After an absolutely awful week, I had to say goodbye to one of the best cats ever this morning. Swiggy was my loudest road trip companion and my biggest adventurer. She lived for at least 17 years, but that still doesn’t feel like enough. Kidney disease sucks. Hug your pets and hug your people.

New group photo just dropped! Absolutely love working with these awesome undergrads!

It is so nice outside that I took Swiggy for a little adventure. She sniffed a bush, made friends with 2 strangers, and was amused by a big tree.

“Dr. Starr, we got you a present! I fixed it with a sharpie.” The present ❤️:

Some of my students bring me fruit after exams to tell me how it went. Bananas are bad (because I hate bananas). Apples are good. I got very mixed messages this morning. Notable exam-related banana messages: “that exam elevated my boiling point” and “my IMFs are not that strong.”

Had very much fun in the lab with my lab development team today.

Y’all. 2 pairs of pants is simply insufficient today. Feeling like a misplaced southern popsicle up here.

Things still aren’t going super well for the Starr family Christmas tree, but things are going great for Smudge and Mabel.

My mom’s cat is the reason we can’t decorate the Christmas tree this year.

My TAs decided we all had to be festive for the final exam!

It seems fitting that my first post over here is Purrl with the Christmas tree. Blurry, but too cute not to share.