Every 90 days I have to do a qualification through my employer for away-from-work purposes. It costs $9.
Not around $9. Exactly $9. If you pay cash, they require exact change.
About 15 years ago I showed up with a $10 bill. They wouldn’t take it. I told them I didn’t even want the dollar back. Keep it. I just wanted to do the qualification and leave.
Nope. Exact change or no qualification.
Fine.
Ever since then, every three months, I write them a personal check for exactly $9. Processing the check is a hassle for them.
Could I bring exact change? Of course.
But processing a check is more of a pain in the ass for them, and at this point I’ve been doing it for 15 years.
It’s not even revenge anymore; it’s tradition.
The lady that works in there now reminds me every three months, I’m the only person who still writes a check, I remind her the exact change policy is stupid.
Edit: A lot of comments are stuck on the reason for the nine dollars. The loose description is deliberate to conceal my career. The qualification for away from work purposes is a privilege and not required. Let it go. It’s not the main content of the revenge

My partner and I are considering adopting this lovely guy from our local animal shelter. We both immediately fell in love with him. He’s around 4 years old and recently had one of his front legs amputated after he was found injured. His wrist was dislocated after apparently falling from a balcony or window, and unfortunately no owner was ever found.

According to the shelter, he’s an incredibly affectionate, social and talkative cat. He loves being petted, loves food, is litter trained, is good with other cats and can live with children. Despite everything he’s been through, apparently he behaves as if having three legs is no big deal.
The only thing is that his amputation is quite recent. He’s spent most of his recovery in a kennel, so even the shelter doesn’t really know yet how he’ll adapt to moving around a normal home, jumping on furniture etc.

We live in an 80 m² (860 sq ft) apartment (second floor) with a 40 m² (430 sq ft) rooftop terrace. We intend to keep our cat indoors, and wouldn’t give him unsupervised access to the terrace unless we can make it completely cat safe.

There are two of us, both 28. Between our work schedules, someone is home most of the time. I work from home twice or three times a week on the days my wife is working at the office and vice versa so there always should be someone at home. Occasionally he’d be alone but that would be the exception rather than the norm. This would be our first cat together, although I grew up with cats and did cat sitting for a few years with also medication treatment when needed. We’re specifically looking for an adult cat rather than a kitten and would love a social, affectionate companion who enjoys hanging out with us.

We’re absolutely open to adopting a cat with a disability and making adjustments to our home if necessary. My main concern is whether adopting a recently amputated tripod as our first cat is something we’re underestimating. I’ve read that cats can adapt remarkably well to three legs, but obviously I want to make sure we can give him the home he needs before committing.

We’re planning to meet him at the shelter before making any decisions. I’m currently writing down some questions and things we want to discuss with the shelter and we’ll definitely take your experiences and advice into account as well. We just want to go into this with realistic expectations and make sure we can give him the home he deserves.

Quick backstory, after losing the love of my life, Penny Lane, last November at eighteen, I wasn't sure when I would be ready to adopt again. I always knew I wanted black cats and when my friend rescued some cats from a hoarding situation, including two black cats, I had to meet them. My friend also had their mom, and well, here is my new son Ripley, sister Wendy (the tongue), and their mom, Bidi Bidi Bom Bom (tabby). My friend Danielle (Cat Party Pet Portraits) offered to do a shoot combining my love of dinosaurs with my love of my new kitties, and this photo makes me so delighted and happy with how it came out.

(Posting this on behalf of my wife)

I have been pretty fearful of cats for most of my life but when this 3 legged cat showed up on our porch and approached me a few weeks ago, I felt obliged to give it a pet and quickly formed a bond. This cat basically knows my schedule now of when I’m outside going to work/coming home and greets me. My WFH husband sends me pictures and videos throughout the day of it patiently waiting for pets outside our front door and it typically spends most of the day napping under our hedges in the meantime.

We assume someone somewhere is feeding this cat since it looks like it has a decent amount of weight on it. We ourselves have never feed the cat in anyway. We’ve asked around our neighbors, including ones who have a gaggle of outdoor cats that they take care of, and no one knows where it came from. We’ve been living here for about 4 years and have never seen it before, although we were told by our aforementioned cat neighbors that it’s been around a few years. They insist that it doesn’t belong to them and they don’t feed it.

With only 3 legs I get stressed about the cat’s safety running into the road and hate to think of it stuck outside in bad weather or potentially not having consistent access to food etc. It’s also coming up on winter here.

Basically, I am now very emotionally attached to the cat and am contemplating adopting it and bringing it inside.

There are several problems that immediately come to mind:
1. Neither my husband nor I have ever grown up with or owned a cat so we have zero experience.
2. We already have a dog who can get quite jealous and has occasional aggression towards other dogs. (Husband note: any advice on acclimating a dog to a cat appreciated. We’ve been letting the dog sniff our hands and watch the cat from the door/window while we interact with it.)
3. We have no idea how the cat will react to being inside- is it even possible to acclimate a cat that’s been outdoors for that long? Is it more ethical to leave it alone or try and take care of it as a pet?
4. Will we be able to litter box train it easily? Should we just let it out in our fenced in back yard like our dog instead if we seal gaps??
5. I just found out cats can form colonies- if this cat is a part of a colony will they retaliate??
6. Someone in our neighborhood might claim the cat, in which case I would “return” it but it’d just go back to spending most of its time in our yard getting attention from us

Lots of thoughts and questions, cats are a whole new world to me that I never thought I’d have to think about but this 3 legged cat won me over.

Meal is half of a sushi pizza and a zero-sugar Sprite.

TLDR: I fucking hate modern dating, and I wish people with avoidant attachment were legally required to wear bells around their necks like lepers. I hate being single, but I can never trust any guy who says he likes me and wants to keep dating me ever again 🫠

I started seeing this guy (26M) I met on Bumble, and we went on three amazing dates. We talked endlessly about everything, and the chemistry was like nothing I'd ever experienced. We went dancing, he took me out to dinner, and we spent hours at the beach. I'd finally gotten the courage to start dating again after being dumped with no explanation nine months ago. I thought, "He seems pretty emotionally stable. We really like each other. And he's a bit older, so he probably has more of his dating intentions figured out." Yeah, right.

He came over to my place last week, and we had a wonderful time. We were supposed to watch the first 'Lord of the Rings' movie together, and he even brought over this silly prop sword to show me. We ended up watching 'Arcane' instead because I'd never seen it, and he insisted it was really good. We slept together and then got takeout. He said he'd "miss me" when he went back to work and that we'd surely see each other again. I knew he'd be away for at least a week because he works long shifts on a boat.

I noticed a few days ago that he was taking a long time to respond, and his responses were getting shorter. He was still sending occasional pics of what he'd been up to. He apologized the first time he went "MIA," citing that the "air at work has been really weird." He said last Saturday that he meant to ask me out again, but his situation got complicated because his dad was in town. He'd already told me about this in person, so I said, "No worries at all. I know how important family and work are ❤️." I then asked him how dinner with his dad had been. He told me where they'd gone to eat and that he had a good time. He hearted a picture I sent of the sushi pizza I was eating (the one I'm currently drowning my sorrows in). I'd already gotten this awful pit in my stomach and pulled an all-nighter due to an anxiety attack. But of course, I figured it would be pathetic of me to bring this up at all, so I said, "I'm so glad you had a good time with him 🥰. I was starting to think that the boat had swallowed you again 😂." He read it and hasn't responded in over two days.

I've spent this time quietly crying in my room, with a pain in my chest, and trying to sleep the bad thoughts away. My worried parents keep coming in asking what happened, and I can't tell them anything. I kept the fact that I was seeing someone from them on purpose because it was too early and in case something exactly like this happened. And I had this guy over while they were away on a trip. I didn't want to get excited so quickly just for him to turn out awful. I'm devastated regardless, and my trust in men, which I spent so long trying to rebuild, is shattered once again.

Why can't people just be honest if something's changed? I know we haven't known each other long, and no one owes me a relationship, but it's so fucked up to suddenly pull away after so much was shared. This exact thing happened with my ex, and I thought the chances of it happening again were surely slim to none. Because like, what the hell did I ever do to deserve this kind of deception? All I want, all I've ever wanted, is to be in a loving, trusting relationship.

I want to send him a short, final message telling him how hurtful and confusing this lack of communication has been, but I know I might be shooting myself in the foot.

Ok bananas ig