Boing Boing » pet

Lost pet tortoise found in family storeroom 30 years later

David Pescovitz — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:54:20 +0000

Leandro Almeida of Rio de Janeiro was cleaning out a storeroom at his family's home when a neighbor noticed a tortoise in a box meant for the trash. Turns out, the tortoise was Manuela, a family pet who they thought escaped back in 1982. From Edmonton Journal:

The red-footed tortoise feeds in the wild on fruit, leaves, feces and dead animals, a professor told Brazil's Globo.com, but can go up to three years without eating.
The family speculated that Manuela may have survived on termites while in the house.

"Family finds pet tortoise that was missing for 30 years as they clean out dead father's storeroom"

Bunnyday

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:01:21 +0000

Photo: "Family Dinner," a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from reway2007's photostream, shared in the BB Flickr Pool.

Caturday: cat vs. printer (video)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:27:41 +0000

[Video Link]

An internet classic from 2010 by Chris Cohen. (via @nytjim @janinegibson @bengoldacre)

Los Galgos Guapos ("The Handsome Hounds"): photo-essay on greyhound rescue in Tijuana

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:56:17 +0000

Photojournalist (and author) Erin Siegal has a wonderful photo-essay up on the The Reuters Photographers Blog about "Fast Friends," a group that adopts/rescues "retiring" greyhound dogs that have been used in racing in Tijuana, Mexico. On Erin's personal blog, there are more photos that didn't fit in. What beautiful creatures.

Video: dog plays piano, sings

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:02:39 +0000

Sergei Barkmaninoff. (thanks, Joe Sabia)

Video: The Pinky Show, "The Desert is Quiet"

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:56:07 +0000

[Video Link] Hard to explain this web series, and this particular episode. Cats. Philosophy. Emptiness. Best to just watch. (via Andrea James)

Video: Cat likes to swim in the sea

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:47:38 +0000

[Video Link]. Also contains an attractive woman in a bikini. (thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Animals doing people things

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:06:34 +0000

There's a whole tumblr of stuff like this.

After nuclear disaster, a harsh winter for Fukushima's abandoned pets (big photo gallery)

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:23:52 +0000

Members of UKC Japan care for dogs rescued from inside the exclusion zone, a 20km radius around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (REUTERS)

As regular Boing Boing readers will recall, I traveled to Japan some months back with PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien to produce a series of stories about the aftermath of the March 11 quake/tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed.

In the course of reporting our story about Safecast's crowdsourced efforts to monitor radiation, we encountered abandoned pets inside the evacuation zone.

Reuters today published an article about new efforts to save animals abandoned by families forced to flee their homes after the nuclear disaster.

"If left alone, tens of them will die everyday. Unlike well-fed animals that can keep themselves warm with their own body fat, starving ones will just shrivel up and die," said Yasunori Hoso, who runs a shelter for about 350 dogs and cats rescued from the 20-km evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant.
The government let animal welfare groups enter the evacuation zone temporarily in December to rescue surviving pets before the severe winter weather set in, but Hoso said there were still many more dogs and cats left in the area.
"If we cannot go in to take them out, I hope the government will at least let us go there and leave food for them," he said.

Inset: Mr. Hoso, who is also director of the United Kennel Club Japan (UKC Japan), speaks in front of a destroyed house in Namie town, inside the 20km exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, January 28, 2012. A photo gallery of more images from their rescue efforts follows (all images: Reuters).

A cow which escaped from a farm is removed from a highway by members of UKC Japan in Namie town, Fukushima prefecture. (REUTERS)

A dog rescued by UKC Japan members is seen inside a cage in Namie town.(REUTERS)

Ashes of cats who died after being rescued from the exclusion zone, in urns at UKC Japan's pet shelter in Samukawa town. (REUTERS)

Dogs rescued by UKC Japan inside the exclusion zone around Fukushima, in cages at the group's pet shelter in Samukawa. (REUTERS)

Dog rescued by UKC Japan from near Fukushima plant, inside a cage at the group's pet shelter in Samukawa. (REUTERS)

First World Cat Problems

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:27:31 +0000

I approve of this meme. (thanks, Antinous!)

Dog delivers receipts to customers at vet's office (video)

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:20:50 +0000

[Video Link] (thanks, Joe Sabia!)

Caturday: Alfalfa Haz a Hungry

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:34:59 +0000

Image: Alfalfa, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr pool by photographer David W. Oliver.

Cat is hat

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:36:22 +0000

[Video Link]

Look at that!

(via @joejanecek+@popurls, video by Katie Westlake)

Puppy gives cat a massage (video)

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:41:38 +0000

[Video Link, thanks @kaepora]

Possum eating strawberries (video)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:08:28 +0000

Opossumnomnomnomnom. [Video Link, thanks Antinous!]

Commodore is beautiful

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:35:42 +0000

Boing Boing reader Byron shares this photograph of one of our ancestors in the National Museum of Scotland:

An old Commodore PET computer (complete with tape deck for loading and saving programme and a built in monitor). I think this model was the very first home computer (as we know them) that I ever saw, when I was a wee boy, late 1970s. My dad's friend was an amateur meteorologist, had a room full of (for the time) hi-tech equipment like a HAM radio, a print out that fed him data right from a weather satellite and the like. He got himself one of these and knowing I like science fiction he thought I'd like it so he got dad to bring me round. Two or three years late I'd have my own home computer, a Texas TI-99 4/a and I've pretty much had a computer of some sort right through till today.

Thanks for sharing it in the Boing Boing Flickr pool, Byron!

NONONONO Cat

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:22:18 +0000

[Video Cat]

Today's weird animal viral video is, like all great examples of the genre, equal parts funny, creepy, cute, and sad. Apparently, the cat in this video is having a fear/anxiety/aggressive reaction to the presence of a young girl (sounds like under 5 years old?), a friend of the daughter of the guy who shot the video. Or I don't know, hairball?

I've never seen this behavior before, and wonder how the owners might best deal with it. But also, I couldn't stop laughing.

And is that a Maine Coon? They're usually so mellow and sociable.

(thanks, Tara McGinley)