This tickled me.

From The Daily What.

H/T Brittney.

Cartoonist Beth Cravens sketched a friend’s dog with the caption that the dog’s breath was nasty. Ha!

Often bad breath in dogs is a sign of dental or gum disease, but sometimes it can be from something more serious. If your dog has really bad breath, take it to the vet to make sure it doesn’t have liver or kidney problems, or diabetes.

First, let me define “part-time” as someone who loves animals, but who might be unable to have a full time pet.  And pets are full-time, especially dogs! You need to play with them, feed them, walk them, talk to them, and visit the vet to give a good, happy life.

Some people may travel frequently but every now and then get an extensive break to stay at home.  Perhaps just loving on a pet until it’s healthy again is something others enjoy.  For whatever reason, there are pets available to foster.  My brother and his family just agreed to foster two pugs and they are thrilled with the opportunity.

If you want information about how to foster, you can Google pet foster and the name of your location.  There are dozens and dozens of organizations throughout the U.S. that need help and would welcome your participation after a screening process.

Good luck!

This is so cute I could just SQUEEEEE!

H/T Vegansaurus! And special thanks to the Farm Sanctuary.

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.

This wigs me out just a little bit, yet the pictures are so stunning that I had to share at least one and the link.  Photographs of animals inside the womb - or shell.

These amazing embryonic animal photographs of dolphins, sharks, dogs, penguins, cats and elephants are from a new National Geographic Documentary called “Extraordinary Animals in the Womb”. The show’s producer, Peter Chinn, used a combination of three-dimensional ultrasound scans, computer graphics and tiny cameras to capture the process from conception to birth.

Truly amazing.

Hope your holiday stockings are full of chocolate BARK and catnip!

Photo by TW Collins via Flickr Creative Commons.

Several shelters throughout the country are seeking both individuals and families to foster pets during the holiday season.  In Colorado, at least 12 dogs needed temporary people so they could be home for Christmas.

“I think it (Christmas fostering) will be good for them,” Jensen said of the dogs. “Once they are in their small kennel, they get pretty depressed. I think having human interaction will help them get adopted. Hopefully, the public will pull together.”

It may not be too late for you to provide a temporary shelter for an animal in need. Call you closest humane society to see if you can help.

Photo from itchmo.com.

I would add Nonja as my Facebook friend, however I am but a fan - and a big fan at that!  Who is Nonja? What is Nonja?  Here’s what her fan page says,

Nonja is a 33 year old orangutan female. The photos on this website are all taken by Nonja and show the new 750qm open air enclosure at Schönbrunn Zoo. The appropriate camera was supplied courtesy of electronics manufacturer Samsung.

Nonja lives in a zoo and was given a camera to take photos.  Often they look like mine (faces cut off, a stick in the grass), but other times they are quite good!  Here’s my favorite…

I’ve linked to Nonja’s Facebook but here’s the zoo web page as well.  They’re probably being inundated with web traffic right now so servers may be slow.  Here’s the Samsung site.

H/T to Ron at PopFi. You rock, man.

Though cougars look cute and cuddly, they’re dangerous. Luckily PopFi shows you how to fend off those scary attacks.