Waterann - :)

NOOoOoOOOOoO

D:

R I P to the most important sea otter in my life :(

Remembering Rosa the sea otter

Hello Aquarium family. It’s with great sadness that we share that our beloved sea otter Rosa passed away today. At 24 years old, Rosa was the oldest resident otter at the Aquarium and one of our most experienced surrogate moms, having raised 15 stranded sea otter pups in her time with us. 

While Rosa spent the last few months behind the scenes getting extra special care from our staff, she was the matriarch of the Sea Otters exhibit. Beloved and cherished by millions of visitors and fans of the live Sea Otter Cam, she was instantly recognizable thanks to her blonde head (eclipsed only by Ivy as our most grizzled of kelp grizzlies) and her signature head-all-the-way-back swimming style.

“Rosa was one of our most playful sea otters, and even at 24 years old, she would still be seen frolicking and wrestling with the younger otters when she instigated it,” said Melanie Oerter, curator of mammals. “Rosa was usually found sleeping against the window while on exhibit with her chin tucked tight into her chest and her tail swishing back and forth.”

After being found stranded as a four-week-old pup in September 1999, Rosa became part of the Aquarium family before our sea otter surrogacy program even took shape. Our Sea Otter Program staff raised her by hand for nearly seven months before releasing her to the wild. 

Rosa eventually returned to the Aquarium once again in March 2002 when she didn’t take to life outside of human care, and she immediately became a fixture in the formative years of our sea otter surrogacy program as a caring adoptive mother for rescued pups destined for wild release.

She was a delight to work with, though she certainly had her expectations of our staff according to the many Sea Otter Mammalogists who trained (were trained by?) Rosa over the years. 

"Rosa was an incredibly smart otter! Generally calm and patient with the staff. However, she could be defiant at times and there would be no convincing her to do something she did not want to do," said Oerter. "She would often just look at us or swim away. I believe she was the one who was really training us all of these years. I certainly learned a lot from working with such an incredible otter. It has been a privilege and to say we will miss her is understated."

Rosa relaxed into retirement from surrogacy in 2019, acting as a companion and cornerstone in the ever-changing raft of otters in our care. 

Wild female sea otters live between 15 and 20 years, and reaching the age of 24 is a testament to the exceptional care Rosa received throughout her life from our Veterinary and Animal Care teams. In recent years, she began showing signs of age-related health concerns.  In the last few weeks, her health had been deteriorating. After an exam, the veterinary and animal care teams made the difficult choice to humanely euthanize Rosa because those health conditions were compromising her quality of life. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her caretakers.

Rosa’s legacy lives on both at the Aquarium with our other resident sea otters Kit, Selka, Ivy, and Ruby, and in the wild, where sea otter pups she raised continue to raise pups of their own, contributing to the recovery of their species and their ecosystems along the California coast. 

Rosa was an inspiration to millions as a charismatic ambassador for her threatened species while playing a leading role in the story of sea otter recovery from near-extinction during the fur trade. Rosa will be greatly missed by all of us who got to know her over the years.

To celebrate Rosa’s long life, please feel free to share photos and stories of your encounters with Rosa at the Aquarium in the comment section on this post, in her memory and for the staff and volunteers grieving her loss. Thank you all for being such a big part of Rosa’s life. 🦦♥️

Once a vacuum cleaner salesman stole my mom’s vacuum cleaner :(

this article is sad but the image combined with the headline is stan

Mmmmmm

reblog to take a bite out of this styrofoam cup nobody can stop you go ahead and do it

:0

He’s just trying his best and going on little adventures. 💚

With the Slayer and the Princess away as mortals, the Cycle Broken, that leaves the 10~ voices and 20~ princesses left in what was once the Long Quiet, their centers gone, reality a simple cabin in nothing.

The voices however each believe in their respective princesses so much, they each shape the world with their beliefs, splintering multitudes of pockets of lifetimes in the nothing that is their everything.

Smitten and Damsel, simply staring into one another eyes in a meadow, they say nothing, do nothing, cause the other being happy is enough for them, and the other is happy if they are happy, an endless feedback loop.

The Tower on her throne, the Broken in a gilded cage beside her as she coos and pets him, the little Bird preening in adoration.

The Adversary and the Stubborn locked in endless, perfect, almost sexual combat, hand in unlovable hand.

The Opportunist and the Witch, embracing, smiling fake smiles, each with a blade ready to stab the other in the back.

The Razor and the Cheated playing Uno. The Razor is eating cards when the Cheated isn't looking.

Skeptic and Prisoner also looking into one another's eyes, each in chains, each squinting, never breaking eye contact.

The Cold and the Spectre, chilling.

The Nightmare and the Paranoid, gloved hand trailing across the bird's feathered neck.

Contrarian and Stranger, him trying to do something to annoy her, her laughing screaming in anger crying ignoring him.

The Hunted and the Beast, playing an eternal game of cat and bird.

What? They can't all bee good endings.

And yet, despite everything, none of them would have it any other way.

Not even the Paranoid.

At least his organs aren't shutting down anymore.

you have GOT to get over the debilitating curse I gave you and just be a normal functioning member of society already

👀

Animation is so so cooool

You can do so much more with it than live action it’s so creative because so much care is put into every frame