Samantha

@samanthakm

She/her. Disabled. Always tired (no really, moderate/severe ME/CFS). Animal lover. #Uglydogs

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Bluesky

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Samantha@samanthakm· 29d

@donab.bsky.social I chose a dress for tomorrow! After careful consideration, I let David choose. So I will be wearing my sloth and koala dress to his graduation. Will the zookeepers all be mad it's not geographically accurate? Maybe? I am. But it's very cute.

Photo of a dark green sloth and koala print dress with a sheer white coverup hanging on a mirrored wardrobe door, that shows a tiny hint of a Clara on the bed.

Close up of the dress print - dark green with leaves and small flowers. Two and three fingered sloths and koalas with and without joeys.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 13

From Highland Wildlife Park's Instagram (where I definitely didn't steal any polar bears). Floofs. Teeny tiny baby floofs. Volume up!

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 13

Shall we play find the dog on our family trip to the beach this evening, #UglyDogs? Hint: the dog is not Clara or Dexter.

Blue sea with breaking waves, shingle beach and wooden groynes.

Blue sea in the other direction with a small boat moored, shingle beach, wooden groynes and part of the sea wall visible.

Blue sea and skies, with the footpath on the sea wall showing a group of people.

Man and a well camouflaged dog stood by the groynes, close to the waters edge.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 13

Clara thinks labs are the way forward. We think she is almost all lab, except for the squonk ear and whatever gives her a slightly long and slender nose. It doesn't matter though, she's 100% queen of the house.

Clara, a yellow lab mix, is wearing birthday garb ( a rosette, a bow and a party hat) which has been forced upon her in exchange for treats. She is expressing her disdain by sticking out her tongue.

Clara from the side is smiling at her new sofa in her new house, where she can rule the roost and demand belly rubs.

Clara is doing her best earless seal impression because you are on the sofa and she is on the floor.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 10

Happy birthday!

A binturong licking his lips in front of a fruit birthday cake.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 6

Nice popcorn or evil popcorn?

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 4

Yes (with caveats)

A binturong called Baloo being cradled like a baby and having his tummy tickled

A binturong called Baloo sat on a man's shoulder, thinking about licking his nose.

A binturong called Baloo climbing across a woman's shoulders with his prehensile tail wrapped around her neck like a scarf. His knife hands are leaving sharp scratches on the back of her back and her face is saying 'ouch!'

Samantha@samanthakm· Jul 1

Photos of the attempt at emo, 20 years later (for posterity and giggles). Mostly for @donab.bsky.social 😂🖤🖤🖤

A man and a woman wearing black face masks, sat together for a selfie. They are both wearing black clothes. The woman has heavy black eye make up and little black star gems, which she has also put on her face mask.

Side view of the same woman who is showing her hair in this photo (to her sister originally). It is dark blonde/light brown and curly, and tied up in a curly bun with a black scarf scrunchie. A section has been separated and braided back, and the braid has tiny black velvet bows alternating with black star clips. She also has an octopus piercing in her ear and raccoon-like black eye make up, with small black star gems.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 21

I caught a Clara sulk on camera tonight. It's not the full crab walk, and sadly I won't be encouraging her to jump on furniture like this anytime soon with her limpy limp, but it definitely gives you the gist.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 21

Just in case anyone else needed a sleepy potato tonight. He has plenty of more comfortable options, but always ends up on cool bare floor, by the draught. What a cute little fire hazard.

A sugar faced tiny golden retriever is lying in one of his favourite spots in front of the bedroom door, blocking everyone in. He is asleep with his chin between his paws on bare wooden flooring.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 19

Baby coos at Noah's Ark Zoo, Bristol. Alan and Brian. Brian is 3 days old. Downloaded from Noah's Ark Zoo Instagram for my lovely #UglyDogs The urge to do one of their Highland Cow experiences is stronger every day!

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 17

Video downloaded from ZSL Whipsnade Instagram. They have SEVEN tiny cheetah cubs. Have a little joy, my lovely #UglyDogs 😍

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 8

Shrinking before our very eyes. Such sad faces 🥺

Clara, a yellow lab mix, lies on the back seat of a car, with blankets and a hammock style cover. She is wearing a harness and staring straight ahead. She looks sad.

Dexter, a white faced old man tiny golden retriever, is lying on the back seat of a car, wearing his harness attached to a seatbelt. There are blankets and a chew beside him. He is very fluffy and has a very sad expression.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 7

There's not much in the archives because my phone just decided to hide everything from my SD card, apparently? However, please accept this Clara eye, from back when she wasn't giving me the stink eye.

Roughly a quarter of a light blonde dog's head is prominent in the foreground. One pretty brown eye is showing, reflecting bright sunlight. Her ear is back so she looks round headed and seal like. Pretty pink flowers are blurry in th background.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 7

Happy birthday to you! Here's a black Heilan' coo!

A dinky black highland cow with horns pointing upwards and a very long fringe making it look like it has no eyes, only fringe and a big shiny nose.

Samantha@samanthakm· Jun 6

This is the photo David took of me before we went in lol. Not pictured - a failed attempt at applying false eyelashes (gave up on that one very quickly) and a huge pattern of gems for my forehead (festival style) that I tried on for giggles and immediately sweated off 😂

A white woman is sat outdoors in a wheelchair (not visible). She has curly space buns with silver shimmer spray, and holographic (biodegradable) glitter in the front of her hair. She is wearing gold snake hair clips and a silver bear necklace, with a blue safari themed dress. She has blue and silver glittery eyeshadow and stick on gems on her face and on her black face mask. It's a very over the top but fun look.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 30

I didn't manage to say yesterday but we took the dogs to the beach for their second swim session (only bad photos as I was in my wheelchair) and then we went to a cafe and my mum was with us so the dogs got to try her bacon and camembert pastry as well as the free treats. There was much joy.

Clara, a yellow lab mix, stands on a shingle beach with the tide in. She looks off to the left. Dexter, a tiny golden retriever, lies at the very edge of the water, just getting his belly wet. This is the furthest he likes to go in. The water is glassy smooth.

Dexter remains lying in waiting at the edge of the water, ready to bounce and bound towards Clara to pounce on her when she returns to the land. A man stands waiting for her to swim back towards him after he has thrown a stone to encourage her to swim without getting lungs full of water by trying to catch a toy. Clara is a tiny blonde head in the sea.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 24

I know some of you might have been worrying about how cruelly Tato was taunted with wrapping paper on Friday. Don't worry, he got to shred envelopes tonight and make a lovely mess. He would still prefer wrapping paper, envelopes are slightly tough, but he's very good at his job. Also - TEEFIES.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 24

Thank you #UglyDogs for all my lovely birthday wishes! We might have postponed a motorhome adventure, but we took the dogs for beach swimmies in the morning to cool down, and now we're on our way to have a wander around fancy gardens this evening.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 24

Thank you! I love all the menagerie illustrations 💚 We decided against going away in the motorhome with the dogs due to the heat, but we took them swimming this morning and we might go to a late garden event this evening.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 23

Some photos from the dogs adventure to my niece's birthday. They were fairly well behaved and resisted the mountain of wrapping paper. Leads on due to all my mum's ceramics being out for the art trail. They left due to barking at bubbles, but would have had to go before 🔥/smores anyway. #UglyDogs

Clara, a yellow lab mix, holds a worn tennis ball in her mouth. Dexter, a tiny golden retriever, eagerly anticipates a different old tennis ball which he definitely will not catch, being held by a child who is mostly out of frame. Both dogs are attached to a large swing seat by their leads, where a man is relaxing. They are on the leads because presents are being opened nearby and Dexter is not allowed to shred the wrapping paper today. Also because the entire garden has ceramics set up for display.

Dexter has helpfully wedged himself between the man's legs and is wagging his blurry, fluffy tail. Clara has lay down on the grass with the tennis ball. The man is shielding his eyes from the late afternoon sun with balloons and bunting on the swing seat. Piles of presents and tempting wrapping paper are nearby, so Dex is doing a very good job at resisting.

Clara is now sat on the swing with the man, which she looks delighted about. This is because she likes to be in the sunshine, but also because Dexter will not climb on the moving thing, so cannot be touching her 24/7. He prefers to sleep with their bums touching. Here, he is lying on the grass instead.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 10

For the raccoons. From Northumberland zoo Instagram.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 10

Cat tax. From several years ago when he could erm..see? He wasn't allowed on the sofa at David's parents and the new sofa is a bit high for his little blind self to climb on to the back.

Photo of a younger, un-sugar-faced Dexter lying on the top of the sofa cushions, with his head stuffed between them and the back of the sofa. He also liked to lie on the solid section covered with a blue throw, with his paws hanging down on either side. This was a gamble though, as that section was hinged to form a bed, so was perilous.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 10

Here's a little Sunday night treat for all my lovely #UglyDogs. Please enjoy a post-brush Tatocake.

Dexter, a tiny golden retriever with an old man sugar face, lies in a patch of long grass, his face smiley and his mouth open. You can see his fluffy leg-feathers.

Dexter is showing why he is more commonly called potato in this photo. He is close to the camera with his eyes a bit squinty and a large pink tongue protruding from his open mouth. Much cute. Very derp. Teefies.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 4

Look who's home! (It's the humans. The dogs guarded the house from many imagined threats and did a lot of weeing and barking.)

A ginger tiny golden retriever holds a stuffed toy bottle of 'Pawsecco' in his white-faced schnoop.

The same little stinker dog holds the same toy. He's a very good potato.

A blonde lab mix with a long nose and a squonky ear is sat on a blue sofa getting scritches.

The same blonde dog is panting slightly and is excited.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 3

Oh I tried to take some photos of enclosures to show you how good it is, but it didn't go well on my phone lol. I will post them anyway!

Two polar bears are not really visible playing in their big pond. The fences at one edge of their enclosure going up a steep slope, and at the bottom, coming back up towards the camera is the viewing pathway. Together they show the very bottom corner of the enclosure.

The view in the opposite direction, taken from the viewing pathway at the bottom part of their enclosure. Grazed down grass shows part of a very large deer enclosure and out over other areas of the wildlife park. Snow is still visible on the surrounding mountains.

A rubbish, curved panoramic photo tries to show the scale of the polar bear enclosure, but fails spectacularly, as it makes all of it look smaller! If you zoom in, one green box on the left, halfway up the hill is one indoor area, and another, on the right is a second, huge, indoor area (where all the encounter photos were taken). In between are different sections of outdoor enclosure (so that parts can be separated off, if necessary). They have almost the entire hillside and the huge pond looks tiny (when things are actually in proportion). Both bears disappear easily and frequently, and most of the enclosure is not visible to the public. The keepers have to drive from one part to the next.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 3

David is much, much better. Is it because he's taller? Is it because he can stand unaided? Has any sort of core stability or grip strength? Who knows. Walker would have had the entire bottle poured in in one go and just fill his mouth up and forget to swallow or breathe if it were his choice.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 3

Just out of frame is the only time Arktos came in, to get some salmon oil from the keeper. I was obviously a terrible salmon oil squirter. In my defence, the bottle was huge and heavy and the fence I had to lean over (and on - no crutch) was very high. Walker was relatively patient with me.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 3

He's a hungry boy.

A man in a blue t shirt squirts salmon oil from a bottle through a fence with a very derpy looking polar bear on the other side. He looks derpy because he is licking the mesh fence.

The same man is feeding the same bear, but now because he has his mouth open and you can see his ferocious teeth (even with one missing), he does not look derpy anymore.

Polar bear looking very cute, like the most gigantic cuddly toy.

Polar bear staring at a single, tiny, dropped fish. His gigantic paw is up on the fence. Part derpy Labrador searching for a crumb, part terrifying apex predator.

Samantha@samanthakm· May 3

Sorry I haven't shared polar bear photos properly, #UglyDogs. It's definitely because I travelled from the Highlands to Birmingham in 2 days and fit in another zoo and a visit to my grandad, so subsequently have had a very predictable crash out. It's definitely not because I've been hiding a 🐻‍❄️