Pets Hunters

On this season's deer opener, a Minnesota woman shot one of the rarest kinds around; an albino deer. Mary Rakotz of Avon got the 6-point buck on Saturday in Mille Lacs County.

She said it was thrilling to see the rare animal, but 100 times more exciting to be able to actually take it home.

"I had heard that it might be in the area, so I thought that here was my chance of a lifetime. So I had to creep a little bit, probably about 40 yards, to get a good place where I could steady myself a little bit. But then I did that and shot and it went right down," said Rakotz.

(Albino deer are so uncommon that it's actually illegal to hunt them in at least seven states.)

Is it any wonder that so many creatures have been hunted to extinction with idiots like this in the world?

An Indian man who believed he had been cursed for stoning to death two dogs has atoned for his sin by marrying another dog in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony.

P. Selvakumar, a 33-year-old farm laborer from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, married the four-year-old stray bitch female dog after it was bathed and processed to his village temple dressed in an orange sari and garlanded with flowers.

Remember that cute video of the sweet little otters floating and holding hands?

"Awww," you said, "aren't they adorable!"

That's exactly what Susan Martin of Merrit Island, Florida, said about the otter in her yard. She noticed its cute little face and how innocent it seemed to be. Then while she was looking at it, it bit her - twice!

Yup, all that sweetness & innocence, it's all been an act.

Another otter attacked poor little Taz, the 10-year-old Westie who fought off the frothing otter to keep it away from the Linnett family.

The dog came out bloody, but Animal Control got the otter. "Took 'em a while. He was mean."

Environmental Graffiti follows up on a previous article on non-native species in the UK, with a list of the 5 worst non-native animal species worldwide.

So, who's number one?

The Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus, houses three of the world’s largest cockroaches: the Death Head (Blaberus cranifer), collected from a bat roost in Panama; Peppered or Peruvian Cockroach (Archimandrita tesselata) from Peru; and Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) from Madagascar.

Bohart Museum scientists have maintained terrariums of Madagascar hissing cockroaches for some 30 years. At any given time, the museum has hundreds of them. It’s the most popular display among the kids, because of three reasons: the hissing sound they make, their size and their appearance.

More about cockroaches from the Smithsonian National Zoo.

Photo: Kathy Keatley Garvey

The Greyhound Adoption Center is one of the only greyhound rescue groups that accepts all greyhounds, not just those from the racetrack. Greyhounds adopted directly from racetracks or from other adoption groups with a "no-return" policy frequently wind up at the pound or some other shelter. GAC accepts pound greyhounds and greyhounds with no racing tattoos, as well.

GAC's open-door policy includes ill or injured dogs. As long as they have space, no greyhound is ever turned away, regardless of its age or physical condition. They will keep any dog for as long as it takes to find just the right home.

A leading authority of Saudi Arabia's hardline school of Islam has condemned camel beauty contests as evil, saying those involved should seek repentance in God.

Camel pageants have become major events in the desert kingdom in recent years as tribes hold ever larger competitions, with bigger prizes and wider publicity.

Delicate females or strapping males which attract the right attention during a show can sell for more than a million riyals (127,000 pounds). Sponsors spent 10 million riyals on prizes for one competition this year.

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• Slipper Style Booties
• Features Suede Soles
• Made of 100% Leather
• Dyed
• Elastic Closure
• Appliqué

At Target!

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Jellybeanies is the only scented plush toy that comes with a unique alphanumeric code that unlocks your character on Jellybeanies.com! Go online, take care of your Jellyfriend, play games, deck them out, and chat safely with friends with pre-set (and kid-safe!) dialogue options!

There are 8 Jellybeanies available in Wave 1 this year, with more coming down the road!

Animal Ring Toss
Like a horseshoe toss for kids.

No! you don't toast frogs in it!

It's about time we let go of the boring conventions that confine us to mere function without beauty and joy. Loosen the ties of history, raise your toaster high and have friends over for pop tarts and waffles. This gem should be placed right in the center of the table.

According to Veterinary Pet Insurance, socks, underwear, and panty hose top the list of items that must be surgically removed after being ingested by household pets. In a release issued by VPI, the California based pet health insurance company lists the top 10 most common surgically removed items based on reports from its claims adjusters. They are:

1. Socks
2. Underwear
3. Panty Hose
4. Rocks
5. Balls
6. Chew Toys
7. Corn Cobs
8. Bones
9. Hair Ties/Ribbons

Traditional Kokeshi began to be made approximately two hundred years ago. The dolls emerged out of local life and culture and were first produced in the north east area of Japan known as the Tohoku region. The artisans of the area began to make small dolls in the winter to sell to the tourists who came to bathe in the many hot springs near their villages. The few people who could afford the luxury of such a pastime bought the Kokeshi dolls as a souvenir and took the dolls back to their own areas where they were often passed on to the children. This, they thought, would promise a good harvest, as it was believed that it would create a positive impression on the gods if children played with the dolls.

Are you a cat person, or would you like to be one? Welcome to the club. Thirty-four percent of American households include at least one cat, which adds up to 90 million pet kitties owned in the U.S. If you're thinking about getting a cat — or want to know more about the one you've got — the new book The Cat Bible: Everything Your Cat Expects You to Know is an excellent place to start. Author Tracie Hotchner is one of the leading experts of the feline world.

TIME's Andrea Sachs (who has two cats herself) interviews Hotchner.

Another day, another bizarre world record for Jackie Bibby, the "Texas Snake Man." Bibby spent about 45 minutes in a see-through bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes Monday, fully clothed, shattering his own record by 12 snakes just in time for Guinness World Records Day, which is Thursday. A Guinness official certified the record.



I think last year's feat was better!

Last year he set a Guinness-certified record by holding 10 rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth at once.

But wait, there's more!

The Texas Snake Man also claims to hold non-sanctioned records for climbing into a sleeping bag head first with 20 rattlesnakes and going in feet first with 112.

There aren't many people who lived through the 20th Century, including learned philosophers, scientists and thinkers, whose lives and work so forcefully altered the human intellectual landscape as did that of Washoe, a 42-year-old female chimpanzee who died October 30th in a research center in eastern Washington state.

Her life permanently changed the popular perception of animal intelligence, overturning long-held assumptions about differences between humans and other great apes, and presaging the genetic revolution that would reveal that humans and chimps biologically aren't separated by much.

Photo credit

MANSON, Wash. — Charles and Linda Everson were driving back to their hotel when their minivan was struck by a falling object — a 600-pound cow.

The Eversons were unhurt but the cow, which had fallen off a cliff, had to be euthanized.

The year-old cow fell about 200 feet from the cliff and landed on the hood of the couple's minivan, causing heavy damage.

Designed for pets, the $2,000 "JooZoo" bauble responds to pet behaviors by playing MP3s. So why the big price tag? Because it's covered in diamonds and gold.

According to the company, the play system enhances your pet’s physical health and relieves stress through automatic content responding to various pet behaviors.

Yeah, right.

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If you're expecting to see the usual crowds of blue tits in your garden this winter, you could be in for a disappointment.

Wildlife experts say millions of the young birds starved or drowned during the storms and floods of May, June and July.

Numbers of great tits, whitethroats and reed warblers are also dramatically down after their worst breeding season in a generation, it is claimed.

Pinnawela orphanage is situated northwest of the town Kegalla, halfways between the present capitol Colombo and the ancient royal residence Kandy in the hills of central Sri Lanka. It was established 1975 by the Sri Lanka Wildlife department. This 24 acres large elephant orphanage is a also breeding pace for elephants, twenty elephants were born since 1984, and it has the greatest herd of elephants in captivity in the world.

Tippi is a tiny blonde girl who lives in Africa. She has a brother by the name of Abu who weighs five tons, and her cats are huge and much stronger than her daddy. This may sound like surrealistic fiction, but it is the true story of Tippi, daughter of two French filmmakers and wildlife photographers, working in southern Africa. Their life in the bush, dunes and swamps, and about Tippi's endearing kinship with wild animals, particularly Abu, a five-ton elephant...



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In a good year, David Hackenberg can make a $100,000 profit from beekeeping, but this past year has been a financial disaster. And it all began one afternoon last November when he checked on some of his hives in Florida.

"When I pulled into a bee yard in Florida, there was 400 hives of bees that three weeks before that looked great. And all of a sudden, here we got roughly 400 beehives that are totally empty," he recalls.

The bees were gone, and Hackenberg says he doesn’t know where they went. "I mean, I literally got down and crawled around. I mean, seriously, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled around. And there's no dead bees. There are no dead bees anywhere. I mean, you can't find any bees. They flew off someplace," he recalls.

The bees, Hackenberg says, never came back. It's something he says he'd never seen before . . .

Marjorie Bowley returned home to find a fox curled up and sleeping in her bed.

"I tried to shoo it off but it wouldn't budge. It was so bold. It just looked at me and moved up to the pillows."

The fox had entered through a cat flap at the rear of the house.

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A dog named Laika lies within the Sputnik 2 spacecraft during preparations for her 1957 launch. Laika was the first living creature sent into space, but lived for only a few hours after launch due to the failure of the satellite's thermal control system.

November 3 marked the 50th anniversary of a milestone mission — the Russian Sputnik 2 launch that put a dog named Laika into orbit.

Laika's flight marked the beginning of a pilgrimage that has brought terrestrial life forms to the moon and very likely far beyond. That pilgrimage will only expand in the coming decades, and will surely have far wider significance than it has to date.

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72 hour sale!

Buy 1 adorable humidifier, get 1 free !

Select from frog, cow, penguin, pig and cat.

A simple sign can go a long way toward giving people - utility workers, delivery men, meter readers, repairmen, surveyors, you name it – a heads up to your dog’s presence.

Sounds like a great idea, until you try and find a sign at your local hardware, pet or garden store – there’s nothing there but plastic BEWARE of DOG signs. Don’t label your dog a dangerous dog with one of these plastic signs. Buy one of Pet Postings signs and have an elegant, and durable pet sign for your dog and your property.

Chatterbowl
The talking pet bowl.

You record a message - every time your pet eats or drinks, he hears your voice.

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Dog Door Stop

This is the Pylones dog door stop. He's just waiting to hold the door open for his people. Let him! He is as cute as a button, and he is one of Pylones' newest masterpieces.

Your dog’s second keenest sense is hearing. Protect his hearing from loud sounds and keep him calm around scary sounds with Mutt Muffs.

Use your Mutt Muffs:

*To help your dog that is afraid of noises such as thunderstorms, fireworks, vacuum cleaner, lawn mower, barking dogs, crying child, construction and more.

*To protect your dog’s hearing protection in all types of noisy environments.

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"Window Cleaner"

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The "Cat of One Color," is called by many names: cougar, puma, mountain lion, catamount, and even panther.

Shy and elusive, cougars live solitary lives within a system of mutual avoidance. Males and females interact for breeding when females are about 2 1/2 years old. Giving birth throughout the year, females can have litters of up to four kittens, but only one or two survive. Born spotted, the kittens stay with their mothers for about 18 months, after which time they will leave in search of their own home range.

In a healthy ecosystem, cougars are a top predator, helping to balance wildlife populations. Deer are their primary food sources, and the presence of deer indicates likely presence of cougars. However, as opportunistic feeders, cougars can survive on a variety of prey including rodents, birds, porcupines, fish and raccoons, as well as livestock and domestic animals.

The Mountain Lion Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization dedicated to protecting the mountain lion and their wild habitat to ensure that our wildlife heritage endures for future generations.
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Charley belongs to Scribal Terror

A Winona woman wants charges pressed against an acquaintance for making her pig fat.

Michelle Schmitz said her pot-bellied pig, Alaina Templeton, weighed 50 pounds last spring when Schmitz left her with a co-worker. Nine months later, the pig was 150 pounds. It took veterinarians 4 1/2 hours to surgically remove the obese pig’s collar.

Now the one-eyed Alaina is the subject of a police investigation into whether her pig-sitter abused her by neglecting and over-feeding her.

Schmitz, 22, said she cried for three days after she discovered her pet’s weight problem.

“That pig is my life,” she said. Schmitz even has a tattoo of Alaina’s name. “Everyone in Winona knows I have this pig.”