The 100 Greatest Dogs of Pop Culture History

This Chinese New Year (which according to ancient tradition, adds a lot of extra years and is 29 days late), is The Year of The Dog.

retroCRUSH showcases the 100 greatest dogs in pop culture history.
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A Carnival Cat

The 97th Carnival Carnival of the Cats was posted on Sunday at TBIFOC.

Grace usually spends most of Sunday sleeping, but had an excellent time Monday morning with the Carnival.

I read the posts to her, but she looked at most of the photos on her own.

Then it was nap time.

Vultures on the Brink of Extinction

They swoop down in flocks and can consume an entire dead cow in a matter of minutes.

It's no wonder vultures don't always have the best reputation.

But in India, Pakistan and Nepal, the important role of these scavengers has been underlined as the birds are near extinction. Their rapid decline has been blamed on a veterinary drug, diclofenac, which the vultures ingest when feeding off treated cattle carcasses. New research shows the widely used anti-inflammatory drug is highly toxic to an entire family of vultures and may cause the birds' demise around the globe.

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Starfish day at the beach

Starfish Day



Found at: One Truth for All

Video: Polar bear

Funny video about polar bear watching.

Scorpion Lives for 15 Mo. Inside Fossil

A scorpion lived for 15 months without food or water inside the plaster mold of a dinosaur fossil, breaking free only when a scientist broke open the mold.

Don DeBlieux, a paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey, said he was sawing open the plaster mold when the scorpion wriggled from a crack in a sandstone block.

Humuhumunukunukuapuaa Dethroned in Hawaii

Everyone thought the humuhumunukunukuapuaa was Hawaii's state fish. As it turns out, the brightly colored fish with the excessively long name has been dethroned.

The news shook the world of Rep. Blake Oshiro, who found out the designation was no longer official from Joel Itomura, a 6-year-old fish-loving son of a friend and constituent.

"I was really surprised," said Oshiro, who has drawn up a bill that would make humuhumunukunukuapuaa — also known as the rectangular triggerfish or "humuhumu" for short — the official state fish for the islands.

Tame iguana floods apartment block

A pet iguana unwittingly turned on a tap while its owner was absent, flooding his apartment and damaging the ones below, police in the southwest German city of Stuttgart.

Killer bees join list of hazards of Florida living

As if hurricanes, roaches, sea lice and insurance bills weren't bad enough, Floridians can add a new menace to their list of worries. Killer bees are here.

And they're going to change your life. After decades of hype and cheesy disaster movies, Africanized honeybees have established a foothold in Florida, bringing a hair-trigger temper that makes them a threat to farmworkers, landscapers, meter readers, firefighters and basically everyone who ventures outdoors.

Elephants Respect Old, Big Females

In a female elephant gang, few animals bother the oldest and biggest of the group because they know she will not put up with any nonsense, according to a new study that found age and size determine wild female elephant hierarchies.

The study, published in the current issue of Animal Behavior, presents some of the first data on dominance and the social lives of adult, wild female elephants, Loxodonta africana.
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Monkey cops keep clans together

Human societies rapidly descend into anarchy and chaos without policing. Now, researchers have found that the same thing happens when groups of monkeys are left to their own devices instead of being “policed” by dominant males.

It was already well known that in groups of pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina), dominant males keep the rest in order through a form of policing. As they patrol the herd, they frequently receive peaceful “bared teeth” signals from other, subordinate monkeys, acknowledging that the dominant male is in charge. The “police” macaques often intervene to defuse scuffles before they can escalate.

To find out what happens when the primate police are missing, Jessica Flack of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, US, and her colleagues temporarily removed three of four dominant males simultaneously from a captive group of 84 pigtailed macaques at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, near Lawrenceville, Georgia, US.

The Lady Pseudoscorpion is a Tramp

Promiscuity is not a trait most people regard in high esteem, but for some animals it may be the key to increased reproductive success.

In much of the animal world, sleeping around increases the likelihood of healthy offspring and reduces the chance of spontaneous abortion of an entire brood.

researchers studied the promiscuous habits of pseudoscorpions, which are small venomless arachnids that look like scorpions with no tails and carry their developing young in external wombs on their backs—a convenient setup for scientists.

Females that mate with multiple, unrelated males at one time produce more, and healthier, offspring, the study found.

Bear Who Made Herself at Home Removed to Zoo

Dark-haired with a toothy grin, she used to be a liberated female, footloose and fond of junk food, long showers and wrestling. She favored Dr Pepper, pizza — and the two Oregon mountain men who took her in.

But the world occupied by the black bear known as Windfall has shrunk to the size of a zoo cage.

Home today is the Applegate Park Zoo in this town 109 miles south of Sacramento, far from the thick forest that once served as a playground for the petite 2-year-old.

Friday Cat Blog

Feather Sticks!


Smoke's all time favorite toy is a black plastick stick with a feathery puff and a bell at one end. We call it the feather stick. Smoke carries it around the house, crooning to it. Sometimes he will hide the feather stick and forget about it for days, but then it comes out and is played with lovingly. Or maybe, not so lovingly. Feather sticks tend to die after a week or two.



It's always good to have a replacement feather stick on hand.

There is lots more animal fun at Friday Ark.

On Sunday, there will be other cute kitties at Carnival of the Cats, this week at This Blog Is Full Of Crap.

ChoiceBlogger - Topical Blog

A blog where you decide each month's topic.

January topic: cats

Friend or food? Year of the Dog brings mixed fortunes for canines in China

The Chinese Year of the Dog dawns on Sunday, but it brings mixed fortunes for man's best friend in a culture where people increasingly keep canines as pets while others condemn them to the cooking pot.

Once banned as a bourgeois luxury, pet ownership is becoming big business in China and, with one in every nine Chinese now owning a dog, they are beginning to enjoy the status pampered pooches have in some other parts of Asia.

But they remain the lucky ones.

Canines are still commonly eaten as a delicacy in China and Chinese communities around Asia. Others are skinned alive for their fur to make trimming for clothing and fashion accessories.

A Utah Pig Stuns Farm Family, Adopts Two Puppies

A family in Spanish Fork, Utah says they wouldn't have believed it if they didn't see it with their own eyes; the family pig being a mother to two Border collie puppies.

SOS for alewives!

With a series of new studies confirming the worst, Lake Michigan fishery managers have begun a drastic plan to save the fish species whose absence they believe would crash the lake's ecosystem.

The alewife.

There was a time when Lake Michigan was stuffed to the gills with the Atlantic invader, which washed up on beaches by the smelly ton. As strange as it may sound, fishery managers now fear a downturn last year has left the lake with too few.

Biologists blame the change on the Chinook salmon of the Pacific Northwest. The most voracious fish in the lake. The fish that feeds in the same water level as alewives. The very fish they've stocked since 1967 to hold the alewives in check.

Platinum teeth for tigers

Platinum is being used by a team of tiger dentists in Russia to help the animals return to the wild following attacks by poachers.

Tigers wounded in attacks by poachers often suffer injuries to their face, including the loss of teeth, which makes it very difficult for them to attack their prey and eat.

By giving the tigers what are, effectively, platinum dentures, the dentists are allowing the animals to eventually return to the wild, something which is important as numbers of wild tigers continue to dwindle due to the attacks from poachers.

Bat Study Links Breeding & Brain Size

For some male bats, sexual prowess comes with a price, smaller brains.

A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick found that in bat species where the females are promiscuous, the males boasting the largest testicles also had the smallest brains. Conversely, where the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains.

Miniature Asian fish sets a whale of a record

Scientists from Europe and Singapore say they have discovered the world's tiniest fish -- a species that lives in peat wetlands in Southeast Asia and, when fully grown, is the size of a large mosquito.

Skinny and transparent, the elusive fish lives in highly acid peat swamps on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and in the Malaysian part of Borneo that are threatened by forestry and agriculture.

Daniel Lee "Manimals"

Using Photoshop software to combine human portraits with animal features, Daniel Lee creates composite digital images that are startlingly lifelike. Through image editing tools make such overt manipulation possible, they also allow subtle yet powerful adjustments that are completely invisible to the viewer...

Whale 'vomit' sparks cash bonanza

An Australian couple who picked up an odd-looking fatty lump from a quiet beach are in line for a cash windfall.

Leon Wright and his wife took home a 14.75kg lump of ambergris, found in the innards of sperm whales and used in perfumes after it has been vomited up.

Sought after because of its rarity, ambergris can float on the ocean for years before washing ashore.

Worth up to $20 a gram, Mr Wright's find on a South Australian beach could net his family US$295,000.
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Dreamtime Tabby

Dreamtime Tabby, original primitive painting, acrylic on masonite, by Shelagh Duffett, aka BlueberryMoon.

Insight into mystery of antlers

Stem cells play a key role in the deer's remarkable ability to grow new antlers, according to research.

The deer is unique among mammals in being able to regenerate a complete body part - in this case a set of bone antlers covered in velvety skin.

Experts at the Royal Veterinary College hope the work could one day lead to new ways to repair damaged human tissues.

Bedbugs Hit the Big Apple and Beyond

Legions of tiny bloodsucking bugs are biting their way through the Big Apple, making this the city that never sleeps ... tight.

Bedbugs are back, and they're not just rearing their rust-colored heads in New York City. Experts say they're spreading to other states and countries. Exterminators who handled one or two bedbug calls a year are now getting that many in a week, according to the National Pest Management Association.

Dog treat under fire from consumers

When Michael Eastwood and Jennifer Reiff adopted Burt, a black-and-tan miniature dachshund, the New York couple said it was "total love." Three years later, they are grieving Burt's loss and vowing his death won't be in vain.

Burt died last summer after eating a popular dog treat called Greenies. A veterinary surgeon removed 3 ½ feet of small intestine along with a spongy green object that Eastwood and Reiff say was part of a Greenie that expanded in Burt's body and couldn't be passed.

Last herd of caribou fighting for survival

In the frozen Selkirk Mountains near the Canadian border, the last tiny herd of caribou in the Lower 48 states is fighting for survival.

The less than three dozen remaining animals struggle with starvation, an increase of predators and, more recently, powerful snowmobiles that roar through their winter range.

Conservationists have sued to ban snowmobiles from caribou habitat, and tension between the groups is rising.

Penguin Sweaters

Oil spills are some of the most challenging environmental disasters. These toxic spills pollute the ocean, often injuring and killing animals who live there. Birds and mammals need to be captured, cleaned, and given medical treatment to have a chance of survival. Rescue workers must act quickly—and sometimes creatively.

Rescue workers at the Phillip Island Nature Park tried different ways to keep the penguins warm and to stop them from swallowing the deadly oil. Dressing the penguins in doll sweaters proved to be the most successful technique.
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Manatees' endangered status in doubt

The animals have been on the endangered species list since it was created. A state report says that should change, possibly freeing boaters from some regulations.

Florida wildlife officials Friday unveiled a report that says manatees should no longer be classified as an endangered species.

The move would be more than symbolic. Boaters want manatees off the list so they won't face so many regulations designed to protect the animal.

Dog Virus May Be Killing Yellowstone Wolves

In the 11 years since gray wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park, they haven't seen a season as devastating as this.

According to park officials, 47 of the 69 wolf pups born last year have died. And though there's no official word on what's causing the deaths, experts monitoring Yellowstone's packs believe a dog disease called parvovirus is responsible.

Lost whale dies after rescue bid

A whale that became stranded in the River Thames has died after a massive rescue attempt to save its life.

The 18ft (5m) northern bottle-nosed whale was first spotted in the river on Friday and rescuers began an attempt to save it on Saturday morning.

But the whale died at about 1900 GMT on Saturday as rescuers transported it on a barge towards deeper water in the Thames Estuary.

Rescuers put stranded whale on barge

Rescue officials lifted a lost and distressed whale in the River Thames onto a barge Saturday while deciding whether to release it or euthanize it, more than a day after the 20-foot-long animal wandered into the murky waterway and tried to beach itself in the heart of London.

Experts warn the Northern bottlenose whale, normally found in the cold North Atlantic, may not survive. Witnesses said the mammal's snout was bloodied, and photos appeared to show damage to one of its eyes and a number of cuts on its torso.

Gift of Tasmanian Devils could spread disease

A gift of two Tasmanian devils to Denmark's future king -- whose mother is Australian -- could spread a disfiguring disease to other animals, environmentalists warned.

A breeding pair of the feisty marsupials was promised as a gift to the Copenhagen Zoo to mark the birth in October of a son to Tasmanian-born Princess Mary and Danish Crown Prince Frederik.

But the devils, dog-size carnivores that live wild only in Tasmania, are under threat from a disfiguring facial cancer that has slashed their population by up to 70 percent in some areas, leaving an estimated 130,000 survivors.

Giant Jellyfish Invade Japan

Since last summer, Japanese waters have been inundated with giant Nomura's jellyfish which can grow 6.5 feet wide and weigh up to 450 pounds.

Though the jellyfish are more common in Chinese and Korean waters, their numbers have grown a hundredfold in some areas off Japan, causing a crisis in the local fishing industry.

The invertebrates are choking fishing nets and poisoning the catch with their toxic stingers, fishers say. And although reports of serious human injury are rare, there are records of people dying from the creature's noxious sting.

Whale spotted in central London

A seven-tonne whale has made its way up the Thames to central London, where it is being watched by riverside crowds.

The 16-18ft (5m) northern bottle-nosed whale, which is usually found in deep sea waters, has been seen as far upstream as Chelsea.

A rescue boat has been sent to protect the whale and rescuers have been trying to keep it away from the river banks.
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Friday Cat Blog

Plato's new buddy



The sock monkey is more than 25 years old, but it's new to Plato.

There are more cats (and other animals) at Friday Ark.

On Sunday, there will be other cute kitties at Carnival of the Cats, this week at Meryl Yourish.

Parrot squawks on woman's affair

A parrot owner was alerted to his girlfriend's infidelity when his talkative pet let the cat out of the bag by squawking "I love you Gary".

Suzy Collins had been meeting ex-work colleague "Gary" for four months in the Leeds flat she shared with her partner Chris Taylor, according to reports.

Mr Taylor apparently became suspicious after Ziggy croaked "Hiya Gary" when Ms Collins answered her mobile phone.

The parrot also made smooching sounds whenever the name Gary was said on TV.

Scientists find stronger evidence for link between cat faeces and schizophrenia

Researchers have found stronger evidence for a link between a parasite in cat faeces and undercooked meat and an increased risk of schizophrenia.

Dr Joanne Webster from Imperial College London, and lead researcher said: "Although we are certainly not saying that exposure to this parasite does definitely lead to the development of schizophrenia, this and previous studies do show there may be a link in a few individuals, providing new clues for how we treat toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia."

New Animal Species Found in Calif. Caves

Spiders, centipedes and scorpion-like critters are among the 27 new animal species that biologists have discovered in the dark, damp caves of two Central California national parks, officials announced Tuesday.

The finds were made during a three-year study of 30 caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. Many of the creatures live only in caves and some only in one particular cave of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, according to the study, conducted by park staff and biologists from Austin, Texas-based Zara Environmental.

Lilliputian cows grown as pets or for freezer

If you're a suburban cowboy hankering to raise a herd and short on ranch land, mini cattle may be for you.

New breeds of pint-sized heifers and bulls are making it easier for small farmers to raise cattle for milk, meat or just fun.

Video: Animals in Love

A student film from the Vancouver Film School.

Ants teach by running in tandem

First demonstration of 'teaching' in non-human animals

Certain species of ant use a technique known as 'tandem running' to lead another ant from the nest to a food source. Signals between the two ants control both the speed and course of the run. It is believed to be the first time a demonstration of 'formal' teaching has been recognised in any non-human animal.

This behaviour indicates that it could be the value of information, rather than the constraint of brain size, that has influenced the evolution of teaching.

Cat owner goes to extreme to find dog that killed pet

Marylin Christian found Cody under the tree in front of their Loudoun County, Va., home, his white fur covered in saliva. She scooped up the lifeless cat whose friendship she had counted on for 13 years and sat under the tree, sobbing, for two hours.

The next day, Christian set out to discover what, or who, had killed Cody – no matter what.

When a veterinarian said the culprit had to be a dog, she canvassed her rural Lovettsville neighborhood in search of a suspect. After she spotted a bouncy 4-year-old German shepherd mix named Lucky, she asked authorities to declare him dangerous. And when Loudoun animal control officials dropped the case, she took a cue from television’s legal dramas: She hired a California DNA laboratory to analyze evidence – dog saliva and fur – that ultimately linked Lucky to the incident.

Modern cat species evolved from a single ancestor in Asia

Cats are notorious for roaming far from home, and it turns out that trait played a very important role in their evolutionary past, spreading new lineages around the world as the cats roamed from continent to continent with apparent ease, researchers said.

The 37 modern species of cats evolved from a single ancestor in Asia 10.8 million years ago and spread by crossing land bridges connecting the continents -- often several times in each direction, according to the first comparison of DNA from each of the species.

Cow escapes slaughter

A cow that escaped last week from a Montana slaughterhouse, leading workers and police on a six-hour chase, will be spared following a wave of popular support, officials said.

Del Morris, manager of Mickey's Packing Plant in Great Falls, said he decided to let the cow live the instant he saw it cross the Missouri River through Great Falls.

Sniffer dog saved after overdose

A police sniffer dog came close to death after swallowing heroin during a drugs raid in Leeds.

Springer Spaniel Jazz was rushed to a veterinary surgery when his handler Pc Steve Wilson realised the dog had punctured a package with its teeth.

Katrina aftermath includes puppy boom

Puppies are popping up everywhere amid the rubble left by Hurricane Katrina -- and animal welfare workers on the northern Gulf Coast fear it is only the start of a big boom in dog births.

Officials say more than 6,000 pets were saved after Katrina came ashore Aug. 29, and many of them were relocated to homes elsewhere in the country. An unknown number drowned in the floodwaters or died later of injuries.

But thousands of animals remain, running loose in neighborhoods where fences were flattened and many owners are gone.

"I've never seen so many puppies in my life," said Manny Maciel, an animal control officer from New Bedford, Mass., who made two trips to help trap loose dogs and cats in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Two-headed Snake

Leonard Sonnenschein, president of the World Aquarium in St. Louis, holds We, a two-headed albino rat snake. Sonnenschein has decided to sell the reptile, and bidding on e-Bay will start at $150,000. The 6-year-old snake came to the aquarium's attention when its previous owner distributed a circular offering it for sale days after its birth. The aquarium paid $15,000, knowing full well that most two-headed snakes don't live more than a few months.

Cyclops Kitten

Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy.

Man Plans To Kiss 50 Venomous Snakes In 10 Minutes

A kiss is just a kiss, but it may prove to be the kiss of death for a Malaysian snake charmer who will attempt to set a world record by planting 50 smooches on a venomous snake in 10 minutes.

Shahimi Abdul Hamid, 33, plans to perform the feat March 11 in a bid to break the current record held by an American man who kissed a poisonous snake 30 times in an unspecified time.

Can Dogs Smell Cancer?

In a society where lung and breast cancers are leading causes of cancer death worldwide, early detection of the disease is highly desirable. In a new scientific study, researchers present astonishing new evidence that man's best friend, the dog, may have the capacity to contribute to the process of early cancer detection.

In this study which will be published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, researchers reveal scientific evidence that a dog's extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls.

Taiwan breeds glow in the dark pigs

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that "glow in the dark".

They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through.

The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo

Deer invade Kansas school

A fifth-grade class in a Kansas school was interrupted when a deer jumped through a window into the classroom.

As a teacher escorted the children out of the room at the Frances Willard School in Arkansas City, they encountered a second deer in the corridor, the Wichita Eagle reported. That one apparently came in through a window in an empty room.