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!!

The War Dogs: oh-so-brave.

Look at me blogging semi-more-regularly and all that! I think it's because I am in the transition period of "job hasn't started-but school ended" period and I've done all the sitting around I can possibly do before I begin to feel my brain melting slowly into my vertebrae (sorry for the imagery).

Anyways, now day I browse the web a lot, reading different articles and social media, did a lot of thinking and brain archiving to the point where there's times I laugh to myself and cry to myself, and then I've read mucho books to keep me intellectually stimulated and so-on-and-so-forth. The one thing I haven't done that I should do is review material for entrance exams, but that feels so "school" related that it almost hits too close to home to do...yet. Must get into gear soon though.

Anyways, while reading the Times, I found this great article on canines used during the various war fares of mankind. Isn't it weird? We're the ones who create the war and then we try to send these four-legged creatures with heightened senses to detect our own bombs and technology that we created to begin with. Humans are nuts!

Anyways...this was a wonderful and very interesting (because I'm a visual person) picture look through the years of how dogs have been employed (and usually very loved) by their man through the years of war. CLICK ME!!

The Bad: Mothers...it happens, but for good reason!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY (1-2 days late) to all the mothers out there. Though most of us don't say it enough or do anything for you enough and sometimes forget to call on weekends when we're out...you know we appreciate and love you.

And in lieu of that...I found this great article that depicts--IN PICTURES--mothers that treat certain babies very poorly. But for goodness sakes, it's for a good reason! Most of the time it boils down to the basic principles of Darwinism: survival of the fittest. Better to have a few healthy, able young than a million weak, unhealthy, unlikely to survive&reproduce later young. Sad, but true.

READ IT. It's entertaining...and weird...and fascinating...and with pictures!!

Which gets me to ask...what do you think would happen if humans each had 10 babies and that was the norm? You think we might begin to eat our young too??

The Ustream: live action 24/7

I've only recently begun to realize the great awesome-ness that is the internet. Although it's definitely got it's scary side, the internet has been a unique tool in getting information out to the world....whenever. wherever.

My friend and I send regular e-mails to each other regarding our life and funny things that happen and she knows I'm a suck for animals. So she sends me this live action link to puppies being born.

Regular people allowing the world to sneak peak on their lives. In this case...a link to a family's rescue dog giving birth to a whopping 12 puppies (2 were stillborns, but 10 live healthy and snuggly!) The 400 some-odd viewers were SO touched by the efforts of this brave rescue mama and her human helpers that people began donating money to the shelter which the animal came from!! How amazing is that?? remarkable!

I browsed the Ustream site a little and found that there's a 24/7 live stream for just about anything! From pets&animals to entertainment and music. All at the push of a button.

This is not the first time that I was introduced to Ustream...a few weeks ago I was introduced to the Decorah Bald Eagles from Iowa that hatched 3 cute little chicks via their live stream---how cool is that??

So while it still sounds a little creepy to me that one would want to have a live stream of their own lives continuously broadcast to the world....I could see why people might want to do it. You can send a message so quickly to SO many!

Anyways, this is just a post about my fascination with the many live streams I've been watching today :)

Click here to watch Mayme and her 10 pups wiggle around!

Click here to watch the Bald Eagles take care of their cute chickies!