From Rabbits to Redpolls

Zebra

2010-07-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted any pictures in a while but I really liked this one.

There's A Little Irish In Us All

2010-03-18T09:24:00.001-08:00

Members of the Irish Setter Club and their dogs take part in a St. Patrick's Day Parade in Tokyo.

Cute and Weird

2010-02-25T09:31:00.003-09:00

Love the lion cubs but does anyone other than me think that cat looks like a bat? I'm sure it's lovable and all, but let's just say no to hairless kitties.

Aw and Awe

2010-02-04T09:42:00.007-09:00

Three Lion cubs, two brothers and a sister (R) watch from their new enclosure at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm on January 19 in Bristol, England. The eight-month-old new arrivals, two males and a female originally from Linton Zoo in Cambridge, will hopefully be part of a on-going conservation project between the Uganda Wildlife Project and zoos in the UK.

Crows harassing a hawk in the skies above Los Angeles. I've seen the same here in Alaska, except the birds involved were ravens and a bald eagle.

Snow Cats

2010-01-14T11:28:00.001-09:00

Borrowed From Amazing Animals

2010-01-07T10:25:00.000-09:00

Michael Vick

2009-12-24T12:33:00.001-09:00

Sorry to have a post about this douchebag during this time of year but I think the article is spot on.

Festive

2009-12-24T11:52:00.001-09:00

With or Without Pigeons

2009-10-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

Helping Hand

2009-10-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

Autumn Babies

2009-10-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

Not everybody gets born in the spring.

Bambi meets housecat

2009-09-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

Awwwww

2009-09-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

When Animals Attack (Each Other)

2009-09-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

Stuff of Nightmares

2009-09-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Cats Get "The Bird"

2009-09-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

Oh noes!

2009-09-02T09:56:00.001-08:00

Run!!!

2009-08-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

89-year-old man stranded; dog fends off cougars

2009-08-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CENTRALIA, Wash. -- An 89-year-old man who lay injured in the rain for two days after his ATV overturned says his big black dog protected him from circling cougars.

Raymond Orr's niece Sue Schofield tells KIRO-TV that her uncle was riding his four-wheeler on his property near Centralia earlier this week when he hit a log and crashed. He broke several bones and was helpless until relatives found him Thursday.

Orr says his dog Jake saved him from cougars.

Erik Olson of the Riverside Fire Authority confirms that Orr said cougars had appeared and the dog fended them off. Olson says paramedics were initially skeptical - until they saw the cougar tracks near the spot where Orr had been stranded. Olson says one of the firefighters is an avid hunter and confirmed the tracks were made by cougars.

Schofield says the family is thankful for Jake and impressed with Orr's determination. He's being treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and his niece says he's expected to make a full recovery.

Not A Morning Person

2009-08-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

This is how I feel in the morning. Why can't everyone leave me alone for three or four hours until I wake up?

A face so ugly...

2009-08-07T09:23:00.001-08:00

Can You Hear Me Now?

2009-07-17T10:00:00.001-08:00

Bird on a Wire

2009-07-02T10:02:00.001-08:00

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Springtime in Alaska

2009-06-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

And yet more pictures

2009-06-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

More Pictures!

2009-05-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

Babies!

2009-05-19T11:40:00.001-08:00

Flamingo

2009-05-08T09:56:00.001-08:00

Bo, the new First Dog

2009-04-16T09:11:00.001-08:00

Five Lambs

2009-04-15T08:50:00.001-08:00

A Michigan sheep farmer returned home from his farm after one of his ewes gave birth to cute, fluffy twin lambs last week. When he returned in the morning, there were five babies, a true rarity in the world of sheepery, particularly given the breeds of the ewe and sire -- a Suffolk mix and a Cheviot.

Michigan State University sheep expert Alan Culham confirmed the rarity. Five lambs by a Suffolk? Culham said. "I would say it's easily one in 10,000, and it might even be rarer than that because it just doesn't happen."

And just like the California woman who delivered enough kids in January to fill a minivan, the ewe needs assistance. Every six hours, the farmer drives the quarter mile from his house to his barn to bottle feed several of the five, all of whom are forever hungry.

2009-04-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

Zhang Jie and Zhongni, two six-week-old North Chinese Leopards are seen during a name giving ceremony at Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany. The North Chinese Leopard is an endangered species. No one knows for sure how many North Chinese Leopards there are in the wild, which makes it rather difficult conserving them. There are only 100 in captivity, and new blood lines are needed in order to continue a healthy captive population of the cats.

Green Acres, revisited

2009-04-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

Does anyone besides me remember the lovely Lisa Douglas (Ava Gabor) and the peignoir sets that she wore while cruising around the farmhouse? My (unfortunate) neighbors also are treated to the lady of the manor not deigning to wear "regular" clothing but instead doing such mundane tasks as filling the bird feeders in my flannel pj's. Hurray for women's lib!

AWWWW!

2009-04-02T10:06:00.001-08:00

Twin Twitchers

2009-04-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Conn. pet shop has 2-nosed bunny
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MILFORD, Conn. -- It's no April Fools joke. The baby bunny really does have two noses.

A Connecticut pet shop worker found the nosey bunny in a delivery of 6-week-old dwarf rabbits that arrived at the Milford store last week. Both noses have two nostrils.

The owner of the Purr-Fect Pets shop says he's never seen anything like it in 25 years in the business. He says the bunny eats, drinks and hops around like the rest of the litter.

Beardsley Zoo director Gregg Dancho says the deformity could be the result of too much inbreeding or the parents' exposure to pesticides or poisons.

Store workers have begun a naming contest with Cyrano de Bergerac and Deuce among the contenders so far.

---

Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

In The Beginning

2009-03-28T15:27:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there were two beautiful princesses. Unfortunately, their Prince Charmings did not allow them to live the life of leisure to which they were so rightfully entitled so they toiled at jobs that would allow them the luxuries they so richly deserved, i.e., food, lodging and heat.

Now, across the street from where these princesses labored (not really; they were secretaries) there arose an ominous building known far and wide as the Doggie Dachau, AKA Animal Control Shelter. Poor, unsuspecting furry and feathered creatures were taken there; some in the hopes they would find a new home and others with the outright destination of destruction. Sometimes the doors were locked so mouth breathing idiots would just turn their animals loose. I suppose they thought the animals would turn themselves in once business hours commenced. Many times these terrified pets would be found in the princesses' parking lot. Now, as much as both princesses loved all animals, they were unable to keep them all. Many a time they were able to find homes for the strays with other employees. If all else failed, the animals were taken through the dreaded doors. Better to die a humane death than face starvation, being hit by a car or becoming a meal for the wild beasts that also lurked in the area.

Enter the rabbits. The princesses were never able to capture any of the domestic bunnies that had been set loose by the aforementioned brain dead. They fretted over their fate and ultimately sacrificed some of their hard earned cash to buy rabbit pellets, vegetables, fruit and straw to help them survive in the wild. The bunnies became somewhat tame and would come running when the princesses came outside to feed them. And lo, but those princesses were faithful. They even each would come on their days off to make sure the rabbits were fed and watered (and water in the winter in Alaska is a precious commodity)

The rabbits set up housekeeping under some abandoned furniture behind the building where the princesses earned their keep. They dug cozy shelters and because they were so well taken care of, commenced to procreate (although absolutely never, ever in the princesses' presence) It was magical. One day there would be several adult rabbits. The next day a baby bunny or two would appear, then another, and another and, well you know how rabbits are. The princesses were thrilled. But then, tragedy. The baby bunnies started to disappear. Owls, eagles and feral cats were suspected but what could the princesses do? This was Nature. And rabbits being rabbits, there were new babies soon.

But then the Evil Witch ("B" can be substituted for the "W") of the building caught wind of the princesses good deeds. She could have none of that. Out of sheer spite, she hired a work crew to take away all the abandoned furniture, although it had been sitting there for years. She managed to leave untouched all the other crap that was strewn around the entrances that people tripped over but the bunnies were too afraid to live there. As you might expect, the rabbits were picked off by whatever ate the babies and soon they were no more. The princesses are now reduced to feeding redpolls, the feathered pigs of the bird world.

The End (or is it?)