I love it when zoos run contests to name the newest babies … from monkeys to elephants, it’s always a lot of fun for me to try to come up with a catchy, cute name.

I remember several years ago that I was devastated when the name Stretch that I picked for a baby giraffe wasn’t chosen!  Didn’t the National Zoo have a name contest for the baby pandas born in captivity?  My own nominees - Ping and Pong - were ignored.  No surprise those are the names I came up with when you consider my cat’s name is Kitty.

Sadly, the baby pandas returned to China with their Mom today as part of the agreement between the zoo and the foreign giant.  China’s newest citizens were greeted with lots of bamboo and lots of cameras.

We’ll miss you, Mei Lan and Tai Shan.  Have a happy life.

I’m not a seamstress, though recently I did go to a friend’s house when she had a sewing class.  We made super cute purses and mine was okay  … I managed to not sew my two fingers together!  This idea for a doggie bed would be PERFECT for people like me because there’s no sewing involved!

From Apartment Therapy, here are a list of supplies needed - or ingredients if you will for the doggie bed:

One pair of scissors, two 12′ boxes of sticky back velcro (with a little bit left over at the end), optional superglue, one Ikea Flokati wool rug, one Ikea Gosa Vila 26 x 26 pillow stuffer and a tape measure.

Click through to see the rest of the directions… easy breezy!

When we first adopted Libby from the animal shelter, she was a shy little thing.  Never squeaked, was very gentle and had such a sweet nature.  She does bark now (not often), but remains a kind soul for a doggie.  She does have one major flaw that we discovered … a flaw that most dogs have.

She eats poop.

Libby particularly loves cat poop, rabbit poop, and what I can only guess is squirrel poop.  We discovered her love for the disgusting when we kept smelling something bad in the living room.  Finally we caught her happily chewing on something that absolutely wasn’t a tootsie roll.  Several gags and yells later, we gave up on keeping her out of the cat pan - her love of the nasty was too great - and just built a dog barrier that kept her out, but let the cats in.

The only poop she gets today are those left by rabbits as they graze in the clover in our yard.  There are other areas that we see her snooping and chomping in where clover is absent - I’m guessing that’s the squirrel poop.

But dogs eat everything else too.  Broccoli, green beans, peanut butter, shoes, couches, and lipstick.  Here’s the evidence they eat lipstick from my friend Beth.  This is Macie.

And this?  This is Macie on lipstick.

(By the way, Macie’s hair usually looks awesome. The dog groomer was scheduled the next day.

Fido and Buster aren’t just average dogs in Moscow.  If these were really their names, they’d be part of a pack that have evolved to the point of knowing how to ride the subway system and understanding which exits are theirs.

With one dog for every 350 citizens, the population of dogs has divided into four distinct groups: guard dogs, scavengers, wild dogs, and beggars. It’s the beggars that have figured out how to ride the trains, according to PopSci,

Relying on scraps of food from commuters, the beggar dogs can not only recognize which humans are most likely to give them something to eat, but have evolved to ride the subway. Using scents, and the ability to recognize the train conductor’s names for different stops, they incorporate many stations into their territories.

Additionally, Poyarkov says the pack structure of the beggars reflects a reliance on brain over brawn for survival. In the beggar packs, the smartest dog, not the most physically dominant, occupies the alpha male position.

It so reminds me of the show Life After People on the History Channel, where Lacy dogs are best equipped to survive because of their hunting skills and ability to scrounge for water.

One blogger wrote that her sister sent the info to her (and sent pictures),

The clever canines board the Tube each morning. After a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night. Experts studying the dogs say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop — after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.

Just amazing!

After getting stuck on a big piece of ice on the Vistula River and riding it for 100 miles, a dog was rescued from the Baltic Sea when a ship spotted him.  My favorite part is the dog’s huge smile at the end of the video on the MSNBC link. Whew!

Ship engineer Adam Buczynski managed to scoop the dog off the floe onto an inflatable dinghy and wrapped him in a blanket.   “He didn’t even squeal. There was just fear in his big eyes,” said Buczynski.

Here’s the raw footage from Reuters (and posted on Youtube.com).

These are my favorite animal photos this week.  Most ALL have been found thanks to Brittney’s intrepid internet searches… Thanks Brittney!

Leeland

Cat on Cat

Love

And finally… Scary.

I already bragged once today about our own Ron from Shaktronics for his finds at PopFi, so no harm in tipping my hat again to this incredible find.  Incredibly ugly, that is.

I give you the World’ Ugliest Endangered Fish and I promise - it’s not pretty.  As in “Could I have a nightmare for the rest of my life with that?” kind of ugly.

Found in Australian waters, the blobfish is harmless,

They spend most of their time gently floating around waiting for food to pass in front of them, which sounds like quite a nice life to us!  Because they live so far from the sea surface they’re not often seen by humans.

Okay… I’m happy to have them stay at their 900 meter depth and out of my dreams.

I love my cat and would actually love to be the crazy cat lady (as if you don’t already know).  But if I had the opportunity to get this cat, I’d have to say absolutely not.  It seems more like a cheetah or jaguar than a domestic IMO.

MAGIC is the tallest domestic cat measured from toe to shoulder. She is an incredible 43.43 centimeters (17.1 inches) high – and is the world’s tallest domestic cat. Now that tells us quite a lot about the complexities of awarding that award. Is MAGIC the longest too? This is to come. And what is a domestic cat. Now that is a big question….

Here’s a video of the kitty from the web site Pictures of Cats.

Not only do beagles have a set of lungs on them, but also - apparently - a set of gazelle legs!  From Monosyllabic Pedantry.  Click through to see this leapin’ beagle!

Or here’s cute puppy just learning to howl!

In a very very clever campaign to find homes for a booming feline population at the Michigan Humane Society, cats are being certified as pre-owned.  From Big Dorky White Guy,

The Consumerist said,

The key part of this promotion is that the shelter is charging no adoption fees for adult cats—hence the “$0 down, no payments” gimmick. The idea is to get more cats into happy homes, and shelters have found that with careful screening, waiving the adoption fees doesn’t affect the quality of homes they’re able to find, or the rate of return.

I want another cat. I’m pretty sure that when I get old in the not-too-distant future, I’m a prime candidate for crazy cat woman.  However, I’m determined to not adopt any more animal residents for now… I’ll just hold on to the three at home now.

Of note, we had four pets before Christmas but lost Lord Voldemort the beta fish over the holidays.