Our cat Gravy is continuing to decline. His kidneys aren't processing the water he drinks that well, so to properly hydrate him, i'm going to have to start to administer IV fluids every few days to keep his kitty ass hydrated and in the game awhile longer. The vets gave him a dose a couple days ago, so i'm going to have to get the needle in him tomorrow *shudder*

And he's sooooo skinny and wobbly. It's so hard to see. We're trying to get more wet food in him, and that and the fluids the vet gave him seem to have given him a bit of a boost. He was just laying in his bed all day except to eat; today he actually came outside with the other cats when i brought them into the backyard for morning walkies.

Still, i'm afraid it's just hospice care at this point. Doing what we can to make him feel better and comfortable.

Sigh.

This year over yet? ^_^

The garage sale will help a lot with the vet bills and assorted cat goods; I can't thank those enough who bid, and who gave a shiney here and there <3 So here are a couple of photos of Gravy enjoying the sun while adjusting to his meds:

https://imgur.com/a/z4ITeQq

If he pulls through the next couple weeks he should be good, so we're keeping our paws crossed.

Take care out there!

So in this past half year, we've had three emergency vet trips, one surgery, and two euthanasia's for three of our cats :( This has totally drained our savings, and one of the cats who survived is needing another workup due to rapid wait loss from his hyperthyroidism that is currently being treated. https://imgur.com/nexpY4y He's less than half his max weight, and i really don't want to loss three cats in half a year :(

I've dug through my closest and under my bed for stuff to sell, so if you want to help support us in any way, please consider bidding.

Auctions will end this Sunday at 7pm EST.
Shipping will be UPS, and will be added once calculated at shipping store (I don't want to overcharge by estimating).

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51012568/

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51012685/

Thank you everyone for any support you can give.

Today is Nesil's and my wedding anniversary! We've now been hitched for.. um.. *counts on paws* Six? Six years now i think! ^_^

We just put down Gaz, a cat we had gotten as a kitten a couple months after Nesil had moved in with me. She was 15 and a half years old, and was our protective black void kitty.
We've ugly cried our hearts out and are now in just in empty shock. We'll fucking miss ya girl, we love ya, and will see ya on the flipside.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49868651/

So, I'm working on some projects in the background, getting ready to announce a couple new things on my etsy store (running an extended Black Friday sale now! https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaserFoxxEtchings ).

But, you know, life. Last month one of our cats managed to survive a bout of pancreatitis, but that shit is $$$$ far from cheap, and this month we're having to bring one in for hyperthyroidism -_-

So now I'm dipping my toes into full fledged YCH commissions ^_^ One at a time, no more batches.

I'll handle these as full comms, with sketches, linework, color, etc, being sent back and forth for confirmation for each stage with the clients involved before heading to the next.

As this is my first YCH, and a charity type one at that, I'm not sure how to stage the laddering ^_^;; It will run something like this:

B/W - Flat color - Cell Shading - Background w/ Cell Shading - Texturing - Close-up Insert - I put the heels to it

The high bidder gets to pick the background.

And of course, the species are not limited to the heads i popped on. Your OC's, any of my OC's, and any company's OC's are fair game :3

Bidding ends Monday 21st at 12pm EST.

I guess that's it? Bidding in comments. Thank you all very much :)

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49868651/

So, (as far as i know), this round of commissions is over. And damn, that took forever. ~To be fair~, it was a really rough year for me, but still, wuff.

And, that's it for me with commissions for now! I'll be turning my attentions to personal pursuits for now, so stay tuned to what i'll be screwing around with next :)

And of course, it's 'bad life choices' :3

Stemming from this submission:
https://e621.net/posts/2646268

We get:
https://e621.net/posts?tags=bad_life_choices

Allllllllll miiiiiiine ^w^

I haven't been replying to comments.
I haven't been replying to journals.
I haven't been replying to notes.
I haven't been talking on telegram.
I haven't been talking on discord.
I just haven't been engaging in anything in general.

I'm trying. Just wanted to let everyone know i'm not being haughty or some such. Just.. severely emotionally withdrawn and reclusive right now -_-;;;

Blargh, got hit by the worst cold last week. Been forever since i had one...ya forget how much they suck till they sneak back up on you. And then it's Day/NightQuil like koolaid for a week while ya bleck out >.<
Whelp, back to the land of the living. Let's see if i remember how to do this shit...

Time to sell out :D 25% off everything currently up

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaserFoxxEtchings

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaserFoxxEtchings

I'm opening my shop with most of what i have ready to go ^_^;;

This week I'll be cataloging and posting the remaining wood burnings I have left on etsy. Once that's done, I'll post the store site.
Then ill resume work on commissions, while also working on adding additional items to my etsy store.
Thanks all!

Number 20 in the artist's alley! ^_^

So it turns out there was a raffle back in march to get an artist's alley table for FWA this year.

....

All that work, just, pppft.

A wonderous cap to a shit week.

It's been a.. very long, and disappointing day.

It was hard seeing Tak in the oxygen mask, panting as hard as he was, unblinking. We petted him and told him what a good kitty he was and how much we loved him as he went to sleep.

On the way out of the vets we got popped by another car. Waited half an hour for a cop to come to write up the accident. No one was hurt, literal fender bender. But shit.

We're just.. so done in right now.

If you're going to FWA and have gotten a commission from me in the past, let me know! I'll bring it to the con and get it to you in person. :D

I'm going to try to get an Artist Alley table, and will post to the convention app and Telegram when/where I am.

Take care n yap ya there! :)

This year at FWA I'm going to try my paw at a variety of new wares to pawn off in the Artist's Alley, if things go well. This is in large part to try to offset vet bills for our Tak cat, which is just, ow. Oooowww. Fuck.

So, not only do i hope i manage to pull off what i have in mind, i really hope everyfur that can comes by to check it out :)

For my commissioners, this means I'll be juggling this project and comm work. The current list is thus (I forgot to put one fur in the last list i sent out, i apologize!!):

Lunix33
SamiDe Marco
Dolph
Tickled Lion
Cxulubcah

At first we though arthritis cause he was walking with difficulty. But then x-rays showed, of course, spleen cancer or some shit :(

So then, at the age of 12 and a half, and apparently with a heart murmur, we had to decide if we were going to follow up with an ultrasound to determine if it was spleen (low) or cancer (high).

Well, this was the kitty i had rescued from the storm drains way back in the day (https://imgur.com/gallery/IHo0msw) so of course we went with the ultrasound to see if he had any chance.

...Turned out it was a cyst off the liver, and the biopsy showed it was not malignant. Big fucking 'whew!'. Surgery should fix him up and let him live out the rest of his life.

I leave Saturday to spend a week at my folks, as it's been almost two months with everything going on, and they need a hand with spring stuff.

Tak's surgery went down on Tuesday. Wednesday he wasn't responding much, eating, or moving. Thursday he was responding a little, but still not eating or moving around.

Thursday night Nesil picked me up so we could get ready to say our goodbyes to Tak on Friday, and at least take him home so he could pass there in a familiar setting.

Friday when we called, they said he was more responsive, and were open to the idea of us taking him home. When we got him home, he wobble bolted to his cubbie, and promptly ate the treats we offered him.

A little later, he made it to other parts of the house, but was too weak to make it to a litter box, and just pissed himself everytime the first day. We spent a lot of time that day wiping him clean and putting towels down. He had respiratory attacks a few times, but we think that was from overextending himself, and over excitement from being back home.

Saturday found him a bit more ambulatory, but still wobbly. Eating, drinking, and using the litter box. Pretty much the same today. He flops over when having a hard time turning around, and still has a difficult time just getting down from couch height.

Still, he's not fucking dead yet. But Nesil and I just about are from the stress of it all.

Well damn, that hit me harder than i anticipated. -_-

I suppose for a bi-polar fur like me, that third sudden loss of hearing was what could be considered a trigger episode that sent me way off the deep end. My first couple weeks were just waking up, having a cup of coffee, going back to bed, having some dinner, and going back to bed. Our housemate was desperately worried, as in the near-year he had been here he'd neve seen me in such a state.

Slowly, i got better, and started interacting with the living world bit by bit. Mostly going through the motions, just existing, but some feeling seeping back in as i continued. I feel mostly ok now, settled, having seen doctors and prepped for a course of preventative action which includes getting on yet another medication, and getting one on hand to use if needed.

I'll be out next week at my folks, in the country doing some choring; that should be last bit i need to clear my head and get back to my normal, stupid perverted state ^_^

I hope everyone has survived the entry into the new year, taken it nice and slow, kept an eye open when going through the doors and looking carefully at the corners of your life (and yes, /totally/ an Expanse ref :3 )

Will yip and yap atcha all later!

We're gonna enter this year nice and slow, check the doors and corners, that's where they get you. Rookies rush in too fast, forget to check.

Use your intuition, trust your gut. Avoid the shadows, don't be afraid to be rude and leave a bad scene.

This year has already sniped us on the way out, taken Betty White from us.

Love your friends while you can. Savor the sensual sweet parts of live while you can. Take snapshots of these things and burn them into you mind like Polaroids.

Buckle up buckaroos.

I love you all, and want you all to have the best new year you can.

But you have the watch the doors and corners.

I'm taking some mental health time off from arts for now. I have eight commissions due, so not a huge backlog I'm sitting on.
But I need some time to regroup.
It's oddly traumatizing to have the same damn thing happen to you not only three times, but annually, non consecutively, twice to the day, with the other within two weeks.
On the 22nd i'll be able to have my hearing aids readjusted. I haven't been able to use them currently, as it's like wearing glasses of the wrong prescription; everything just sounds wrong.
Of course, everything sounds wrong now. Voices sound weird. Tones and registers are missing. Some sound like they had a hit of helium. Some i just hear the bass of the voice. Nothing sounds like how it used to.

...

Thanks for all the comments and support. It really means a lot. Sorry I haven't been replying. It's just been a draining time for me.
Take care all.

This time, it's worse than last year's. Just, across-the-board-hearing-loss-on-all-frequencies on my only good ear, from -5 to -20 dBHL.

I mean, i can still hear, but it's more like i can't clear my ear on a plane. And I can't hear for shit in upper registers.
(...And if this keeps happening annually I just won't hear in 5 or so years.)

...

So right now, we're gonna try to keep a more aggressive steroidal treatment, which was initially used to clear up the blockage, but we'll see if it helps clear things up anymore. Doubtful, but.. well.

Wow, so this is a thing now on Dec 3, huh. Building up of pressure in my right ear (the one i can still hear in), until i can't, and then everything suddenly sounds very muffled, and extremely metallic, robotic, like broken, ground shorted speakers.

Back from the urgent care, this time they caught it while there was a lot of fluid build up in the ear. Waiting for a prescription to try to drain the ear; hoping that do the trick, and hope hope hope that i won't lose more hearing from this time.

...i guess, however, if i do, i already have hearing aids, and they can be adjusted to compensate. It just depends /how/ much hearing i've lost. It's hard to tell right now as i can barely hear a thing -_- Well, outside the crazy tinnitus i already have.

....

Whee.

I'm open for commissions again! Please send me a note if you're interested, and I'll note you back with relevant contact info and how I handle working with you on the piece :)
Commissions are soft closed for now; if you note me you'll be put on a, errr, soft slot list :3

Toned tanned pieces are done on paper that is, as the name says, toned to a tanned color. I currently use greyscale color pencils and mechanical black lead pencil, along with blue lead and colored pencils, white color pencils and gel pens and paint, and whatever else around that catches my eye at the time.

Toned tanned commissions are:

$40 for single character.
$50 for two character, $60 for three, $70 for four.
+$20 with close up/insert illustration.

Examples are:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39690844/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38901283/

Shipping is available after the piece is done!
It is a separate charge, billed after the shipment is made; is it not a flat rate, as I don't know how much it will cost to ship, and I don't want to overcharge for it. The cost of shipping is the shipping itself, plus $4 US for shipping materials and handling.

Thank you all :)