Boing Boing » pets

Albino lions found in raid

Rob Beschizza — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:03:35 +0000

A raid on a pet shop owner's house near Bangkok turned up 14 albino lions and other rarities, landing the owner in jail on charges of illegally possessing wildlife. "We received a complaint about the smell from the neighbours," said local police colonel Ek Ekasart. [Sky News]

Town delivers sidewalk dog poop to owners in "lost property" boxes

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:01:06 +0000

A Spanish town called Brunete used volunteers to covertly identify people who had left their dog's shit on the public sidewalk (the volunteers chatted up the dog owners' about their dogs' breeds, this was cross-referenced against the register of dogs). The volunteers then packaged up the turds in a "lost property" box and returned them to the owners. 20 volunteers delivered 147 crap-o-grams and reported a 70 percent drop in public poop after the program ran (they did not disclose their methodology for calculating this).

On the one hand, this is funny. On the other hand, it's a sobering reminder of how trivially small pieces of seemingly innocuous information can be used to identify people. On the third hand, people who let their dogs crap on the sidewalk and don't pick it up are the worst human beings on Earth, and I join with Mark Thomas in calling for a law that requires people to wear any unclaimed turds as a mustache for a full day.

Spanish town posts dog mess back to offending hound owners (via Neatorama)

Black leopard compared to black house cat

David Pescovitz — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 23:08:29 +0000

Black leopard compared to black house cat. "Duality," directed by Rich Kuras.

Bieber's pet monkey impounded

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:43:55 +0000

Having seized Mally, Bieber's pet monkey, German authorities now require the Canadian pop star to present health and license papers within a month if it is to be returned. [Reuters]

Camera Bag Cat is watching you pack for your trip

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:20:07 +0000

From the Boing Boing Flickr pool, a wonderful photo by Kai Teoh, a Boing Boing reader and photographer based in Minnesota who is available for editorial and special occasions booking.

Dog unimpressed by Mardi Gras

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:18:55 +0000

"Fat Tuesday," shot and shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Fred Facker. "He was absolutely not excited about Mardi Gras at all ... whatsoever."

Why do dogs bark? (And what are they saying when they do?)

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:20:08 +0000

Barking might just be a reflex for agitated dogs. It might be a side-effect of domestication — i.e., when you select for less-aggressive animals you get ones that tend to bark. Or, it really might have meaning, both for other dogs and for humans. At Scientific American, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods describe some of the research on dog communication, including studies that show both humans and dogs can tell the difference between barks associated with, say, food, and barks associated with the presence of a threatening stranger.

Cat toys shaped like microbes

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:56:26 +0000

Behold, a truly fantastic gift for the cat in your life — catnip-filled soft toys shaped like amoebas, cyanobacteria, and (pictured above) giardia.

Giardia are microscopic parasites that can invade the guts of vertebrate animals, including cats and humans. Generally, you get it by ingesting giardia-infested feces. For humans, this mostly means contaminated drinking water, because giardia are harder to kill than you might think. They can survive quite happily outside of a host and are resistant to chlorine.

Blue giardia cat toy

Read more on giardia (and see pictures) at the CDC website

Caturday: mushroom edition

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:11:48 +0000

Mario would be proud. From shironekoshiro.

Cats free-falling from space

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:55:51 +0000

Created by combatcameraman on b3ta. Felix the cat! (Via: crackajack.de. Thanks, Tara McGinley)

Two cats just hanging out in a frying pan (video)

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 18:22:37 +0000

[Video Link] From Shironekoshiro.

United Airlines killed my golden retriever, says supermodel

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:09:30 +0000

Maggie Rizer, a well-known fashion model, blames United Airlines for the death of her Golden Retriever, Bea, who suffered heat stroke and died during a cross-country flight two weeks ago. From NY Daily News: "Their plane had been delayed in New York and the captain told passengers to turn on their air vents to help circulate air, but Rizer believes gusts of hot air killed her dog in the belly of the plane, where there isn’t the same quality of circulation as there is in the cabin."

Inflatable Unicorn horn for kitties: "Cats love it"

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:17:30 +0000

Happy Caturday. (thanks, Tara McGinley)

Caturday: Here is a purring cat with daisies on its head (video)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:49:54 +0000

[Video Link, via shironekoshiro].

Collective Soul cat (video)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:42:43 +0000

[Video Link]

(Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

A Super Mario cat in a mushroom hat

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:53:22 +0000

Wearing lavender sunglasses (well, for a little while). [Video Link]. From Shironekoshiro's YouTube channel, a daily source of cute comfort in my life.

Caturday: kitten is hogging the TV remote

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 15:42:06 +0000

Boing Boing reader Benjamin G. Levy, a Mac computing consultant based in Los Angeles, shot and shared this photo in the Boing Boing Flickr pool. Happy Caturday.

Hello, Aleister Crowley, Clockwork Orange, and Ganesha Kitty

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:12:42 +0000

Spotted on Dangerous Minds: Etsy seller TheAllSeeingCat's Hello Kitty mods. From L-R: Hello Ganesha Kitty, Hello A Clockwork Orange Alex Kitty, and Hello Aleister Crowley Kitty. $227USD apiece.

Bentley the bulldog puppy is fussy (cute animal video)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:10:38 +0000

(Video Link, via Joe Sabia).

Skateboarding goat wins Guinness World Record (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:07:02 +0000

[video link]. The goat's name is "Happy," of course. (thanks, Clayton Cubitt)

Cat-loving teen with cancer gets a "cat immersion" tent at hospital

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:01:38 +0000

I've been spending rather a lot of time in the cancer ward at a hospital lately, and I think this is a fabulous idea: a "cat immersion tent."

The teen girl in this video, Maga, is a cancer patient at Seattle Children's Hospital. She loves her cat—actually, she loves all cats— and has had to be isolated in the hospital with no cat contact, for health reasons. "During her stays what she misses most is her own cat Merry," the Seattle Children's Hospital folks say.

We asked our Facebook fans to share their favorite cat photos with us, and got an awesome response -- 3,000+ photos! We used these pictures to create this "cat immersion" for Maga -- an audio/visual experience to bring thousands of "virtual" cats to Maga's room.

More of the photos they received on this Facebook page. This is the same hospital that produced the viral "Stronger" video. Sounds like a really cool environment for pediatric cancer patients.

More at Laughing Squid.

Caturday

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 17:40:35 +0000

Boing Boing reader Nicholas Longtin of Minneapolis has carefully 'shooped a series of photos from the 2012 Olympics to include his cats. I'll consider it complete when this shot's included. (via BB Flickr Pool)

And now, we pause for a Moment of Kitten (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:45:48 +0000

[Video Link]. Him widdle names is Pancake. He is a foster kitten, snuggling up in this video with a doggie.

OMGCATSINSPACE

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:20:53 +0000

A Tumblog of Greatness: OMGCATSINSPACE.

(thanks, @sbethm)

Caturday (photo)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 15:54:08 +0000

Muaz Mohamed shot this lovely photo of a kitteh wishing you a happy Caturday, with a high-five paw. Shared in the Boing Boing Flickr pool.

Dog trying to bite oncoming traffic (funny video)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:02:34 +0000

[Video Link]

(Thanks, Joe Sabia!)

A cat in a bowl, in the forest, wearing nerd glasses (video)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:41:38 +0000

[YouTube link]. Stay with it for the elegant finale. From shironekoshiro's channel, which is basically full of videos exactly like this: inexplicably calm cats, putting up with stuff being put upon them. The blog is pretty great, too. You're welcome.

Dead cat helicopter upsets people on internet (video)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:17:22 +0000

[Video Link. Warning, may totally creep you out if you love cats. ]

Dutch artist Bart Jansen had a cat named Orville that he loved very much. When Orville died, he did what any cat-loving guy would do: transformed his deceased kitty pal's corpse into a radio-controlled DIY taxidermy helicopter. WAIT WHAT

The Orvillecopter, half cat, half machine. Named after the famous aviator Orville Wright. He was killed by a car. After that he received his propellers posthumously. This is Orvillecopter's first test flight, Soon to be flying with the birds. Oh how he loved birds. He will receive more powerful engines and larger props for his birthday. So this hopping will soon change into steady flight. For the catlovers: it is a tanned hide, just like the shoes you're wearing. For the RC lovers: it's a Lotus T580 (still)

People are upset. Daily Mail, LA Times, NPR. (thanks, Antinous!)

Caturday

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:02:21 +0000

A wonderful photo contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Ben Lepley, who explains that this is his cat Yoshimi Minski, "sleeping in the semi-mummy position."

Cat and Ram are pals (photo)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:46:07 +0000

A reader photography contest at National Geographic yields this photograph by Sarah Deutsch, of "a magical moment of love between a cat and a ram." If interspecies love is not your thing, try this trio of dancing ostriches.

(thanks, Marilyn Terrell)