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.

HT: Newscoma

I’ve learned a lot about life, and I have a lot more to learn yet. But 3 of my best life’s lessons I learned from my cat.

1. Sleep is important. More important than we really know. When I’m not sleeping, I can’t seem to get anything together. I might have more time by not sleeping much, but I can’t get my act together anyway, so why bother? Sleep! Sleep!

2. You don’t have to do silly tricks for people to like you. See, dogs will go out of their way to make you like them. They’ll do silly tricks like sneezing on command, or dancing around in a circle. I used to be like that, but I realized that cats don’t do tricks at all and we still love them. Now I’m just myself whenever and wherever I go. People like me anyway. Awesome.

3. Speak softly and carry a large set of claws. Dogs go around barking all the time, but most of them won’t ever bite. They’re just loud and annoying. Cats, on the other hand (unless they’re a Siamese) only need to say things once. Then if they’ve had it with you, they whip out their claws and make their preferences known. This is much more effective than barking constantly, trust me.

What life lessons have you learned from your cat?