Alice Porter

@aliceporter

Currently learning to deal with psoriatic arthritis, was a mature student aiming for vetmed until COVID blew up my life/health so now 🤷‍♀️ Mother of sheep.

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Alice Porter@aliceporter· 15d

Heatwave, but also snuggly?

Orange & white cat hind feet are poking out from under a fleece blanket (pale pink with white polka dots), Diego's feet are on top of a yellow fleece blanket with black line drawings (of sheep, though you can't tell because of the blanket folds)

Alice Porter@aliceporter· 17d

Leif-"I do likes haylage-very much, I do, but it's July?"

A grey sheep with 2 curved horns & a black face & legs looks at the camera, his mouth is open revealing it is full of haylage (looks like thick, golden strands of hay). Sand-coloured, dry short grass is visible behind hin

Alice Porter@aliceporter· 20d

I wish cockroach farming was a profitable enterprise, it's one of the few things I'm very good at

Top-down view of many, many tiny black cockroaches (Blattidae sp. 'Kenya') in a clear plastic tank (edges just visible), crawling over 2 pieces of cork bark and one piece of bark-bark. Most of the roaches are clustered around some dampened algae wafers

Alice Porter@aliceporter· 24d

One of my cats likes a pre-warmed armchair. Obviously I get up when he asks (tells) me & I move to the other chair

An orange and white cat sleeps , flopped on a ditsy-print folded duvet on a burgundy paisley armchair (just visible)

Alice Porter@aliceporter· 26d

Sheep; where there's a will there's a why

Eloise, a small grey sheep is standing with her front legs in a red Supalyx mineral lick bucket that is still half full of solid lick. The grass is largely brown due to drought

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jul 11

(also must share Edward)

I am kneeling on the ground, feeding green-leafed plants to a tiny, slightly hairy, baby African elephant

I am standing next to Edward, feeding him smaller green leaves

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jul 11

Can confirm, soft AF (At the UWEC in Entebbe, Uganda on their-well supervised & animal-friendly-behind the scenes tour)

A cheetah lies relaxed on long green grass, I am knelt behind, my hand at the top of its thigh. I am wearing a light blue shirt. Another cheetah lies behind me, with keepers visible around. I am at the UWEC in Entebbe, Uganda, in 2018.

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jul 10

Too hot Vs more warm please

An orange and white cat lies on his side on a ditsy floral printed duvet, folded on an armchair. His back feet and tail are hanging off the edge

The same orange and white cat settling himself down on my lap. I am wearing a cobalt blue top and green and white patterned shorts because it is TOO BLOODY HOT

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 29

Stupid body

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 29

Cheating a bit, given I have sheep, but there are some of my favourite pictures from this year-not very *good* pictures, necessarily, but any excuse to show off some of my babies. Featuring Elsa the Hebridean, Arnold the North Ronaldsay, Leif the Heb x NR and Hettie the Blue Texel x Norfolk Horn.

Elsa, freshly shorn (by me), partly with battery clippers, part with hand. Elsa is 13 years old but still doing well (*touch wood*). Elsa is a black sheep, with a white dusting around her nose, she has 3 narrow horns which all point in different directions. She is looking directly at the camera in hope of receiving treats (which she did)

Arnold is approximately 10 years old, he's a wether (castrated ram). When I shear him (with hand shears) I always leave his antenna so he can contact his home planet. This year he just stood in the field and let me clip him, he enjoyed it-he loves being scratched & stroked. In this picture Arnold is facing the camera but looking away slightly, his ears are slightly droopy. He has a white body with brown-grey legs and head, and a grey-white muzzle. He has a tuft of fleece on his head with one longer strand sticking up

Leif is one of my bottle babies. His sister Freyja got stuck & the vet had to haul her & her brothers Leif & Ragnar out. Freyja needed resuscitation & nearly didn't survive. Isabella, their mother, is fine now but she didn't accept them so I had to bottle-rear them.
The 3 of them share 2 brain cells, and Ragnar normally has custody of both. Leif is extremely affectionate & adores being stroked.
In this picture Leif is looking up at the camera with an extremely derpy expression. He has 2 large horns, a very pale grey fleece (just visible) and a darker grey face, with white around his eyes and muzzle

Hettie Hoover, to give her her full first name, was bred by some friends of mine. She was bottle-reared but she and her 'brother', Hugo, were attacked by a dog when they were about 8 weeks old. Hugo sadly didn't make it, despite a lot of effort. Hettie was less badly injured & recovered very well. My friends couldn't bear to send her to market so I said I'd have her, she is around half as large again now as in this picture. In this picture Hettie is standing on snowy grass, looking at me. She has a dirty white fleece, black legs and a beautiful black face with brown and white markings. She is holding her ears alertly out to the sides and is wearing blue and yellow eartags

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 28

The Poecilotheria keeper's dilemma; your spood-fren needs feeding/watering/cleaning but if you open the door she may teleport (they're that fast if they want to be) out and you may die* *Not really, but it would be A Bad Day

Poor quality photo through glass of a large (hand-span) tarantula with exquisite grey & brown patterns. She is sitting at the corner of her tank, between the side glass and front door, with 3 legs on a piece of cork bark tube at the bottom left

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 26

😀

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 25

Juliet has normally put herself to bed in her greenhouse by now, but it's too hot even for her so she's up and about again after her siesta & a hydration stop in her dish

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 25

Good thing we've got all the windows shut because it smells SO bad on the patio now all my (self-sown 😬) Typhonium hoffmannii have come into flower

Small, pale tan & cream Aroid spathe ('flower') low down in a clay pot. Leaf stems rise around it

The leaves. 'Standard' Aroid of multiple leaflets in a vague spiral. Deep green with a slight iridescence

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 23

I was sitting on this chair, until Diego forced me off it. Even in *this* weather he wanted a pre-warmed bed with 2 (two) blankets

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 22

Pls not DEFRA. I don't want her to try to deport Hettie, who is half Dutch (Texel)

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 22

Sleeping the peaceful sleep of one who does not know politics

An orange and white cat sleeps soundly on a yellow fleece blanket with a print of sketched sheep. The front half of Diego is shown, his white right leg draped just in front of his orange left leg

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 22

BBC has just given up. Denial, perhaps

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Jun 19

Love love love this Dahlia ('Honka Black' syn 'Verrone's Obsidian')

A single black (very dark red-purple) Dahlia flower, with 2 small hoverflies feeding at the centre. The petals are slightly rolled

A slightly more distant picture of the same flower, showing abundant fresh green Dahlia leaves

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 31

I'm rewatching The OC as part of #nostalgiamaxxing but the adult in me has extreme anxiety about the fate of these 3 glass vases behind the Cohen's sofa. I really hope they're glued down.

Terrible phone picture of my laptop screen showing the character Seth Cohen lying on a beige sofa, with 3 large glass vases-tall slim orange, classical Greek-style emerald green and squat oval orange. The vases are DIRECTLY behind the back of the sofa. The background has patio doors with a sea view and cream kitchen cupboards just visible

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 23

While sorting Grandad's house after his move to a care home we found this box that Granny had embroidered-remarkably accurately, with allowance for a little artistic licence!

A green fabric box, approx 30cm long, with a gold embroidered nudibranch & prey on the lid

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 23

Entirely normal Saturday evening-driving home with a tank of unwanted stick insects

A tall, vertically-oriented glass tank, containing branches & cut bramble leaves, seat belted onto a car seat

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 11

Terry gets 100-150mg for blood tests and even then it needs the experienced vet & nurses!

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 11

It might be worth asking for some gabapentin for vet visits-give it 2 hours before the appointment and she should be high & chill. Poor Diego gets so stressed in the car he poops himself, but 50mg gabapentin & he's a spaceman. A lot of vets do 100mg/cat but Diego's a lightweight!

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 8

I live with my parents, and they're on holiday at the moment. Terry is looking for them in the most stupid places (he does this *every* time they go away). It is *unlikely* that they're hiding in the larder, but it's best to double-check, just to be sure

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 8

It took Diego weeks to stop climbing into the fridge whenever it was opened, after we gave him some ham

An orange and white cat sits waiting by a cream kitchen cupboard door (integrated fridge)

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 3

This is why you shouldn't shear a sheep when you're in an arthritis flare. Poor Bridget, one day her dignity may recover (I'll go over her again & do her belly soon)

A pale grey sheep is searching for food pellets in a grassy pen. She has just been sheared except for her belly, which is still tufty

Bridget is now facing the camera, so you can see she still has 'sideburns' and some tufts on her front leg, as well as her belly

Alice Porter@aliceporter· May 1

Arnold decided he wanted to be clipped yesterday-just stood there and let me do it. I wish they were all so cooperative 🤷‍♀️ He still has his antenna, though, essential for contacting his home planet

A sheep with a white body, dark face and legs and pale nose stands on short green grass with bare dry patches of ground. He is newly shorn

Arnold is leaning into my hand, which is scratching under his chin. His eyes are closed as he enjoys a fuss

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Apr 28

Screenshot

Alice Porter@aliceporter· Apr 26

Pine-flavoured snack for Gaia, while her daughter, Astrid, enjoys some nettles in the foreground