Late last night I accidentally stepped on my dedennes tail and now whenever I enter a room she’s in she runs away :((( how can I get her to forgive me?

Positive reinforcement, anonymous. If she has a favorite treat, grab a bag of them, sit on the floor, and offer one to her when she appears. Toss the treat to her and wait until she finishes, then present another treat to her. Don’t toss it until she crawls a little closer but hold it up and keep her attention as much as possible. Once she crawls even an inch towards you, toss her the next treat. Continue doing this until she’s close enough for you to touch. Feed her by hand at that point and pet her as gently as possible while apologizing for stepping on her tail. It’s important that you keep petting her gently until she finishes, as this will reestablish her connection to you and get her to consider trusting you again.

If she seems apprehensive whenever you enter a room after that, repeat these same steps. I would consider doing this with healthy treats or by alternating between treats and offering one of her favorite toys (hold it up, wait for her to crawl closer, and shake the toy in front of her again, rather than toss it to her) to avoid ending up with an overfed dedenne.

I had my little cousins over earlier and while they were here they were working with glitter and my Murkrow became covered head to claw in glitter. What’s the best method for getting glitter off of a Murkrow?

There are a couple ways you could do this, but the easiest is using a lint roller. That may sound strange, but it’s amazing what you can do with a lint roller.

If your murkrow refuses to sit still for that, fill a spray bottle with cold water, get a pokémon brush, and herd your murkrow into a small room. Make sure the windows are locked, and close the door behind you before starting in. The idea in theory is that you will use the bottle to moisten your murkrow’s feathers (and thus allow the glitter to be combed off) and then use the brush to clean your murkrow. What will actually happen is that your murkrow will likely fly about your room frantically, perhaps land a Peck or two, and then, after your murkrow is exhausted thanks to its attempts to get away from you and your spray bottle, maybe it will allow you to bathe it.

Alternatively, fill a bathtub with cool water and herd your murkrow in, perhaps by using a handheld mirror to guide him. This might also work, but your murkrow might attempt to drink the bathwater if it sees how shiny it becomes as the glitter washes off. Needless to say, you should avoid letting your murkrow drink bathwater.

Best of luck, anonymous … which is a phrase I use often but especially mean here.

Hey Bill, my Sylveon and Leafeon have been mates for about a year and a half now and Leafeon used to do a lot of cute things for Sylveon like bring her pretty rocks and play. But lately he doesn’t have much interest in her and no matter what Sylveon does she can’t get him to do anything for her like he used to. What’s going on?

You’ll need to verify two things before you can know for certain. First, check for eggs. Look everywhere—anywhere your sylveon and your leafeon can crawl into. Second, pay close attention to your leafeon. See if he looks listless, interested in other pokémon, or uninterested in anything else (such as food).

The reason why I suggest looking for these signs first is because when a male gives a female gifts, it’s usually part of a mating ritual, which in turn means mating is soon to follow. Unfortunately, a female eeveelution can only mate certain times a year. During these times, she secretes a specific scent that attracts her mate and entices him to romance her, as it were, right up until they finally engage in intercourse. Once that’s done, the female will find a place to lay a clutch, and once her clutch is set, she stops emitting those pheromones until she’s ready to lay more eggs—which usually doesn’t happen until after her first clutch hatches. During the period shortly after laying her eggs, the male finds her uninteresting, in part because of that lack of pheromones (and thus, a lack of anything to entice him to court her) and in part because his inability to detect these pheromones is a signal to him that he needs to leave her alone with her eggs.

If that’s the case, then you can possibly help by incubating the eggs. Incubation will allow them to hatch faster, and once the kits are born and placed near your sylveon for the first time, this may trick her body into believing she’s reached the end of her mating cycle. Be warned, however. If you do find a clutch of eggs and attempt to move them, you could instead provoke the wrath of both parents. On the one hand, that could result in helping them to bond with each other again. On the other, taking Magical Leaf and Moonblast at the same time is not a pleasant experience.

If you don’t find a clutch of eggs and your leafeon looks listless, take him to the pokémon center and check for any physical problems, just to rule these out. Your local Nurse Joy may also be able to diagnose any mental health problems if your leafeon’s disinterest is actually caused by depression.

If, however, his disinterest is not an indication of a physical or mental health problem but rather a shift in his attention, it’s important to keep an eye on him and try to figure out what it is. It could be that he’s trying to get his mate an even more impressive gift, at which point, you should help him in any way that you can. Or, alternatively, it could be that another pokémon has caught his eye … at which point, you should perhaps inform him that, no, you are most definitely not going to help him in any way that you can.

In short, your leafeon’s behavior could be the result of a few possible things, so it’s important that you hunt around his living space for anything that could be a possible source, then work from there.

I have a skitty and an espeon as pets and my skitty keeps jumping on espeon! He follows him around the house, as if waiting for him to relax and the pounces. Whenever I’m in a room, seemingly alone with espeon, skitty suddenly appears! Is this normal behavior?

Strangely enough, yes! Skitty are notoriously playful pokémon, and they seem most attracted to other creatures they perceive as cat-like beings. While you are essentially a very large cat to your skitty, your espeon has a generally cat-like shape that’s larger than your skitty’s, so therefore, your espeon is a much more ideal target. Usually, this behavior subsides upon evolution, but that’s not really a guarantee, unfortunately. Either way, if you’ve chosen not to evolve your skitty, I’m afraid that your espeon has many, many days of being pounced on ahead of him.

I have a growlithe service animal (for anyone who needs a service animal I totally recommend them) and was wondering if it would be a bad idea to evolve him? I use him for anxiety and he sleeps with me at night. He has an amazing sense of smell and can detect any ingredients in foods I cannot eat, as well as can sense when I’m gonna have a panic attack based on my heart rate and breathing patterns. Would that change if he was an archanine?

Excellent question—and one that’s important for all those who rely on service pokémon.

The truth is that, yes, evolution will actually improve a pokémon’s ability to perform. In your case, your growlithe’s senses of smell and hearing will be sharpened exponentially upon his evolution into arcanine, so if you thought he had an amazing sense of smell now, imagine having a pokémon who can detect panic attacks faster, the millisecond your breathing and heart rate change.

However, there is a price to it, and that’s the fact that while your growlithe may be two feet tall (assuming he is of average height), your arcanine will be over three times as large. For humans who live in rural or suburban areas or whose arcanine will also be helping with their partner’s mobility, it’s easy to take this difference in height in stride. However, for people living in urban areas or who otherwise can’t deal with the difference in size, evolving a service growlithe may result in more troubles than it’s really worth. You likely won’t be able to enter the same establishments or do many of the same things as you had when you just had a small growlithe by your side.

In other words, while evolving your service pokémon generally does enhance their abilities to assist you, always keep in mind that evolution brings about a physical difference that not many people can handle. It’s a good idea to do plenty of research into the changes that would occur to both your partner’s form and powers before going through with it.

So recently on my journey it was pouring rain very hard, and my Pokémon and I took refuge in a cave for a day or two. So it’s been cloudy and For a while now I’ve noticed one small cloud in sky always seeming lower than the others always right above my head… Turns out it was a cottonee!! I wouldn’t mind catching it but is that a good idea? Why is it following me? What should I do?

It’s difficult to know why, precisely, a cottonee may be wandering that close to you without seeing it for myself, but given the fact that it’s been storming and the fact that it’s not with its herd, it may be safe to say it perceives you as safety. That is to say, you may be the first human or otherwise trustworthy-looking creature it’s come across, so it’s trying to get your attention because it’s simply lost and scared.

If possible, try to get it to come to you, but don’t catch it. Remember, it could be scared, which means it could want to go home. It may not be able to fully control its flight path, so if you have a flying-type or a pokémon with psychic abilities or Vine Whip, try to rope it down. Once it’s within reach, grasp it on its sides, beneath its wings, so it doesn’t get startled by your touch. Slowly move it into your arms and feel its weight. It should be about two pounds, or the weight of a loaf of bread. If it feels lighter, it may be starving or dehydrated, and it should be taken to a pokémon center immediately.

Of course, it’s wise to take the cottonee to a pokémon center either way. It’s just that these kinds of health issues may also explain why this cottonee is following you. Otherwise, it’s good to have a Nurse Joy look it over and treat it for any possible injuries or mental shock from the storm.

You may leave the cottonee here if you’d like, and Nurse Joy will likely keep an eye out for any cottonee flocks to return it to the wild. However, you also have the option of escorting cottonee to its flock yourself. Just be warned that cottonee can travel across many miles in a single day and are reliant on wind currents to get from place to place. This cottonee’s flock may be far, far from where you are, and in any case, it’s important to keep this in mind to avoid having the cottonee inadvertently sail away from you. That is to say, anchor it if you wish to take it with you, and be warned that if you’re going to actively look for its flock, you may be looking for quite some time.

However, it’s also important to take a good look at how the cottonee reacts to you. If it seems attached to you (excited whenever you walk in, sad whenever you’re about to leave, and so forth), it may have decided that you seem interesting for some reason. Why that is may be for any number of reasons. Perhaps it sees you as a food source, perhaps it needs training (either for itself or to become a whimsicott), perhaps it likes your pokémon, or something else entirely. Regardless of the reason, if it looks particularly interested in you, this may be taken as an opportunity to catch it. I would do so and then try to figure out the reasoning behind it, as the reasoning will become apparent pretty quickly after the cottonee joins your team. That and it’s likely that the reasoning itself isn’t exactly bad—just more of an incentive to take care of it, so to speak.

I get really terrible nightmares due to PTSD. Would it be a good idea to invest in a Munna or Drowzy to eat my nightmares?

Choose munna. While both may eat nightmares, nightmares are actually a staple of munna’s diet. To a drowzee, it’s more or less like eating a lot of bread. Eventually, you get sick on bread, and in any case, you really can’t survive on bread alone.

(I … honestly don’t know what to make of your analogies anymore. —LH)

If you meant to ask if you should invest in either at all, this may be something to discuss with your doctor. It may be helpful, certainly; it’s just that it’s always important to inform them of any steps you take to manage your mental health so they can factor it in to your course of treatment. That and if you experience extreme, daily nightmares, you may need other service pokémon in addition to a munna to help you manage your sleep.

But either way, yes, if given the choice, you should really choose a munna and not a drowzee.

Do variant colors in Pokémon like the flebebe line mean anything?

Well, in the flabébé line, it simply indicates what flowers were available for her to choose. Remember, the flower is not actually part of flabébé’s (or floette’s) body; rather, she picks one that resonates with her and carries that with her throughout her life. It’s just that for such a tiny pokémon as flabébé, sometimes only red flowers, orange flowers, or so forth are within her reach. If she’s from a field with multiple types of flowers, however, then the blossom is definitely a specimen she feels the most drawn to.

When it comes to other color variations, however, it’s largely environmental. For example, shellos from the eastern part of Sinnoh are blue, whereas shellos from the western part are pink. This is because the waters of the eastern half of Sinnoh are mostly clear and blue (making it harder to spot shellos as it travels across the ocean bottom), whereas there are pink corals located in the western half (meaning shellos blends in with its environment far more easily if it’s pink). Alolan pokémon are generally the same way in that most of them take on different forms or colors because these alternative forms provide some kind of adaptive advantage to them.

Alternatively, as with vivillon or Alolan exeggutor (to name a couple), the environment triggers biochemical changes in the subject that results in variations of form or color. For example, the reason why the “icy snow” variation of vivillon is monochrome is because that particular vivillon was raised in a colder climate, where days are far shorter. As a result, it isn’t able to develop the pigmentation it needs to take on bright colors. By contrast, the “ocean” variation is brightly colored because it was hatched and raised in a particularly warm, sunny place. Meanwhile, the “ocean” variation and the “archipelago” variation come from similar climates, but due to differing food sources, they have vastly different colorations. Granted, it should also be noted that taking an ocean vivillon’s egg from its home region, hatching it elsewhere, and raising the resulting scatterbug in a region with a completely different climate will still result in an ocean vivillon, but this is because the form difference is genetic. The same would happen if you took the egg from Alolan pokémon and hatched it outside of Alola or took an egg from a western shellos and hatched it in East Sinnoh.

In short, when it’s not simply due to a pokémon’s conscious decision, differing colors (and forms) within a species usually indicate adaptations to vastly different environments. It’s very much like how humans may look vastly different from one another because all of us were descended from vastly different populations in vastly different environments.

So my noibat was found alone, scratched up and with a few infections I had treated, and so young its eyes weren’t open. I think she was abanonded. Anyway, now it’s three months old and has never seen another noibat or noivern. It’s been living with me and my bulbasaur and refuses to fly. Sometimes I’ll hang her up by a pole I had put into my room so she could sleep upside down but she immediately falls (I catch her). What do I do to help her become more like her species?

Don’t catch her.

As odd as that sounds, there’s a reason behind it. Noibat are able to teach themselves to fly by instinct. So long as their wing muscles are perfectly healthy, they’ll be able to figure out the whole flying process on their own in no time, even if they’ve had little to no exposure to their own kind.

However, to you, it will look like your noibat is falling off her perch. A lot. Rest assured, however, that’s exactly how noibat learn how to fly, and until they understand when they should start flapping their wings, they will simply fall, sometimes unceremoniously. It’s very likely that whenever you place her on her perch, she takes it as you giving her an opportunity to launch herself into the air, as it were.

Either that, or your noibat has gotten so used to being carried that she assumes you’ll catch her, at which point not catching her will also be a good thing, as it will establish that you expect her to fend for herself.

I would recommend placing a few cushions beneath her perch to ensure she doesn’t hurt herself and then setting her back up on her perch only when she lands. It may also be helpful to place a plate of her favorite berries on a shelf out of her reach to encourage her to fly. Eventually, she’ll get the idea and begin flapping her wings enough to avoid hitting the ground and to get at the plate of fruit you’ve left out.

On that note, before trying the above, it may be a good idea to take her to a pokémon center and ensure that her wing muscles aren’t damaged. If they are, then that’s the actual reason why your noibat can’t fly, and Nurse Joy will be able to explain what you need to do to care for her. Sometimes, such injuries are only temporary, and you may need to wait another month or two before your noibat can take flight. Occasionally, however, it may be a permanent issue.

My pikachu is the son of my fathers raichu, and has become extremely depressed since it’s passing. He barely eats or drinks and has become very listless, not even hopping on my shoulder to join me when I leave the house. What should I do? :(

It’s incredibly important to bond with your pikachu as much as possible. Don’t be smothering or overprotective, of course, but be there for him. If he’ll allow you to do so, pet him and hold him. Some grieving pokémon take especially well to physical contact, as it makes your bond with them literal: you’re essentially telling them that you’re there and that they aren’t alone. To this end, yes, you’ll need to spend much more time with your pikachu, even if he doesn’t seem to respond to you at first. Even just an extra half an hour a day will be of immense help to him.

Also, don’t be afraid to use a little positive reinforcement as well. If your pikachu likes a particular type of toy, buy more of that toy and give him one whenever eats. Show him affection for coming close to his food bowl or water bottle, and whenever he responds to you in a positive manner, give him a bite of his favorite types of treats.

Toys are also excellent distractions, as odd as this may sound. It’s simply that giving your pikachu a means to keep his mind occupied whenever you’re unable to sit with him helps him avoid dwelling on how much he misses his father, which in turn will allow his mind to heal. It’s very much like how humans sometimes find ways of distracting themselves when they’re faced with grief so they don’t dwell on their hurt and allow it to dominate their psyches.

Speaking of, try to enforce your pikachu’s daily routine as much as possible. Like toys, routines are excellent distractions, and they establish a sense of normalcy in a pokémon’s life. If your pikachu is fed at a certain time every day, be sure to feed him at that time. If he trains at another time, don’t let that hour go by without training.

Most importantly, remember that pokémon are very sensitive to their trainers’ emotions. If you’re strong, calm, and patient for and with your pikachu, this will help him remain calm and open up to you. Yes, this means the grieving process will take a lot of effort on your part, but you need to show you care and that your pikachu can rely on you when he needs you. So have patience and do everything you can to remind him that you love him and that he’s not alone.

Best of luck, anonymous.