Soul Turtle

14/01/2026

Love love love Miranda & her love of dogs 🐶

Hart acts with a clumsy, well-meaning exuberance that positions her as the ultimate champion for the socially awkward and the perpetually unpolished. Her performance style is defined by her physical stature and her willingness to utilize it for broad, slapstick comedy, often involving literal pratfalls or increasingly desperate attempts at social grace. Her unique selling point is her frequent breaking of the fourth wall, as she looks directly into the camera to share her internal embarrassment and seek the audience's approval. She celebrates the jolly and the silly, creating a comedic world that is devoid of cynicism and rooted in a deep, albeit messy, affection for the human experience.

Her eponymous sitcom, Miranda, became a massive success by reviving the traditional multi-camera format and infusing it with a fresh, feminist perspective on the struggles of the modern single woman. Before her solo breakthrough, she was a respected character actress in various British comedies, honing her timing in shows like Not Going Out and Hyperdrive. Her transition into dramatic acting in Call the Midwife demonstrated her ability to handle emotional weight with the same sincerity she applied to her comedic roles, earning her critical acclaim. She has been remarkably open about her struggles with chronic illness and anxiety, using her platform to provide a source of comfort and laughter to those facing similar challenges. Her writing, including her memoirs and guidebooks for the socially terrified, continues to resonate with a massive audience that feels out of step with the polished expectations of modern life. She remains a beloved figure who has successfully turned her own perceived flaws into a source of national empowerment and joy.

She proves that embracing your own awkwardness and refusing to conform is a radical and necessary act of self-acceptance. His/Her legacy is one of making the uncool and the unpolished a central and celebrated part of the British sitcom. She is the galloping queen of the heart-centered laugh.

12/01/2026

⭐️Wilba Wolfie Mango 🥭 some January pics.

Send me your favourite doggie/ animal pics of this year so far !! 😍??

She’s sniffed me a lot since getting back from hospital 🏥 she knows something has happened ….love dogs so much their intuition is amazing 🥰!!
Delayed to animal rescue in Goa Animal Rescue Centre - ARC, South Goa but won’t be long….enjoying a bit more time with Wilba and Milo handsome prince before I go!! 🫶

02/01/2026

Almost time for a hard but only temporary bye for my darlings furballs and a hello to many indie street dogs and cats for some volunteer work at Animal Rescue Centre - ARC, South Goa ! it’s my 6.th..year of helping properly…usually about 4 days a week, unless we’re off travelling . I love making a difference I can’t wait to see my favourite dogs and cats. I’m almost to the end of my level 5 diploma in canine massage and rehabilitation its part of the vet physio association IRVAP it’s taking me a long time / & way longer that I estimated but the end and my exams are in site. It’s definitely tricky trying to do a course as well as being a home Ed mum & doing bits of other wk. Juggling was never my strong point lol. 😂
At ARC Dog walkers and helpers / any kind of help Is always appreciated!!
Anyway if you’d love to help animals the ARC waJanie Oconnor! Janie Oconnor ###

30/12/2025

🥰🥰🥰

30/12/2025

This is very true for me ! 😢grieving takes time and there’s so limit on the time it takes xx

If you lost a dog this year (or any year) and are finding this Christmas tough, I totally get it.

I found this photo from Percy and India's last Christmas, a year ago. And I miss them so much.

The thing about losing a dog is you're not really allowed to be a wreck about it. Not for long anyway. It's been six months since I lost India and Percy and I still have moments - lots of moments - where I'm a mess.

And Christmas makes it worse because it's everywhere and it goes on for weeks and you can't just say "actually I'm having a hard time" because then someone asks why and you say your dogs died and you can see them deciding how much sympathy that deserves.

So you just don't.

This is normal grief, though. Grief comes with big feelings, and those big feelings are normal and not at all unhealthy. This is just what loving someone and losing them looks like.

Anyway, if you're feeling this too right now I want to send you a huge hug and tell you you are not alone.

And I hope you have the merriest Christmas that you can and that you find some joy too. Even just a little. I do think they'd want that for us. ❤️

30/12/2025

😍😍😍

“Don't get too attached to your dog. It'll only make it harder when they go.”

I hear this all the time, especially leveled at people whose dogs have separation anxiety. People who have no choice but to spend extended time with their dogs. People who take their dogs everywhere because that's what their dog needs right now.

And it's nonsense.

The research on grief doesn't actually say that people who loved more suffer more.

Loving your dog deeply doesn't predict that you'll be derailed when they die.

And what would "healthy detachment" even look like anyway? Not smiling at their many little quirks? Not having your heart feel full when they give you that look? Not hanging out on the sofa with them just snuggling?

That's not protecting yourself from future pain. That's just not having the relationship.

Loving your dog is good for you - and the research shows it. It's regulating. It's nourishing. The human-animal bond isn't some weakness to be managed.

Deep love isn't pathological. Neither is deep grief. You can love completely, grieve deeply, and still be okay.

Dogs bring us so much joy and happiness. Why should we feel guilty about how much we love them just because somebody on the internet said so? What a way to spoil something so special.

Don't hold back. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for loving your dog completely.

26/12/2025

My very favourite furry Christmas present 💝 🐾🐾& handsome prince with the red shoes 😍

26/12/2025

Enrichment activity- empty Box - treats at bottom / layers of wrap paper….a fun activity for ages xx 🥰🥳

25/12/2025

Merry Christmas everyone 🐾🌟🌟🌟🎄🌲🎄
Hope you and your wonderful furry families are all keeping warm and cozy xx 🐾🐾🐾✨⭐️✨

23/12/2025

Lovely Freya came over today to have some therapy 🙏🥰🥰🥰

11/12/2025

09/12/2025

It started quietly — not with a headline, not with a protest, but with a single budget line that would change the fate of countless dogs behind laboratory doors.
Most people never heard the sound those dogs made: the whines echoing through concrete rooms, the metal dishes sliding across floors, the soft tapping of paws waiting for someone… anyone… to open a cage.

But in 2019, their reality shifted.

Under the Trump administration, nearly $28 million in federal funding for animal testing programs was cut, a decision that forced several long-running dog experimentation projects inside federal agencies to shut down or drastically scale back operations.

For the dogs trapped in those programs, it wasn’t politics — it was freedom.

One of the most controversial programs eliminated during this period was the USDA’s “Kitten Cannibalism Study,” a decades-old toxoplasmosis experiment that shocked the nation when documents revealed the agency had been purchasing dogs and cats from overseas “meat markets” to use as test subjects. That program was officially shut down in 2019 after widespread public outrage and scrutiny from watchdog groups.

At the same time, the administration also directed federal agencies — including the VA, EPA, and NIH — to phase down or completely discontinue dog experiments that were causing significant suffering with little scientific benefit.

For the first time, dogs inside government labs were seen not as “research tools,” but as sentient beings who deserved better.

And here’s the part most people never hear:

Many of the dogs rescued from these closed programs had never touched grass.
Never walked on a leash.
Never slept without the hum of machinery around them.
Some were six, eight, even ten years old — puppies at heart, but seniors in sorrow.

When they stepped outside those lab doors for the first time, rescue workers said the dogs froze, overwhelmed by the sun on their fur. Some wagged their tails so hard their entire bodies shook.
Some simply leaned into the nearest human… and stayed there.
Because that’s what dogs do.
They forgive. They trust. They believe.

The budget cut wasn’t a perfect solution — no single policy ever is. But it represented something rare in government: a moment when animal welfare crossed party lines, and compassion outweighed convenience.

And it opened the door for reforms that followed:

🐾 The EPA committed to ending all mammal testing by 2035.
🐾 The VA dramatically reduced painful dog experiments.
🐾 Transparency rules increased, exposing hidden cruelty.
🐾 Rescues gained legal access to dogs formerly scheduled for euthanasia.

For the dogs who spent their lives in cages, this change meant everything.

Today, many have new homes.
New beds.
New names.
New stories.

But the truth remains haunting:
They spent years living lives most people will never see… and only a few will ever fight to change.

That’s why sharing their stories matters.
Because every time we shine a light, another cage door somewhere loosens.
Another program gets questioned.
Another dog gets a chance.

And if we keep pushing, keep advocating, keep saying their lives matter, then one day—
animal testing on dogs won’t be reduced.
It will be gone.

And the world will be better for it.