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july updates + toulie troubles

2025 july 20

what's new with the site?

• redid oc pages ( to be live soon );
• added 3 new drawings;
• added 16 artfight drawings;
• added new review: wavetale.

current main projects:

1. set up ocs profiles
2. digital sketchbook
3. weekly game journal entries

busy month! although most of my freetime is going towards artfight ( more on that later ), i was spurred to do some work on the site. in addition to a bunch of new art uploads & a new game review, i've also completely redone the backend of my ocs pages ( again ) which i am much happier with. instead of using iframes, i'm now using js! the lesser of two evils ... i think it looks nicer & feels nicer to edit, but kind of due to how neocities updates, i think any changes to these pages may not be obvious / may require a hard refresh. a downside i'm sure will not pester me to the point of another overhaul in the future, i'm sure ...

but anyway, i added some new features & did some polishing that i think is cute & i hope will delight people who check these out. it's all pretty much done, i just need to set up the template for easy editing & then i'll try to start re-publishing everyone's profiles again. :~)

what's new with me?

so on a personal front, things have been a rollercoaster. good news first: artfight has been going very, very well this year! i haven't felt that nagging pang of guilt / embarrassment that comes with being an insecure artist in an artistic community, and it's been smooth sailing making & receiving art. i've gotten some beautiful drawings & made some pieces i'm pretty happy with! although ... i'm not sure if it's just me, but i feel like you can look at nearly every drawing i've made so far & tell that i haven't drawn much at all this year prior to the event lol. so much janky anatomy & proportions & posing ... idk ...

it's very funny how obviously motivated i am by feedback lol. i feel like i'm always saying this, but it's great to draw things & hear back from people who are excited to see the things you've drawn. it's my annual socmed hit ... PLEASE let this energy follow me outside of july for once.

now the bad news. first things first: toulie is okay. but yesterday, we came home in the early afternoon to see her struggling to use the bathroom. after a few hours we realized there was a serious issue, called the emergency vet, and then rushed out to make the 1hr+ long trek to have her checked out.

she's got cystitis, and given there were no bacteria present in her labs, the vets suggested she's just prone to it & need to be on a special diet from now on. she's on some intense pain meds for a few days that she HATES taking, which i'm hoping will bring her some lasting relief ... but it's been really hard trying to deal with it.

mostly, it's stressing me out because i feel bad for her being in pain ... but there's so many stupid complications going on in this specific situation that is exponentially making things worse. for one thing, lautie didn't recognize toulie when we came home, so her once best friend is now an enemy to hiss & swat at -- this is particularly upsetting to see because toulie hasn't done anything wrong & just wants to hang out with lautie but can't lol. it feels cruel ...

the other thing is that our food situation has been so difficult to figure out, and now we have to start over again & figure it out anew. toulie will eat whatever you give her, but her stomach is VERY sensitive -- we've had to give her a bath once because she accidentally snuck some of lautie's wet food, which resulted in a LOT of stress on her part & a lot of wounds on ours, so we've been kind of strictly giving her dry food only with minimal treats. lautie doesn't seem to have a sensitive stomach, but she is both really picky about what she eats, and also how ... she's a grazer, so we were free-feeding with great success for a while there, but ... now we can't really do that.

so not only do we need to hot swap toulie's food, potentially upsetting her stomach like crazy & resulting in even more stress for her & us when we try to clean her up ( so far so good, but we've only fed her her new food once @_@ ), we also need to find a new way to feed lautie that she'll be okay with that WON'T involve us sitting with her while she eats for 1.5 hours ( which we did have to do at one point ) ...

it's kind of like ... it's not THAT big of a deal, like it's very curable & also she's alive, but just like ... ugh. it's already been so stressful & will continue to be for potentially months while we solidify toulie's new diet, according to the vet. months of watching her be in pain ... i just don't know, it's freaking me out so much. we'll be taking her to our regular vet next week to talk more about things & have her checked out again ( and potentially fracture her & lautie's bond even more ;_; ) so idk. i'll just do what i can & try to not stress.

and that's it!! just needed to air out my scary day yesterday. send toulie all your power & strength & good vibes ... so that she feels better faster ... and also so that she doesn't get insane diarrhea ... okay ... please ... no diarrhea ...