Domin-OMG

I present to you a Japanese game show in which people coax different animals (including an anteater, who are my FAVES!) through a walkway surrounded on both sides by precarious dominoes. SUSPENSEFUL and exciting. But not really fair to the tortoise, since he's so big. They should have given him more room to maneuver.

Best parts:
- When they lift up the wall to reveal the animal.
- The armadillo's freaky right claw/foot/toe/whatever.
- The armadillo replay.
- Lullaby music and snoozy speech bubble for the anteater.

Animals in Casts

Here are photos of 25 animals in casts. Super sad and super cute.



I hate to think of what horrible things might have befallen them (hit by a car? attacked by a bear?!) so instead I imagine they broke their limbs performing adorable hi-jinks, like climbing trees or doing an obstacle course or trying to make a cheerleading pyramid.

RIP Edwina the Duck

One of the world's oldest mallards, Edwina, who was living as a house-duck in England has died at 22.

Edwina seems like an awfully sweet little duck. Her duck family rejected her because she was a runt and Ian Knight and Christine Christopher happened upon her being pecked to death!

According to the BBC:

"The family rescued her, but when Mr Knight attempted to release her back into the wild she followed him home and had lived with the family ever since.

Edwina also became fond of tea and toast, which she would have for breakfast in the family home where she spent time living in the garden and garage."

What a little peanut. The BBC has a nice video of her bopping around the yard.

Llama Odyssey

This poor llama named Homer had been seen wandering around Pike's Peak, CO for a month. Things weren't going so well for him.

"[The llama] roamed the mountain's south slope, living off alpine vegetation and trying to unsuccessfully to make friends with a herd of bighorn sheep."

Sheep can be such jerks!

Eventually two nice folks went up and captured him. They're going to find him a new home.

This Dog Has Five Legs

Don't be scared! It's not creepy. It's totally cute.

This is Precious. She was going to be sold to the Coney Island Sideshow but peeps got upset about it so a nice lady paid $4,000 to save her. She's going to have her 5th leg removed soon.



CUTIE! What a sweet face. I'm so glad she got a happy ending.

Drunk Badger

Fermented fruit strikes again! Animals, seriously, stop eating this stuff! It makes you crazy bananas.

This time a badger in Berlin ate some fermented cherries and went to the middle of the road to have a rest.

Police arrived at the scene expecting to find a dead badger (I guess peeps confused a drunk badg for a dead badg, an easy mistake). SURPRISE! He was just three sheets to the wind.

So what happened?

"Having failed to scare the animal away, officers eventually chased it from the road with a broom."

Where did they find a broom?!

I cannot believe this was covered by the news. By REUTERS, no less! This is a fine day for journalism.

You've Got to BEE Kidding Me

This poor cat, named Waffles (!), was stung by a bee.

From Cute Overload, again!

Forest Fires Create Forest Friends

From Lemonade Poem:

"The Jesusita Fire in Santa Barbara, CA last week caused these two to take shelter together. The fawn is 3 days old and the bobcat about 3 weeks. The fawn came from somewhere in the fire and the bobcat from Carpentaria. They immediately bonded and snuggled together under a desk in the Santa Barbara County Dispatch Office for several hours."

The Loneliest Pig

Afghanistan has ONE PIG. And they've quarantined him because of swine flu fears!

Hey Kabul Zoo! Didn't you guys get the memo? Everyone forgot about swine flu last week. It's totally not a thing anymore.

Anyway, they built the pig a little room even though there's no chance of anyone actually catching swine flu from him.

Poor little lonely, sad pig.

Here he is in the days when he could roam free:

More like CUTE Bats

There is such a thing as a Flying Fox. Did you know that? I didn't. Apparently "Flying Fox" is another name for Fruit Bats.



Here are a few who were recently rescued after their moms abandoned them. They are swaddled in a drawer, people. SWADDLED!

I found some other pictures. These dudes really do look like foxes! Truth in advertising!



This one looks more like a lemur, but whatevs. I'd still snuggle it.

The Great Cowscape

"The news came over the radio in the clipped jargon of police officers: "Queens. Loose cow. 103 Precinct. 109 Avenue. E.S.U. reporting a loose cow at the location."

Awesome.

The cow escaped from a slaughterhouse in Jamaica, Queens and the cops caught her and handed her over to Animal Care and Control. They're trying to find a spot for her at an animal sanctuary.

From the New York Times (really!):

Since — by early afternoon — no one had called about the cow or come to the sanctuary to claim her, Mr. Gentles said that the cow would not be forced to return to the slaughterhouse.

“Well, somebody can come and claim her, but in our experience, nobody has come forward in the past and asked to claim their cow,” he said. “We haven’t gotten any calls that someone is missing their cow.”

The police spokesman — apparently as uplifted as anyone about the cow’s new lease on life — said he suspected the cow, by escaping, had acted to save its own life. “I think it’s because it made it out,” he said.

Such a sweet story. I was planning on having burgers for dinner tonight, but now I feel guilty. Drat!

(And sorry for the random images. There are no pics of this cow as of yet.)

Sad Gorillas are So Sad

A baby gorilla was recovered from animal traffickers by the Congolese Wildlife Authority after a three month undercover investigation!

According to Virunga National Park in the Congo, the poor little lady was "found concealed under clothes at the bottom of a bag and was suffering from over-heating and dehydration after spending over 6 hours in transit."

The VNP blog has tons of info on the covert op, and even a video of the arrest of the bad guy and recovery of the gorilla:



It's SO sad. She looks so out of it when they first uncover her in the bag. But she's expected to survive, thank goodness. I'll keep you guys posted.

Here's a happier pic of her hammin' it up. "All this fuss about lil' old me?" They haven't given her a name yet but I'm going to call her Lucy. I think she kinda looks like a Lucy.

"Why'd You Stop?"

Cute lil slow loris.

Fun fact about lorises: The Indonesian name, malu malu, can be translated as "shy one."

!!!

Bad news though, courtesy my buddy Fred, who sent me the vid:

Fred: the one bummer is they're semipoisonous

Slow lorises can produce a toxin which they mix with their saliva and use as protection against enemies. Mothers will lick this toxin onto their offspring before leaving them to search for food. The toxin is produced by glands on the insides of their elbows - the branchial region. The lorises lick or suck it into their mouths and deliver it when they bite. The toxin is not known to be fatal to humans, but causes a painful swelling. If the toxin does not deter a predator, the slow loris will often drop from the branch to the ground and roll into a protective ball.

Actually, they seem pretty clever. I'm liking these lorises.

The ANTI-SNUGGLE: Danger Chimps

BEWARE CHIMPS!

After reading this yicks-inducing New York Times story about how an old pet chimp in Connecticut RIPPED OFF A LADY'S FACE, and after learning some more Chimp Facts from my friends Erin and Fred, I think chimps are off my list of "cute animals I want to snuggle."

Fred told me another ghastly tale:

Fred: I read about this nascar driver

who kept a chimp

it ripped his nose, his foot, and his genitals off

And Erin had some terrifying facts:

They rape each other. Also chimps eat each others' young. Cannibal style. But really not for the meat, just for the terror factor. They are the original terrorists.

You heard it here first, folks. Chimps: The Original Terrorists.