The Stuck: 12 hours in a pipe

A short, but sweet story of a successful rescue mission! A 4 week old puggle- Daschund mix was saved after its owners heard it crying from a pipe underneath their house.

Certainly there have been many stories like these, my question is how do the little guys even manage to find and crawl down a pipe in the first place?!? Crazy kids. Anyways, the wonderful team from the Humane Society launched a rescue mission that ended with the poor pup finally being pulled from the pipe about 12 hours after it first got stuck.

Nothin' but a little dehydrated and tired...sounds like feeding and then nap time to me! CHECK OUT THE AWESOME PICTURES/VIDEO HERE.

The Show: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

This is the big league guys...the Olympics, the Super Bowl/WorldSeries/PlayOffs etc. time of the DOG!! NEW YORK, February 13th, 2012 marked the 136th time this age old competition has been done.

Through my classes on animal behavior...I've learned that dog breeds certainly have changed quite a bit over time, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. We've bred for curlier tails, more crinkled skin, shorter/longer legs, furrier coats...among other strange traits. At the same time, breeders also focus a lot on trying to "keepin' it in the family"...AKA inbreeding winners. Not really something I agree with nor approve of since it can cause a lot of disease and side effects in the health of the animal, such as their spine development.

Either way, this show is a big deal, and all the crazy "dog dads" and "dog moms" flock from all around the country to try and get their pooch to the top spot. Anyone ever seen the movie Best In Show?? I imagine that must ring pretty true...although I've never been to one of these myself! They spend tons of $$$ primping and grooming...brushing and conditioning, one might think these dogs are the queen of SOMETHING.

In a way I think it shows a lot of love, these breeders and owners spend a lot of time properly training their animal as well as maintaining good health so as to meet the standards of what the specific breed is supposed to look like--according to the judges anyway.

So take a look at all the purrrty four-legged animals in this year's BEST IN SHOW:)

The Frozen: Deer Caught in Headlights

Came across this delightful little story regarding a classic "deer stuck in headlights" moment-LITERALLY!

On a Michigan highway, patrol deputy Ryan Swartz responded to a call regarding a small collision between an automobile and a deer. When he showed up on the seen, the deer was still frozen in the middle of the street--literally caught in headlights and unable to move. The poor thing...

Even as Swartz walked up to the deer and pet it, trying to coax in back into the forest, the deer stood still. After about 10 minutes of gentle pats and a strong man's arm, Swartz finally just picked up the deer himself and moved the animal off to the side of the road.

From there the doe eventually regained her composure and ran off into a near by field. But who knows how long she would've stood there in the middle of the road, petrified and frozen with fear if it wasn't for Swartz.

Yay people helping animals!! Read the article and watching the video of this adorable story :)

The Video Hilarity: cat installment

I love cat videos--particularly ones of cats doing ridiculous things or getting caught in ridiculous situations. They've got a great body language that's really expressive and facial movements that really allow me to picture in my mind their "talking bubbles" if they could say things. Today, I wanted to share a few of my favorite ones.















Click here for: Cat stuck on a trampoline and can't get off!






















Click here for: Maru the cat that LOVES boxes of all shapes and sizes! (He's a youtube sensation!!)
















And click here for: the awesome surprise kitty video!!

that's all for now, enjoy :D

The Ugly: 2011!!

It's that time again...ugly dog contests!! (click link to check out more pics!) Hosted annually in Petaluma, CA at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, it has crowned a new champ for 2011!! And yes, it's pretty ugly....

I treat these contests with mixed emotions because sometimes these animals are ugly because of an illness or some past accident and now they're "deformed" in some way. However, it's completely wonderful to see all the pet owners completely in love with their funky-lookin' lovers.

That's why I want a sphynx cat---you know...the hair-less cats that have skin rolls?? LOL it's mostly because I'm allergic to cat fur, but also...I think they're so ugly, they're cute! :)















2011: This year's winner is "YODA" who is a Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix












And this is my future pet. SO CUTE, RIGHT??

The Seals: Public Broadcasting=my cable-less animal planet

A lot of my life revolves around television. It really should NOT be so, I know, I know...but TV just gets me so enraptured (right usage?) that I get seduced into it. Especially these days when I'm tired after a full day's work and I just want to eat food and sit. A lot. On the other hand...I'd like to think that I'm not watching trash--all the time.

I actually quite like public broadcasting (with their catching tunes like "PBS: support from from viewers like you.") Or in my case, channels 6 and 7 on my 13 channel cable-less tv. They've got this show called Animal Emergency that essentially acts like my Discovery Channel or Animal Planet and once I start...I'm hooked!

Today I watched an episode based on The Marine Mammal Center right here in the Bay Area! I've heard of the place before and knew their main goal was wildlife rehabilitation...with a special interest in seals and sealions of the like since we've got a few of those near SF (PIER 39 dock anyone??) Also, I find that seals are one of the funniest creatures ever--they're agile in the water, but so plump and "rollie" when on land that it's almost impossible to take them seriously!!

The episode was so fascinating! People from all over the California coast go to them to drop off orphaned babies, and different research and zoo facilities work together to help save the lives of animals caught in fish lining or got hit by a motor boat.

There was this one harper seal that showed abnormal behaviors, but no one knew why. So they enlisted the help of a clinic for HUMANS (who offered it at $0-so nice!) and got the seal a CT/MRI scan....what the heck??? How cool. As cool as it was...the reports all came back relatively normal, so they still didn't find the cause, but the seal got better on its own after a few weeks!!

It's a shame and wild life rehabilitation doesn't get more press and academic notice. We're so worried for ourselves and we sometimes forget we're part of the circle. The episode talked about a seal pandemic where after consuming a certain type of algae, the seals would effectively get brain damage and get seizures and die slowly....and if people ate this algae, a similar event could happen to us, too!!

So it seems pretty important to keep tabs on the little guys...because if you think about it...we're all kind of "little guys" in a way.

The Lone Cat: sittin' in a tree, livin' the life

This was another article that I bookmarked a while ago to remind myself that I definitely wanted to blog about it because it's such a sweet story.

Ron Venden has been taking care of a cat (awesomely named Almond!) for about as long as the kitty's been born. The cat makes it's home in the maple tree where it was born and has pretty much never left--literally!!

People in town have never seen paw prints in the snow during the winter...but there really isn't a need to leave in the first place since Venden has built a mini-tree house for the cat and provides it with daily water and food.

I love that Venden never tried to capture the cat to make it a "house pet," but instead decided to leave the cat in his/her natural place of comfort and catered to its needs. So it's not as if the cat roams the streets creating trouble....Almond just hangs out in his/her tree and watched the highway a few miles away and people watch from up above (but who doesn't love to people watch though--REALLY?!?!)

It's nice to know that this man is being nice and caring for the cat just out of the simple love of his heart! I mean....if I was feeding a cat, I better be able to cuddle it or poke its face or something to the like whenever I please!! But I'm a little selfish like that :)

read the full article HERE!!