It just wouldn’t’ be a great start for the New Year without revisiting some of the best things from the previous year.  That said, take a fun scroll through The 54 Best Animated GIFs of 2012 to find your favorite animal gif.  Here’s ours:

 The hamster ball cyborg that will enslave us all

Photo from Pinterest.

Oh dog lovers do we have something for you that you’ll LOVE.  From The Poodle (and dog) Blog,

Each dog nose is as individual as each fingerprint. How much do you love your dog’s nose?

The designers send you a modeling kit and you take an impression of your dog’s nose. They promise it is easy and takes only a few seconds. Then you send back the impression and they make a custom pendant from the mold out of sterling silver.

It’s a bit expensive for my budget coming in around $175, but I still adore it!

An old practice now has new life for cattle farmers across the country – feeding candy to cows as a supplement to expensive grains. Sugar fattens beef cows, but is also far more affordable than corn.  Realistically, farmers try to cap the sugar supplement at no more than 3 percent of the cows’ diets.  From CNN News,

“It has been a practice going on for decades and is a very good way to for producers to reduce feed cost, and to provide less expensive food for consumers,” said Ki Fanning, a livestock nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting, Inc. in Eagle, Neb.

Feeding candy to cows has become a more popular practice in tandem with the rising price of corn, which has doubled since 2009, fueled by government-subsidized demand for ethanol and this year’s drought.

Smart are these farmers who use the manufacturers cast-off candies and sweets.

This just doesn’t look comfortable to me, and that’s not even the main problem!  From ohgizmo,

But then you think about it some more and realize a few things. First off, if your lovely pet has a vomiting accident while in there, what are you supposed to do? It doesn’t look like you can take any of it apart for cleaning. Also, if you own a cat, you’ll know that they have a tendency to ignore the fancy houses/beds/cots/anything expensive that you can buy them, and instead comfortably settle on a piece of IKEA cardboard you forgot to throw.

Yep.

We have bluebirds in our little box on a tree in the front yard. I’ve tried peeking in and haven’t had any luck seeing the baby birds.  This may be my answer for next year!

From Gardeners Supply Company.

Too cute!!  Check out these fantastic dog nose necklaces from dogmilk,

Custom Pet Nose Print Necklaces are gorgeous and handmade sterling silver pendants cast from your dog’s unique little nose. Because each animal’s nose is as distinct as a human’s fingerprint, your Custom Pet Nose Print Necklace is guaranteed to be as special as your love for your dog.

I’d get mine in silver!