iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 21/03/2026

She is! This is what a handful of weirdos in the Marathon subreddit have been implying is sexy. To which all the commenters reply, "she's our MUM, dude!"

A screenshot from the game Marathon (2026) shows the giant bioengineered silkworm character Nona, who is a large soft-looking white caterpillar with shiny wings and little beady red eyes. Her large head is kinda cutesy, but her mouth is two jagged plates of "teeth" which must gnash together.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 21/08/2025

Went to work without bringing the pups today, so husband has of course bought them a roast chicken and is at home trying to by their love / unseat me as dog favourite ☹️

A man’s hand is holding a few chunks of shredded chicken breast. Approaching with eyes full of hope and licking their lips are two tiny chihuahuas, one black and one cream.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 10/08/2025

Today, he has just been stepped down from his second-last medication, and it looks like a full recovery. It looks again like we have many more happy anniversaries ahead. ❤️ @hey.paris

The same two people are older, this time wearing rainbow accessories and are in front of a projector on a stage, presenting a science show called “West Coast Space”.

The same two people are tanned this time, smiling widely in front of the space shuttle Endeavour as it hangs in a museum.

The same man and woman are rugged up, holding steaming hot drinks in camping mugs, as they sit by a fire under string lights outdoors at night.

The same two people are taking a selfie in front of a branded sponsor wall at a tech event. They are wearing lanyards and pulling kinda funny faces.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 10/08/2025

3 years ago today, I was off touring schools for National Science Week. He was at home, getting a sickness which would soon leave him with life-threatening issues for years to come, and make me face the possibility of life without my best friend.

The same two people are young again, smiling as they take a selfie on the street in birthday party hats.

The same man and woman are sitting on each other in an armchair, this time wearing Christmas hats and jewellery.

The same man and woman are dressed up as if to go to dinner, but they are wearing notable hints of green - a Swift parrot pin, malachite earrings, a west coast Wilds beanie, and a small “The Greens” pin.

The same man and woman are standing either side of a real estate sign which is plastered in a large “Sold” sign. They are grinning madly and gesturing to it.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 10/08/2025

9 years ago today, I had spent the day playing board games with a boy I’d met less than two weeks before and had rapidly befriended. I kissed him for the first time and we started dating. 5 years ago today, we spent the day in escape rooms, then got married, surrounded by our closest friends. …

A man and woman are young, thin, smiling. They are dressed up for some daytime event, and taking a photo under a tree as they leave their rural Australian hotel.

The same man and woman are slightly older, slightly chubbier, dressed even more fancy. This is their wedding day. Standing at the altar, they are snuggling into each other and laughing at something out of frame.

The same man and woman are in what looks like a small art gallery aboard a cruise ship. They are dressed in Original Series-era Star Trek uniforms, including the woman wearing a retro wig, earrings and makeup. They are snuggling and happy again.

The same two people are outdoors in a rugged scrublands, surrounded by glassy rivers and rocky low mountains in the distance. They are smiling even though in serious outdoor gear and visibly suffering very poor weather.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 04/08/2025

Saw a cool bottle of body wash. Was inspired to remake my website again, finally realising the monospace idea I’d had brewing for ages 💙

A snippet of a personal webpage is shown where elements of the style of the body wash have been incorporated - white body with black monospace text, lines divide sections, and a header picture of the site’s owner has been edited to greyscale on a flat background. Text reads “Mars Buttfield-Addison is a computer scientist and science communicator based in lutruwita slash Tasmania. Specialist in software development for scientific and high-performance applications. Day job in space instrumentation, side hustles in game tools and iOS apps, hobbies in signal processing and open source, proper polyglot programmer. Can definitely make your code run faster. Apathetic about modern web design. Overly enthusiastic about most everything else.” The main divergence from the bottle’s design is a thin border around the page where a colourful background image shows through, here featuring marbled inks in water of mixed shades of blue.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 13/05/2025

Sitting at my desk, reading papers, working on my thesis, minding my own business, being watched by little office busybodies 👀

A cluttered office is shown from the point of view of a person sitting at a desk in front of multiple laptops. One shows a text editor, but the content is not visible. Their desk also has a lamp, mug, e-ink tablet, and colourful desk pad. Their office has a bookshelf full of mixed reference books spanning fonts of science fiction to digital signal processing and the astronomical almanac, and is topped my Lego model rockets and spacecraft. There are plants around the room and a large, comfy armchair. On the armchair is a dog bed, in which a tiny black chihuahua is curled up and looking quizzically at the camera. Atop the chair, an even smaller cream chihuahua looks to camera guiltily, as if she were about to jump down onto her sister before she was busted by the camera-wielding human.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 06/05/2025

It’s my birthday tomorrow and I have TWO meetings scheduled to argue with university peers/leaders about AI. But tonight I got a glass of cider, early access Revenge of the Savage Planet co-op with the husband, a quick game of the new Citizen Sleeper solo-TTRPG before bed, and snuggly lap friends ❤️

Two tiny chihuahuas sit on a colourful rug. The larger one is black-and-tan with brown eyes and tall ears, looking shyly at the camera. The smaller one is cream and white with green eyes and slightly longer fur, looking confused at the camera.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 06/05/2025

How I (Comp. Eng./quantitative) view my husband's (Informatics/qualitative) research methods versus how he views mine

2D artwork shows a suit-and-tie-wearing man relaxed and asleep at his desk with a sleep mask on his face. A caption in large friendly letters over the image says "Vibe Coding".

A shot from the TV show Severance shows Helly looking exhausted at her desk as the stares at inscrutable numbers moving around on a computer screen.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 17/03/2025

Procreate Pocket sketch of my just-woken-up husband doing his best “look how ugly I am” face/pose because he wouldn’t let me take a photo 🩷

Simple flat-coloured line drawing of a soft-looking man in a black t-shirt, track pants, round glasses and old man slippers. He is hunched over with his arms forward, accentuating his little pooch belly. At the same time, he is grimacing terribly and tucking his chin in to form many neck rolls. His curly dark hair is unkempt in full mad scientist slash bed hair mode. A heart has been drawn beside the man by the artist.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 05/02/2025

They have nice crates for feeding in or if they get overstimulated or need to be kept out of the way for a bit, but at night time if they’re not allowed in bed they cry. Ruby was the only dog we’ve ever gotten as a puppy and it was just so sad her crying every night in a box. I was weak; I gave in.

A cardboard box beside a bed is secured with zip ties such that it is always open at the top. Inside, within a tiny padded bed, a tiny tiny black puppy is curled up. Around her is a heartbeat toy (fluffy hot water bottle with a ticker in it, to replicate the feeling of sleeping with their litter), a normal dog toy, a fluffy blanket, and a pee mat. Though her face is not visible, the little scroll is tucked into a corner and looks sad.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 02/02/2025

If you want all the mountain/beach combos of Scotland but with much, much less rain, then Tasmania is also here for you.

A rough road winds between olive-coloured button grass scrub towards a cold silver lake surrounded by rugged, snow-dappled peaks which reach upward into a foggy clouded sky.

A helicopter shot looks down on a crescent-shaped beach with bright turquoise water, nestled between craggy grassy outcroppings. Looking out towards the hazy blue horizon, this hidden beach is just one of many in the landscape.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 01/02/2025

Mine was a gift from the husband bc I am super scared of planes but had to fly quite a lot for work pre-pandemic. An AU-US flight is about the perfect length for a lot of indie games. Old faves like Filament (Beard Envy) and Afterparty (Night School) have kept me company on some horrible flights.

The same Nintendo Switch Lite from the original post is held up but now backwards, showing that on its backplate is stuck a handwritten post-it note which reads “for portable brain-calming” with a love heart.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 20/01/2025

I enjoyed the Ingold piece* and the top-quality responses it has prompted** but this whole discussion just tells me: 1. Video games have so many ways to touch you beyond the words characters say 2. @mike.reuben.games had the right idea about basic media critique years ago

Screenshot of a tweet from user kurt russell fan club: “ Decided from now on I’m reviewing movies on a 2D axis: star ratings for whether I like it, A/B/C ratings for if I respect it. For example: The Thing, B+, five stars; Hereditary, A, four and a half stars; Endgame, C, four stars; The Room, F, five stars; Babadook, B, two stars.”

Screenshot of a tweet from user kurt russell fan club: “Charting my opinions on movies and I’m even more sure this is the perfect film rating system.” Tweet image shows a 2D version lane graph where the X axis is enjoyment, the Y is respect. In the “do respect, didn’t enjoy” corner: Dead Man Walking, Babadook. In the “did enjoy, don’t respect” corner: Doctor Sleep, John Wick, The Room. In the “both respect and enjoy” corner: Steel Magnolies, The Shining, The Thing, Green Room, Avengers: Endgame. The remaining quarter is empty, presumably because those would be the disliked and non-respected movies you easily forget.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 09/01/2025

Excellence must be recognised, rewarded.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 04/01/2025

We went to breakfast, window shopped real estate, went to the beach, went swimming, had a bath, explored the garden, went on a sniffari around the neighbourhood, and ran and ran and ran around everywhere. Played games, found cool bugs, ate snacks, everything. A perfect dog day. Now totally zonked 😴

Photo showing the torso of a woman laying down on a couch wearing a large fluffy hoodie. Lying on her and completely fast asleep in weird positions are two tiny chihuahuas. Their back legs are entwined, their front legs are outstretched in midair like little overturned tables, and their necks are bent as they are both sleeping on an incline - one up and one downward. This is very cute and gives the overall impression that they were very tired.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 03/01/2025

Drove five hours away to stay in a cottage in my favourite rainforest town. Got a yard for the dogs, rented a Starlink dish, brought some non-alc Tassie beers/ciders, downloading some sweet new Switch games. Living my best life.

A woman in casual clothes and messy hair sits in the grass in the shade of a tree up against the side of a low deck. Around her is a sunny garden of flowers. She is holding a Nintendo Switch Lite which is visibly downloading 1000xResist, and shows recently-played games Citizen Sleeper, Dredge, and Filament. Nearby sits an open can of Willie Smith’s cider, a clean wheelie bin with a Starlink dish sitting atop, and two to tiny chihuahuas sniffing around the grass.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 02/01/2025

And being a little robot laddie doesn’t hurt for outreach to school kids who think it’s cute!

A tiny robot telescope on a tripod emits a red glow as it sits on a dark jetty on an inky lake in the nighttime darkness. Overhead, a sky full of stars it must be gazing at. In the distance, silhouettes of wooded mountains.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 30/12/2024

She was such a tiny bean! When she was born she was the size and weight of two chicken eggs, and now she has grown into such a proud little beast - clever and muscly and the fastest tiny dog we’ve ever seen. Knows loads of commands, and still so snuggly.

A tiny black-and-tan chihuahua puppy has fallen asleep in the hand/forearm of a person. She is curled up in a weird foetal position but clearly fast asleep. She is only twice the length of the person’s hand, if that.

A man with dark hair and glasses is wearing a fluffy hoodie. Tucked in the neck hole is a tiny black-and-tan chihuahua, whose teeny tiny head is sticking up and licking the man on the nose. Her head is about the size of an apple.

A tiny black-and-tan chihuahua puppy stands on a rug in the middle of a room. Behind her, a dog pen is visible with food, water, toys and beds. She is staring intently at a the tiniest dog bed you have ever seen, which is still too big for her. Based on the context of objects around, her body must be about the size of a hot dog bun.

A man with dark hair and glasses is leaned sideways on a couch, fast asleep. On his lap is a tiny donut-shaped dog bed, in which a teeny tiny black-and-tan chihuahua puppy is tucked in a fluffy blanket - also fast asleep in a similar position.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 30/12/2024

Gladly! The black one is Ruby, the cream one is Queenie. Both fully grown (3.2kg, 1.9kg). We got Ruby as a baby from a local family. Queenie was a premie reject from a show dog farm up north; they didn’t think she’d survive, so she was raised in a box and is a bit weird. Snuggly sweethearts both.

Two tiny chihuahuas sleep on the lap of a person on a fluffy blanket. A cream one which looks like a tiny fennec fox, and a slightly larger black-and-tan one which looks like a kelpie shrunk down, are sleeping on each other soundly.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 30/12/2024

Every December it’s like some sort of goth gf / pink gf trope with the husband about the holidays.

A selfie of a woman dressed in full Christmas garb - a red dress, bell earrings, a Santa hat, rainbow glasses and a big smile - and a man pulling a grumpy face who is wearing all black and a hat which says “Bah Humbug”.

A selfie of a woman dressed in full Christmas garb - a colourful shirt, bell earrings, a Christmas bows in her hair, rainbow glasses and a big smile - and a man pulling a grumpy face who is wearing all black and a hat which says “Bah Humbug”.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 30/12/2024

Welcome to “wants to rant about computers but everyone just wants to squee at your dog” club. We meet every Friday 🥂

Two tiny chihuahuas sit on a couch in a pile of fluffy blankets. One is smaller and cream-coloured, sitting upright and looking at something out of frame above the camera intently. The other is black-and-tan and is laying casually looking at the camera, wearing a tiny Santa hat.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 23/12/2024

Get yourself someone who looks at you like a chihuahua looks at a tiny morsel of any dead animal.

Two tiny dogs sit on a rug, looking intently up at something above the camera. Each is wearing a harness, colourful collar, and lead. Each looks like nothing in the world could make them look away from whatever it is that holds their attention.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 20/12/2024

Sometimes our dogs have the laziest playfights in the world.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 18/12/2024

At this point it seems the emails will continue until the grifting improves 🤔

Screenshot of an email inbox showing the first three most recent emails. They are the same message as each other and also that shown in the OP: GitHub loudly proclaiming “You have free access to GitHub Copilot” and encouraging you to learn how to access and use it for your own code.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 16/12/2024

Tasmania finally imported some decent bloody mangos, and I’m not the only one who is thrilled 🥭💚 #chihuahuas #chihuahua #cute #DogsOfBlueSky #pupdate

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 12/12/2024

But also they are beautiful and deserve the nicest things, and I am sick of being slowly kicked out of bed throughout each night.

A black-and-tan chihuahua sits upright on a couch, looking to the camera, while a smaller cream-coloured chihuahua is distracted licking its paws in front of it.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 12/12/2024

Somehow recently became the kind of person who shells out for _custom chihuahua furniture_, which is quite the realisation.

A joinery design for a custom piece of furniture named “Dog Bed/Side Table” shows multiple perspectives and measurements of a deep rectangular side table - kind of just a big box - that has a little cupboard and drawers out the front like a normal bedside table, but that has a soft mattress bed on its top and a lip around it like a railing so that an animal sleeping on it would not fall off. In between the drawers, a slide-out panel can also fold down to the ground to become a ramp that provides access from the ground to the bed atop. It is drawn as if it is to be made of some sort of birch wood, and has nicely finished corners and lines.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 11/12/2024

The full description (and GIFs) on the product page should give you an idea of how much every conversation in the Yarn Spinner office is just @desplesda.net going “what if we just made it Mass effect again… aha ha, just kidding.. unless ???”

A gif shows a video game environment where a capsule person (like an unpright Tic-Tac with a face) is hovering around. This player character approaches another capsule character who is wearing a space suit and futuristic-looking space monocle, and the UI says this character’s name is Militaristic Bird Cop. Bird Cop greets the player, calling them “Mitchell”. The player then selects on a dialogue wheel of options to say “women are into you?” and Bird Cop responds “terrifyingly so”. Mitchell says “I should go” and hovers off.

The styling of the characters and also the space-y Mission Control look of the environment suggest a sci-fi setting, and anyone familiar with the names and characters in the popular Mass Effect game series will recognise this as a very stupid parody of events and themes therein.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 10/12/2024

I do, I call them my cuddle mice! But I think ours always look shady - like they’ve committed a chihuahua crime that I am just yet to discover. The big one is just a big sooky baby but the little one is a world-class thief.

A black-and-tan chihuahua sits on a couch beside a human working on their laptop. The pup is sitting strangely - kind of half-squatting like a little gremlin - with her front paws on the person’s leg. She has her ears back and is giving a sneaky side-eye in the person’s direction; it is clear she wants something from the human but doesn’t want to be seen as full-on begging. The overall impression is of a cheeky fecker.

A cream chihuahua with a fluffy white tum lays on its back on a soft couch pillow, clearly angling for belly rubs. Her pose is full starfishing, with her paws up, her tail up, and her little pink tongue out. The overall impression is of a little derp.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 10/12/2024

The tiny mouse had to go to the emergency vet today and it turns out she just had a sore tummy but oh my god the little sad face! Breaks my heart. 😭

A miniature cat carrier cage is door ajar on a veterinary bench with a man’s hand reaching in to comfort its occupant. Just the nose and eyes of a tiny cream-coloured chihuahua are visible, as it looks up at the man with enormous sad puppy eyes.

A miniature cat carrier cage is door open on a veterinary bench. Inside, a tiny cream-coloured chihuahua are visible, hunched back into the very back corner and looking out with enormous sad puppy eyes.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 09/12/2024

Not an astronomer, but I do space and have the best dogs in the world (IMO)

A large fluffy dog bed that has a lid (like a calzone) contains two tiny dogs, whose little heads are poking out from the side. One is small black-and-tan and one is even tinier cream.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 04/12/2024

That’s their “why am I not being paid attention to?” face they pull when we are programming without them. Then, about once a day, they decide it is time for what we call their “pair programming time” with @mcjones.bsky.social 😆

A man with long red hair and glasses stares with concentration at a MacBook. A tiny black-and-tan chihuahua in a knit sweater is sitting on his lap, and is currently doing a “blep” face as she licks the man’s chin. He does not seem to have noticed yet.

The same man with long red hair and glasses stares with concentration at a MacBook. The tiny black-and-tan chihuahua is sitting on his lap, doing squinty eyes at his computer. They are each wearing different shirts than the previous picture.

The same man with long red hair and glasses stares with concentration at a MacBook, mid-speech. The tiny black-and-tan chihuahua is sitting on his lap again, this time looking cheerfully at the camera. They are each wearing different shirts than the previous pictures.

The same man with long red hair and glasses stares with concentration at a MacBook. The tiny black-and-tan chihuahua is sitting on his lap again, this time on the other side and doing a different pose to the camera. They are each wearing different shirts than the previous pictures, and this one is taken dramatically in black-and-white.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 25/11/2024

It wasn’t my choice. Mr Masochist over here put it on.

A screenshot from the show “What We Do In The Shadows” shows the character Colin Robinson who is an energy vampire which derives pleasure and sustenance from others being bored or irritated. He is currently being sated, as demonstrated by his wide glowing eyes and gasping face. In the show, this often happens when he has succeeded in making others have a bad time.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 25/11/2024

Heartbreaking, Matt Canavan is rightfully grilling others on what the functional difference is between YouTube vs Vimeo vs PornHub if YT is exempted. ‘Why is Snapchat out but WhatsApp is in?’, ‘What about the majority of the planet which use VPNs?’, etc.

Headline and flavour image of the Clickhole article “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point” with an image of a serious-looking man glaring at the camera.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 22/11/2024

When coming out of general anaesthetic last year, the hospital wrapped me in this thing that was like a large sheet of bubble wrap attached to a heat pump. It’s called the Bair Hugger. It was the best. I dream of that thing.

A promo shot of the product described in the post: an adult man is laying on a hospital gurney wrapped in something the shape of a sleeping bag but that is made of air-inflated vertical channels which run the length from his shoulders to below his toes. He is fully enclosed but for his head, and looks very peaceful.

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 19/11/2024

Using my time at home sick to teach the baby some commands. Today we got up to a very fun one (“fetch”) 🎾 #chihuahua #DogsOfBlueSky #Pupdate

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Mars Buttfield-Addison @themartianlife.com · 19/11/2024

(Ruby is too into her work routine, so our bestie workmate has been taking her to the office each day and we take this chance to let little Queenie play with ALL THE TOYS while her jealous sister isn’t around)

A tiny black-and-tan chihuahua in a red collar looks attentively at the camera as it sits on a cushion in what looks to be a tech office slash studio. The background shows desk chairs and a large whiteboard scrawled with writing too blurred to make out, and in a further room there is some sort of video recording studio setup with novelty costumes and a green screen.

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