I’m not what they call “a dog person. “ But I’m definitely attached to certain dogs—legendary “riot dogs” and a good-troublemaker dog, Julius, at @firestormcoop and some everyday cutie-pie pups who are companions to beloved friends. One of those dogs, who I’ve known her whole life, died today. She died many hundreds of miles away, although I could picture her imploring eyes (eagerly “asking” for pets) and the pattern on her nose that looked like a zipper in her old age.

All life is precious. Yet it feels extra so these genocidal and ecocidal days. Honoring our dead is crucial as a way to honor the sacredness of life too.

So this afternoon, I laid some freshly scavenged roses (for healing), tiny stones (for blessed memory), and tiny sticks (playthings for her journey to the ancestors, harking to her younger days of tug-of-war games with her best, long-ago deceased dog friend using big branches) on a big rock by a small urban lake and let the wind carry the petals off as birds sang all around me. To life.

#AllCrittersAreBeautiful

I’d say this possum is “cute as a button,” but it’s actually a sticker—and yeah, cute too!

Now you can take our antifascist critter home, plus not have to worry about it scratching up your furniture, although it is scratch and UV fade resistant for up to 5 years. (And fascist resistant for as long as it takes.)

Our ungovernable and gender-nonconforming possum is always up for good mischief, such as playing A-team mascot for our Banned Books Back project (“our” as in @firestormcoop with me as collaborator), which will return 22,500 books back to kids after a mean-spirited school district in Florida tried to trash these titles because of their “dangerous” content. Read: stories that revolve around queer, trans, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other people that fascists tend not to like.

But our possum proudly and loudly proclaims, “Trash Fascism, Not Books!” Because as every smart creature knows, dumping/burning/disappearing books and their ideas goes hand in hand (or paw in paw) with doing the same to people.

You can read lots more about Banned Books Back in the links in my bio, and from there, also kick into our fundraiser and/or fill out our encrypted request form (kids, we’re looking at you!) for a free book bundle—either for picture books or chapter books. And please help us spread the word to kiddos and adults in Florida, because that’s where our first 500 book bundles are going so as to re-home these books to the un-sunshiny state that attempted to ban them.

Back to our possum, though!

If you want to scoop up this cuddly character and support Banned Books Back, $10 gets you this limited edition “kiss-cut” sticker printed by the rad folks at @offcolordecals, using our logo art by the equally rad @des.tattooart! Just high tail it to:

https://firestorm.coop/products/21029-banned-books-back-benefit-sticker.html

Order soon, order often (the more possums, the more mayhem)!

love+solidarity 🖤

#BannedBooksBack
#TrashFascismNotBooks
#AllCrittersAreBeautiful