Pet Monologues

September 21 — Mark the following Puruvian holiday on your calendar.

by john kass
Americans are busy hissing and scratching each other’s eyes out over presidential politics. But there is one thing we can agree on—sending a few thousand U.S. troops into Peru to occupy the nation and stop Peruvians from eating all their cats.

This villainous cat-munching takes place in the fall, when otherwise gentle and kindly Peruvians gather in the village of La Quebrada, just south of Lima, to gorge on felines. They eat fried cat and stewed cat and poached cat. Also, cats prepared with various savory local spices, such as Grilled Cat with Huacatay, the pungent and tasty Peruvian black mint.

Americans have proved we’ll accept almost anything if packaged and marketed properly. We’ve recently accepted socialism just to make Wall Street happy before an election. But if there’s one thing we won’t abide, it’s a nation of cat-eaters.

The terrible Peruvian cat-eating spree has a name: La Festival Gastronomico del Gato. Or for those of you who don’t speak Spanish—the Gastronomic Festival of the Cat. Read the rest of this entry »

Oldest of cats

Life-span is determined by several factors: good genetics, good general care, good health care, good diet and a relatively safe environment. Cats reach maturity quickly, but as they grow older, their rate of ageing
slows down.

In the wild, cats fall victim to accidents, illnesses, food shortages and predators and may live 6-8 years. The average life-span of a neutered domestic cat (barring accidents) is considered to be 14 years old although there are signs that this may be increasing. More and more cats are reaching their late teens or early twenties.

It’s commonly believed that indoor cats are longer-lived than indoor-outdoor cats. This does not always hold true since many indoor cats, while they are protected from traffic and other animals, may have their lives shortened through obesity (sometimes leading to diabetes or heart disease), lack of exercise and stress. Though cats generally slow down with age, not all elderly cats lose their vigour. Some remain active hunters until their late teens or beyond. On 21 December 1975, a 19 year old tabby female owned by Mrs F Arnot of St Neots, Huntingdonshire, killed a stoat (a small mink-like British carnivore able to kill rabbits) in a fierce fight. Queenie, a one-eyed tabby from Chelmsford, England, was still stalking pigeons (unsuccessfully) at the age of 19. Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: graphic, violent, creepy.

animation by run wrake via designobserver

It’s those bears again!

Some people build swimming pools in their back yards. But outdoor pools in Alaska just won’t work.

Since this particular family lives on the outskirts of Anchorage, they decided to build a sturdy, colorful playground for their 3 and 4 year old sons, with smooth-stone gravel all around it to avoid knee scrapes and other injuries.

They finished building it on Saturday evening, and the following morning, as the Mom was about to wake up the boys and have them go out to play in their new play center, this is what she saw from the upstairs window.

A good story to start your week. These big cats really enjoy hugging,
don’t they?

Came across this very disturbing story visiting the NPR site and then went to the photographer’s site for photos, which are even more disturbing. This is a story about a gorilla named Senkwekwe who was murdered,
executed actually.

Here is a portion of NPR writeup…Last July, Brent Stirton took a photograph that shocked the world when it was published in Newsweek — a picture of a dead 500-pound male gorilla named Senkwekwe, one of six endangered mountain gorillas who had been murdered, execution-style, in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the photo, Senkwekwe is strapped on his back, on a litter made of saplings. More than a dozen African men are carrying him — gently, respectfully — out of the jungle that was supposed to be his sanctuary.

When Stirton took that photo, one pressing question was still unanswered: Who would do such a thing, and why?

Stirton recently got a chance to investigate the answer. He was the first photojournalist allowed back into the part of Virunga where the mountain gorillas live — a section now controlled by a militia. Read the rest of this entry »

Off topic: I am killing time, waiting for a client to give me the go-ahead. Idle mind, idle fingers. This is what it gets you…

via speedcat hollydale four-legged chickens and a starwars-like attack of the clones group photograph.

note: PM did demonstrate one-upsmanship via bigger is better And, if you do indeed fetish chickens you might check these links…
are you calling me chicken?
chicken bones are evil
artist draws baby chickens progress daily
you don’t deserve chicken

Pets suffer from Midwest flooding too.

No-kill shelters form vast networks to save dogs and cats for adoption.

Lesley Irwin scrolls through 200 pitiable e-mails a day to pick out the lucky dogs and cats she can keep in her Huntley pet shelter, then anguishes over the many she has to turn away. Read the rest of this entry »

Pet cemetery. Jayne Mansfield.

MILWAUKEE—Pet cemetery where sex symbol buried dog closes. Sex symbol Jayne Mansfield was looking for eternal rest for her Chihuahua Gallina when she buried her in a Milwaukee area pet cemetery in 1964. Read the rest of this entry »

$24M pet food settlement.

CAMDEN, NJ—A judge granted initial approval to a $24 million settlement in which companies that manufactured or sold contaminated pet food would compensate pet owners fro all costs related to the death or illness of their dogs and cats. Read the rest of this entry »