Matthew Inman of the famous webcomic The Oatmeal has a great idea: make it a common custom for cat owners to give their indoor cats orange colors--and no other color. That way, if you ever see a cat outdoors wearing prison orange, then you know that it's a lost cat.
Inman is trying to address a problem: although 26% of lost dogs are returned home, fewer than 5% of lost cats are. That's because cats are good at hiding and most people, if they see a loose cat, just assume that it's an outdoor cat with a human family.
This huge frog that a lady saved from a swimming pool thanked her by giving her a courtesy meow. But then, like a cat petted one more time than he was comfortable with, he let out a kitty screech. Was this frog raised by a family of cats? Did he swallow a kitten? Should he be fed some Fancy Feast or Meow Mix? What gives? Via Laughing Squid
When Sir Silas was found as an abandoned kitten on a Florida road, he was near death, matted and starving. Luckily for him, a Florida family adopted and cared for him until he was the picture of health. The transformation in his looks is astounding. Now a fluffy ball of beautiful white fur, he's enjoying a bit of internet fame for his model good looks. Being loved sure looks good on you, Sir Silas!
This baby pygmy goat imitating his human's hopping is beyond cute. Baby goats are naturally bouncy, but this woman is just giving this little guy a nudge in the right direction. Looks like he has a hopping good future ahead. Via Daily Dot
The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.
Research looking at looking alike by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Improbable Research staff
Do Dogs Resemble Their Owners? Yes. “Do Dogs Resemble Their Owners?” M.M. Roy and Nicholas J.S. Christenfeld, Psychological Science, vol. 15, no. 5, May 2004, pp. 361-3. (Thanks to Richard Wassersug and numerous others for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at the University of California, San Diego, report that:
Forty-five dogs and their owners were photographed separately, and judges were shown one owner, that owner’s dog, and one other dog, with the task of picking out the true match.… The results suggest that when people pick a pet, they seek one that, at some level, resembles them, and when they get a purebred, they get what they want.
Do Dogs Resemble Their Owners? Maybe Not. “Do Dogs Resemble Their Owners? A Reanalysis of Roy and Christenfeld (2004),” D.W. Levine, Psychological Science, vol. 16, 2005, pp. 83–84. The author, at the University of South Carolina, reports:
Roy and Christenfeld’s (2004) recent article claimed that student judges were able to match purebred dogs with their owners. The analyses reported fail to support this claim, however, because they rely on statistical assumptions that cannot be met with the experimental design.... the analyses and results presented here demonstrate that it is premature to conclude “dogs resemble their owners.”
On the other side of the aquarium glass is a fresh dog tail. In fact, it's so fresh that it's still attached to the dog!
The penguin makes several passes, but is unable to reach the dog with his beak. The dog, long domesticated, has forgotten that he is the prey of penguins in the wild. He is dangerously unaware of his surroundings.
This older clip shows an adorable, six-month old ginger tabby kitten named Jed who's developed a love of a certain kind of treats. He may not be able to voice how delicious they are, but he can show his human in other ways. Ways such as vowing to hang on to the bag until it's pried from his cold, dead paws. Or toothy grip. Or both. Either way, Jed's got a lock on the snacks. That is, until he loses traction on the slick floor during his game of tug o' war. It's all downhill and kitty hunger pangs from there. Via Tastefully Offensive
The three lions are playing ball--just barely. In contrast with a fast-paced game of human soccer, the trio remain firmly affixed to the floor. To make it worse, the lion on the left appears to be gesturing for a substitution. He needs a breather.
Rocket News 24 reports that railroads in Japan have a problem: turtles wander onto their tracks and get stuck between the switching rails. When the switches flip, they fail to close completely due to the turtles' bodies. This causes train accidents.
It's an unpleasant experience for the turtles, too.
For a solution, the West Japan Railway Company teamed up with the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe. They designed and built tunnels that allow turtles to walk under the rails completely. Since this system was implemented in April, people have spotted at least 10 turtles using the tunnels.
John went to the Bahamas and took in one of those “swimming with dolphins” attractions in Nassau. There he met a dolphin who wants to be a comedian. Instead of a kiss, he spit water in John’s face!
Well, John reacted naturally, and spit right back. Things escalated from there until a trainer stepped in to break it up. The man and dolphin made up, and a good time was had by all. -via Viral Viral Videos
Not all dogs love lobsters. Usually, lobsters are the natural prey of dogs in the wild. Or at least this dog, Lila, has been trained to dive into the water, swim to the sea floor, and bring back a lobster.
Alex Schulze, one of the founders of the ecologically-friendly company Devocean (Devoted to the Ocean), has trained one of his labrador retrievers to hunt lobsters. In this video, Schulze shows how he did it.
Rapper and comedian Dan Bull (previously at Neatorama) and his cats Jimmy and Sammy had a visit from a fox.
This incredible encounter happened to me this week. The fox was curled up asleep at my back door. Foxes are normally nocturnal and will run away if they spot you anywhere near. But I just sat there for ages chilling with this fox and two of my cats Jimmy and Sammy. I sensed no hostility from either side, just a relaxed inquisitiveness.
The fox and the cats got along just fine, but eventually the fox realized that not only was he being stared at by a human, but he was also being recorded. Bye, Mr. Fox! -via Arbroath
Zookeepers at the Primorsky Safari Park in Russia shoved a goat inside the tiger enclosure to be the tiger's food. But the tiger didn't hunt him. Instead Amur the tiger and the goat that zookeepers have named Timur are friends. They hang out together. Timur sleeps in Amur's hut and follows him around. The Daily Telegraph reports:
Then, to add insult to injury, Timur decided that the shelter which had been where Amur slept, would be even better accommodation for a weary goat, NBC reported.
Amur, who was banished to the shelter's roof, for the last four nights appears to have accepted this latest indignity with rather good grace and now the two animals are firm friends.
Timur follws Amur everywhere, oblivious to the potential risk.
Together, they've developed a great premise for a sitcom.
Poor kitty! This big red nose isn’t to guide Santa’s sleigh (although that might work). Redditor marklyon’s cat was stung by a bee. He was taken to a vet, and he’s fine now. But he sported a resemblance to W.C. Fields for a while. The cat was also compared to a clown, Karl Malden, Gerard Depardieu, Squidward, and Jimmy Durante.
According to Australian Catherine Bremner, when she left home recently, she returned to find her hen James (named by her three sons) making quite the scene in her home. James had strutted inside while she was away, accidentally switched on her Roomba, and went for a ride around her living room. That's either one compulsively clean chicken or one who's completely adventurous. Either way, someone get this chicken a reality show. Via Arbroath
