Content Note
Discussion of chronic illness, disability, medical stress, surgery mention, migraines, grief/loss of a beloved pet, and service dog themes.
🐾 Welcome Back to the Den
Welcome back to the Den.
The lights are a little warmer this week.
The floors a little louder with paws.
There’s a presence here you’ve probably felt before.
But this time?
She’s taking center stage.
Right where she belongs.
This is The Crippled Cryptid.
A soft-lit corner of the internet where disability, chronic illness, service dogs, and everyday survival exist without apology.
If you’re new here, hi. I’m Sky.
Professional cryptid.
Unwilling amateur cyborg.
Occasional chronic illness advocate, author, and creator.
Luna’s Mama. (My favorite title.)
Medically interesting enough to make half my providers sigh when they open my chart.
I sigh too. Then I ask for coffee.
I live in a haunted meat suit with a deeply suspicious warranty, spend a lot of time in Bed Jail™, and am almost never alone. Because two years ago, a very special dog found me.
Her name is Luna.
Service dog. Medical alert. Professional problem notifier.
Task-trained for seizures, migraines, cardiac alerts, and the countless tiny warning signs my body likes to whisper before it starts throwing furniture.
Part guardian. Part shadow. Part “Mama, sit down before I make you.”
🐾 “Correct. Because SOMEONE in this household thinks dizziness is a personality trait.”
And if I’m pretending my ears don’t work that day?
She cranks up the volume, hits me with her very best Cattle Dog side-eye, and a stubborn:
“Mumther. We are not negotiating your poor decision-making skills today.”
If you didn’t know already, she’s a very sassy little spirit guide.
But when you’re a very stubborn Cryptid who ignores every single red flag your body throws at you, that’s exactly what you need. A spirit guide with teeth, grit, and just enough sunshine to keep you going through the darkness. Like a lighthouse guiding you home through rough waters.
🐾 “Also ball launcher. Don’t forget the important qualifications.”
This week marks her second Adoptiversary.
And if you ask me?
That makes this less of a blog… and more of a celebration.
🦴 The Family Luna Chose
But Luna didn’t just choose me.
She chose us.
There’s M&M.
Not only my best friend, partner, and the one who gives 90% when I only have 10…
She’s also Luna’s belly rub dealer, sweater curator, bandana chooser, and the one who somehow gets away with calling her a bed hog in the middle of the night.
(She is.)
There’s the Yard Yeti.
My little brother, her best friend, the only one capable of throwing the ball far enough to satisfy her.
The one who calls out “Lulus!” and gets a full-body, full-volume response every single time.
The most tail waggies.
The most barkies.
The most boing.
And there was Bear.
Her first teacher.
Her first best friend.
The one who showed her how to be a dog.
How to love a family.
How to stay close.
How to take care of something outside herself.
She still carries that with her.
You can see it in the way she handles his toys. Gentle, like they still belong to him.
In the way she settled into his bed when it became hers, like she understood it wasn’t just a place to sleep.
It was something being passed down.
🐾 “I take my inheritance very seriously. Especially the squeaky parts.”
🐺 What She Gave Back
So, this week?
This isn’t just about how I found Luna.
It’s about how she became who she is.
How she learned to listen to a body that even I don’t fully understand.
🐾 “To be fair, your body sends alerts like a haunted submarine.”
How she adapts to it faster than I do, more often than I’d like to admit.
How she went from:
“why is this dog acting like she’s possessed?”
to:
“oh. This is what it means to be taken care of.”
It’s about the moments that built her.
And the ones where she, piece by piece, gave parts of my life back to me.
Returning cryptids, you already know:
This Den doesn’t ask you to be anything other than what you are.
New cryptids?
Come a little closer.
Mind the tail. She will absolutely step on you and then act like it was your fault.
🐾 “Because it WAS your fault. Spatial awareness is important.”
The Lunatic Café is open.
And for the next week?
You’re not just visiting the Den.
You’re stepping into Luna’s story.
There will absolutely be dog fur involved.
But that’s okay.
I wear it like a badge of pride. I hope that you do too.
☕ Saturday Health Update
🐾 On today’s menu: Saturday Health Updates
I know, compared to everything else during Luna’s Adoptiversary week, this comes with a little less flare and a lot less excitement.
But it must be done.
Sadly, Illinois is still doing her thing.
One moment it’s warming up, and the next we’re getting freeze warnings. What the hell is that? As if the constant tornado warnings and rain last week weren’t enough.
Meaning I’ve been nothing more than a migraine with legs.
🐾 “Current household status: Mama smells weird and keeps forgetting water again.”
But that hasn’t stopped me from spoiling our little ray of sunshine every chance I get.
She’s still hitting me with her best “sit down” glares and herding me room to room because apparently self-preservation is a team activity in this household.
And you already know what I’m going to say:
Luna Bean deserves the world.
Especially when she does everything in her power to make my life better, safer, and steadier every single day.
This upcoming week is going to be exciting. And for once, I don’t mean in a doctor’s appointment kind of way.
Thankfully we haven’t had many of those this week.
The most we’ve dealt with is a couple annoying phone calls letting me know my surgery got moved from July 2nd to July 10th because the surgeon decided to take vacation for the Fourth of July.
Insert all the eye rolls here.
🐾 “I personally voted against surgery entirely. But no one asked management.”
And it’s already happening in the middle of summer. In the middle of garden season. During the exact time of year my body likes to behave like an overheated Victorian widow.
So naturally, we pushed it further into July.
Fantastic.
🎉 The Adoptiversary Agenda
So, what do we have planned for Luna’s Adoptiversary?
Because let’s be honest, this might technically be a health update post…
…but it’s still her week.
Tomorrow, my father is coming over to spend time with us, meaning M&M and I will be making dinner while he inevitably earns his way deeper into Luna’s good graces by playing with her.
The easiest way into her heart, honestly.
Monday, we’ve got errands to run, so I can’t promise her the world, but she will be receiving a peanut butter Busy Bone for all of her emotional suffering.
And then Tuesday.
Her Day™.
Her actual Adoptiversary.
I’ll be making her salmon because salmon is quite literally her favorite thing in the entire universe.
🐾 “Salmon Day is recognized as a federal holiday in this household.”
And that’s also the day I’ll be unveiling her brand new ball.
Yes, I am absolutely wrapping it for her.
And yes, you will get video evidence of her aggressively unwrapping her own present like a tiny fuzzy cryptid raccoon.
🐾 “I understand gifts. I understand paper. I understand destruction.”
Who knows.
Car rides may also be in Luna Bean’s future.
We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?
🌌 You Are Not Alone
🌙 Love you. Now say it back.
And maybe this week, say it to the ones who stay.
The ones who notice before you do.
The ones who sit a little closer when something isn’t right.
The ones who don’t need language to understand you.
Just proximity.
Just presence.
Just you.
Because once upon a time, people told stories about animals like that.
They called them guardians.
They called them companions.
They called them things we don’t always say out loud anymore.
But they meant the same thing.
You are not alone.
🐾 For Luna
This week is for Luna.
For the dog who found me.
For the Service Dingo™ who refuses to let me fall apart unattended.
🐾 “Someone around here has to supervise the cryptid.”
For the piece of my life that showed up quietly and changed everything anyway.
And if you’d like to contribute to her Adoptiversary, I did make her an Amazon Wishlist.
Nothing is ever expected. Truly.
Reading, sharing, laughing with us, and simply staying here in the Den is already more than enough.
But if gifts do appear?
They will absolutely be wrapped and opened on camera.
Because we’re a little extra around here.
And if our girl can open her own Easter eggs, I’m fairly certain she can figure out presents too.
Right?
Right.
Stay soft.
Stay stubborn.
Stay.
-Sky
© The Crippled Cryptid
Disability, honesty, and a little chaos.
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There’s never pressure to donate. Reading, sharing, or simply staying is more than enough.
If you’d like to support the long, slow work of staying alive, stable, and mobile:
💜 Support Sky’s Journey to Health and Mobility
🐾 “And drink water. Apparently I have to keep saying this.”
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