My husband is impossible to buy for, so at Christmas I was my usual stumped self.  But as I wandered the aisles at our local Super Target store, I spotted a special display of weird stuff  to give as Christmas gifts.  The kind of items that no one would really buy for themselves, yet they were kind of cool.

I found a laser pointer.  Yes, I hate when I go to the movies and someone has one pointed at the screen.  But my cat ADORES chasing the light. She fell instantly in love with my husband’s gift and is always on the lookout for that little red light.  In fact, I may be teaching her to be OCD about it, but she’s a cat so I’m not overly stressed.

We’ve also learned that the laser pointer is even better when it lands on a piece of tissue paper.  She loves chasing it in circles while she’s on the tissue paper because of the crunchy noise.  I pick up a 40-sheet package for a dollar at our local Dollar Tree.

But woe is Kitty … the batteries in the light have begun to give out.  I went to the store to replace them and nearly choked when I saw that the package of three cost $9.   I decided it was crazy to spend $9 on batteries when the light itself only cost $5 during the holiday season.

Always thinking frugally, I asked the clerk if they had laser pointers for pets.  They said, “Sure!” and told me “Aisle 5″.  I wandered down and found a brand new laser pointer that included three brand new batteries for $4.95.

Kitty has a new laser light.

Kitty pictured laying on tissue paper.

I really have to trim her nails!

My friend Beth Cravens once illustrated a book for me and since then I adore going to her web page to see her political cartoons.  Her “yellow pages” are also pretty neat-o and since today’s is all about animals, I am proud to present artist extraordinaire … BETH!

Molly loves chasing the water out of the hose!  And she needs a home.

Luckily, I was able to visit over the weekend, when I met the incredible water-loving pit bull, Molly. The info on the walk board explained that she loved to play with the hose in the doggy yard so I decided to give it a try. I had no idea she was obsessed with it. What a funny nut!

From Pawesome in San Francisco, you can learn more about Molly here.  I love Molly’s enthusiasm.

From I Can Has Cheezburger.

I found this editorial on CNN.com about dolphins and why their smiles aren’t really smiles to be fascinating, heartbreaking, and an opinion that should be shared,

… the smiles you see on these animals are not true reflections of happiness. In actuality, they hate to be enclosed in their holding tanks and are often not fed until it is time to perform their daily routines. During his time as a trainer, [Ric] O’Barry learned dolphins had true feelings — they would get depressed, stressed out, even suicidal. In some parks, the trainers have to give the animals Maalox and Tagamet to treat the ulcers that develop from their stress.

Sad. I feel some guilt that I’ve been one of millions of people who’ve gone to these sea shows to watch dolphins and other sea creatures perform.

It’s not likely that they’d find grain or hay to chew on, but three cows decided to take a look inside an Arkansas house anyway.  Joe Powell said there’s one very unfortunate result,

And naturally, the woman’s home insurance does not include provisions for damages by bovine intruder.

The article in the Dallas News said the largest visiting cow was 1600 pounds.  That’s a lot of beef.

Photo of tired cow from newspaper.

Be careful about opening whale videos that supposedly show footage of the trainer attacked and killed at Sea World by the whale.  Apparently, hackers are using killer whale videos that are now spreading computer viruses,

The IT and security firm Sophos is warning computer uses to be ware of messages and Web sites that claim to show video or pictures of the death of killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau.

Hackers have created Web pages stuffed with content that appears to be video footage of the trainer’s death, but the sites are actually designed to infect computers.

Our deepest sympathy to Ms. Brancheau’s family and friends and to her colleagues at Sea World.

Photo by Edu Fon via Flickr Creative Commons.

Several years ago, my husband’s best friend found true love.  His cat Ollie meant the world to him and he doted on that silly orange boy… the kitty had a small head and a gigantic body so I always smiled when I saw him.  The roommate - the bad bad bad wolf in this true story - left the front door open one day and Ollie escaped.

Our friend was devastated and grieved for days, weeks, months.  He looked everywhere for Ollie, but never located his missing feline friend.  One day though, the same bad roommate knocked on the bedroom door and said, “There’s someone out here who needs to see you!”

The roommate had walked to the dumpster to dispose of some trash and heard a meow.  He looked behind the dumpster and sitting just on the inside of a big drainage pipe was Ollie.  I believe that was about the happiest I’d ever seen our friend when he and Ollie were reunited. 

This is why it made me happy to learn that Jesse James of West Coast Choppers has been reunited with his dog Cinnabun.

She’s in good shape…maybe a few pounds thinner than when she left. But super happy to be home. We’re taking her to the vet to get her all checked out and chipped, and GPS’d, and live-tracked by Google Earth…the works. We don’t want to lose this little gal again!!!

That’s awesome!

H/T to Aunt B… thanks for the heads up.