearm while she calms herself down. Her eyes are closed and you can tell it’s working. Siamese cats are especially prone to self-soothing suckling behavior post-weaning. The beast, appeased: a little flame point siamese kitten passed the heck out on my lap, all paws extended, resting her head on my forearm and ripping some fat zzz’s. She calmed herself down sooooo well (after a long intense play session) and now it’s time to snooze!!
4422
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
awake but not for much longer because…tiny kitten socialization & enrichment is a Lot. celebratory kitten pose! 💃🏻
A tiny flame-point siamese kitten who has decided to fall asleep on my lap with my knees bent so that my thighs are nearly vertical. She has wound up inadvertently in a very dramatic pose with one paw extended up towards my knee. I’m wearing a floral peint dress.
191
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Still an issue The biomed umbrella program students split out to ~13 programs after first year, so it’s ~60-100 students a year (=more bargaining power) & competes with applicants to unionized med school programs. Our stipend is going up; pretty sure bio is still $28k base (PIs can ⬆️, but it’s rare)
[bbsp_current] Stipend Increase Approved for
August 1, 2026
davidmcd@email.unc.edu
To Current BBSP (biological & biomedical sciences program) Entered Students
Jul 6
...
Dear BBSP community,
I'm writing to share that we have received official approval from SOM leadership to increase the BBSP stipend to $38,500 starting on August 1, 2026, which is a $1,000 per year increase over the current stipend level. Additionally, SOM leadership has approved a stipend of $41,000 starting on August 1, 2027. These increases apply to all graduate students who entered graduate school through BBSP.Thanks to those of you who participated in last year's student finance survey, which helped us to advocate for a modest $500 increase for the past academic year
(2025-26). We saw in the data and heard from many of you that the need was greater than that, but the significant changes and slowdowns in federal funding were making larger increases difficult to achieve.
However, during BBSP recruitment this year, our stipend level was negatively impacting our ability to recruit students into the next BBSP cohort. Our program used to benefit from Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas having a lower cost of living compared to the locations of our peer institutions. But, as living costs have increased, stipends at many peer institutions have risen, and our stipend has become less competitive by comparison. SOM leadership approved these increases to better support current students and maintain BBSP's competitiveness in recruiting future students. We strongly appreciate that, even with some of the current funding uncertainties, department chairs and deans were willing to champion higher stipends over the next two years.
130
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Lapcat training is going quite well!! 🥹 (following an hour of Extreme Aerial Parkour to blow off some steam, of course)
A very sweet little flame point siamese kitten (Gretl) sitting daintily in a lap, with her paws crossed very politely, looking adoringly up at the camera with her crossed icy blue eyes. Her backdrop is my jewel toned fruit pattern palazzo pants, which makes for an excellent contrast for her mostly white fur.
4532
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Guess who is: - rabies-free! - currently decompressing in a bathroom! - actually a girl! (permanent name: Gretl) - three pounds of whoop-ass 😤‼️
4865
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
From a 2018 article on the slur’s resurgence as a football stadium chant in Mexico. Food for thought, perhaps. www.theguardian.com/football/201...
Jennifer Doyle, a professor of English at University of California, Riverside, who has written about the "puto" chant, thinks the chant is most likely to stop if fans believe it to be a hex on the national team.
"I really want people to imagine that 'puto' is the own goal of curses," Doyle said. "That when fans of El Tri shout this word at their team's opponent, every gay Mexican ghost - and that's a lot of ghosts - commits themselves to extending the team's curse."
Maybe she has a point. Something tripped
Holland's Arjen Robben in the box in added time at the 2014 World Cup, and most Mexican fans are convinced it was not defender Rafael Márquez. The resulting penalty kept Mexico out of the quarter-finals - marking El Tri's sixth consecutive elimination in the last 16.
"Convince fans that it brings bad luck to their own team," Doyle said, "and this nonsense will stop."
04113
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
smdh messi. he earned it!
"I hope one day to play against Messi because he is the greatest footballer of all time. Sharing the pitch with Messi is a dream and I will proudly tell my kids I played against him one day and who knows maybe I will get his shirt too."
Vozinha
Cape Verde Gouliceeper
0101
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
The author is discussing why the now-federally recognized Lyme BS is going to endanger women who will likely forego useful treatment for deadly conditions as a result. That opportunity cost is more vague for mis-ID’d conditions without clear treatments, like ME. He does still address those, tho:
None of this means that everyone recovers cleanly. Most people treated for Lyme do get fully better, but a minority are left with lingering fatigue, pain, or trouble concentrating after the bacteria are gone, and we do not yet have a proven treatment for it.
This is not unique to Lyme. Many infections, viral and bacterial, can leave a tail of symptoms behind once the microbe itself has cleared, an aftermath that seems to live in the immune system's slow return to normal rather than in any surviving germ.
010
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
The latest news from the slammer (SPCA bite quarantine): a MAJOR headshot upgrade for Tomatinho, who is looking healthy and precious and not even a little bit rabid so far!!
A sweet, curious little flame point siamese kitten with big blue-grey eyes and spidery whiskers!
5512
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
She’s a fraidy cat, so the trip was stressful for all of us, but also such a sweet baby that she was out and lovey for a while once she left the carrier. (She’s taking a nice secure nap under the bed now. No surprises there!)
A very sweet tuxedo tort kitty lounging politely on the ground and looking sweetly up at the camera
070
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
After an hour of lively pursuit in roadside shrubs, the baby somehow skedaddled into an insane gap next to a building with no doors in or steps out - just walls. Their savior got bitten while climbing the ladder with them. (I was in a skirt, so no ladder for me, but had a box staged to drop it into)
A teeny tiny flame point siamese kitten trying to hide in the corner of a crazy building-adjacent space (??) with brick wall on one side & concrete surrounding the other three in 4-5m high walls - it was about two meters wide and twenty meters long (?). I didn’t see it go in, since I was fully army crawling inside of the hedge at the time it made its grand escape
1502
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Our SPCA logs all intakes with pics on their adoption portal, even ones that aren’t available (e.g. rabies watch quarantined) or immediately adopted out. Just checked, and yes, (slammer pseud) Sally Tomato (unavailable & headed to me once they are) is posted 🥺 (they were in a holly hedge at first.)
Intake mugshot for an 8-week-old flame point siamese kitten curled up in the back of a carrier. They look worried but curiousFrom the Breakfast at Tiffany’s wiki article.
“Plot
Fending off a date from the night before, Holly Golightly visits the Tiffany & Co. flagship store but her date finds her at her apartment building. Holly,
who cannot find her keys, buzzes her landlord, Mr. Yunioshi, to let her in. Holly meets her new neighbor Paul Varjak as she readies to leave for her weekly visit to incarcerated mobster Sally Tomato. Tomato's lawyer pays her $100 a week to deliver "the weather report".”
0120
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Found some old vids from the SalivaDirect protocol 101 tweet thread, including our NBA-funded, LeBron-decorated thermocycler 🤣 Inspired by ridiculous qPCR curves after a long day that wasn’t over yet. I remember cutting each finger out as 3 of us split 40 McNuggets in the LEPH 6 conference room…
020
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Before she became an iconic indoor diva, Liesl was a recently weaned fraidy cat & Dickensian orphan stray fleeing pursuit by hawks who I socialized ❤️ she’s thirteen this June! My little teenage dirtbag baby 🥹
1331
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
My family loves siamese rescue mutts - Liesl overlapped briefly with the generation of family meezers who passed in their (& my) late teens, and was a good big sister to the next generation of my mom’s cats & later my sister’s. We’ve been thinking lately that she could use a lil buddy again 😸
A pair of cats curled up near one another asleep on a bed - my mom’s chocolate brown siamese mutt, walter, and my kitty (who lived with her at the time), liesl, a tuxedo tortoiseshellMy sister’s grey Siamese mutt, percy, sitting in a Chaco sandal with his chin and a bit of nose pressed into the strap. Video of him and liesl together to follow
2281
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Our tiny miscreant has been delivered to the SPCA for their mandatory quarantine with a belly full of pate. I’ll be picking them up to foster/adopt after :) Liesl inspected me thoroughly upon my return. I told her: enjoy your childfree peace while it lasts! You’ll have a siamese summer intern soon!
A smiling white woman getting licked on the cheek by a tuxedo tortoiseshell cat
2461
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Came to check back in one last time before bed and someone had finally left the litterbox (after…hours there) and relocated to their comfy towel! AND scarfed down a whole saucer of fish pâté (strategically placed to encourage towel exploration). Big developments!
A sleepy flame point siamese kitten curled up on a folded towel in the back of a medium sized animal carrier. There’s food, water, and a litterbox towards the front (where they’re easy to reach)
1511
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I was on my way from lab meeting to pick up a library book request earlier when I spotted a person crawling into the roadside shrubs. Long story short, a tiny miscreant is spending the night in my tub before they head to a state-mandated 10-day rabies quarantine tomorrow 😼 (That isn’t their blood.)
A tiny sleepily indignant flame point siamese kitten photographed through the side of a cat crate. They are sitting in the litterbox (there is a super cozy towel immediately to the left of the litterbox. I have yet to see them use it) and very cross-eyed. There’s some blood on their chest; a guy had to rescue them from a crazy spot they got into and carry them 10-15’ up a  ladder and got super bitten in the process. Hence the quarantine. The miscreant at rest. They passed tf out in the litterbox - again, alternatives are available - and one of their lil elbows is sticking out like a chicken wing
7868
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
For anyone who thought “fake job recruiter spam texts” were a grim US recession indicator, a troubling new development: “fake affordable health insurance spam texts”
Skye here! I know your health insurance rates have gone up lately. I have lower-cost options with BCBS & United. Text YES 2 Check. Reply stop to opt out.
0102
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
A US ducks per county map, based on the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture. Knowing that “presence of duck farms” makes HPAI outbreaks likelier overall (+ higher potential for tx between contracted farms under the same company) may explain some current spatial patterns brilliantmaps.com/ducks-by-us-...
Map of Ducks by US county, 2022
Top 10 Counties:
1. Lancaster County, PA: 722397
2. Elkhart County, IN: 645832
3. LaGrange County, IN: 491238
4. Tehama County, CA: 319624
5. Adams County, IN: 207891
6. Kosciusko County, IN: 176053
7. Jay County, IN: 104338
8. Noble County, IN: 77278
9. Cumberland County, PA: 75231
10. Stanislaus County, CA: 54763
151
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
i was unaware that this was a thing that could happen????? there is…no body of water nearby?????
8443
Isabel @isabelott.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
update????? yard crawdad??????
A crawdad??? Five inches long??? Walking along my sidewalk???It’s in the grass now??? Where did you come from????? WHERE DID YOU GO??????
4404