Pet Monologues

The attached video is of dolphins playing with silver colored rings which they have the ability to make under water to play with. It isn’t known how they learn this, or if it’s an inbred ability. As if by magic the dolphin does a quick flip of its head and a silver ring appears in front of its pointed beak.

The ring is a solid, donut shaped bubble about 2-ft across, yet it doesn’t rise to the surface of the water! It stands upright in the water like a magic doorway to an unseen dimension. The dolphin then pulls a small silver donut from the larger one. Looking at the twisting ring for one last time a bite is taken from it, causing the small ring to collapse into a thousands of tiny bubbles which head upward towards the water’s surface. After a few moments the dolphin creates another ring to play with. There also seems to be a separate mechanism for producing small rings, which a dolphin can accomplish by a quick flip of its head.

An explanation of how dolphins make these silver rings is that they are ‘air-core vortex rings’. Read the rest of this entry »

TOKYO — Dolphins at a Japanese marine park are going on a low-fat diet after developing potbellies and failing to look sharp in their aquatic performances. Read the rest of this entry »

SLAMORADA, Fla. — A dog is recovering after a Florida Keys carpenter dove in to save his pet from a shark. Read the rest of this entry »

These incredible photos of a White Bengal Tiger named Odin.

Odin is six years old and 10 feet long from tail to nose. Odin lives at a Zoo in Vallejo, California, near San Francisco

When a lump of meat was thrown into a pool of water, Odin would happily dive in after it.

“When you actually see him dive underwater he looks so graceful,”

Not all big cats enjoy the water but for Tigers from the hot climate of South-East Asia it’s one way to cool down.

“Plus they hunt in and around water. They’re an ambush predator so they wait for prey to come down to the water.”

“He makes a funny face - and it’s actually to close his nostrils to stop the water from going into his nose.

“Odin loves the water and he loves food,” he said. “Not all big cats will dive and swim underwater even for meat treats.”

Odin was hand-raised at the zoo. And after he was weaned, his British trainer Lee Munro discovered his remarkable skill.

Munro said tigers were the most powerful swimmers out of all land-dwelling animals. Tragically, within our lifetimes, zoos might be the only places left to see these magnificent animals.

A century ago there were about 100,000 tigers in the wild. Now there are just 2,500 adults, with the Bengal variety almost extinct. None has been seen in the wild sin ce the last white tiger was shot and killed in 1958. White tigers are the most rare. They get their white color from an unusual and extremely rare genetic combination.

I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did. 

After spending a week in Bend Oregon, fishing, fishing, and more fishing, here comes a fish story…

Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

“This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet,” Ho said.

He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin. The razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they’re sanitary.

Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries.

But Ho doubted they would thrive in the warm water needed for a comfortable footbath. And he didn’t know if customers would like the idea.

“I know people were a little intimidated at first,” Ho said. “But I just said, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ ” Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Another sustainable product. Make that pet product. Make that dog product. Here’s why it’s a good idea. In the US, our dogs produce enough waste to fill an 800-foot-tall football field every year - not the most glamorous image. And scooping all that poop into petroleum-based plastic bags not only leaches toxic chemicals as the whole package slowly breaks down (for thousands of years) in a landfill, but preserves what needn’t be preserved.

Leaving scat on the ground isn’t an eco-friendly option either, as 20-30% of all pollutants in waterways can be attributed to canine waste.

Solution: use a biodegradable bag. The Business Bags from Spike are made from corn, and the company recently worked with a domestic company to devise an entirely homegrown product. One of our ecofabulous ladies can attest that they decompose in the promised 45 days. Keep in mind; not much biodegrades in a landfill. Business Bags are a simple, great option for people with municipal composting. For the rest of you, check DIY composting here.

For the political poop visit dogs 4 democrats featuring the “Mission Accomplished” bag.

via ecofabulous

The polar bear is finally getting a break and maybe global warming worries have made it possible: The government has declared it a threatened species in need of increased protection. But another round of legal battles surrounding the majestic animal may be just beginning.

The Interior Department put the bear under the protective umbrella of the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday, concluding what biologists have been saying for years—the bear is on the way to extinction because of the rapid disappearance of the Arctic sea ice upon which it depends.

Scientists predict sea ice melting will continue and even accelerate because of global warming.

“This in my judgment makes the polar bear a threatened species, one likely to become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future,” said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, punctuating his point with an array of slides, charts and maps showing the changing ice flows of the Arctic.

But Kempthorne also said that he did not view the increased protection of the bear afforded by the Endangered Species Act as a back door to regulate greenhouse gases coming from power plants, automobiles and industrial sources. Read the rest of this entry »

Australian pokes shark in eye to survive mauling.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP)—An Australian swimmer says he survived a mauling by a 16-foot shark by wrestling with the beast, finally getting free by poking it in the eye. Read the rest of this entry »

$2,500 HSUS reward. Dog killings.

The HSUS Offers Reward In Lincoln County, Mont. Dog Killings. The Humane Society of the United States is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for killing at least nine dogs in the Libby, Troy and Eureka areas of Montana over the past five weeks. Read the rest of this entry »