In honor of Veterans Day, mental_floss has a heartwarming round-up of super excited dogs greeting soldiers returning home.

via Boing Boing

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Eternal Earth-Bound Pets is a group of atheists that are offering to take care of people’s pets after the Rapture comes. According to their FAQ this is not a joke.

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

via Hugh D’Andrade

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This poor puppy is has upside down tortoise syndrome. Little help please?

vis SFist

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Urlesque is proposing that on 9-9-2009 we all take a break from posting about cats on the internet. Instead they suggest that you blog about many of the other wonderful non-cat animals out there. I’m just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to gratuitous cat blogging, so we shall join them in solidarity.

Urlesque is organizing a web-wide ban on cat-related coverage on 9.9.09 — A Day Without Cats on the Internet. Why only one day? Well let’s be honest, that’s probably only as long as we’ll last before a hilarious video comes crashing into our inbox. But for one day, we will abstain… for you… for the cats.

Here is the press conference with Urlesque’s Stephen Lenz and Kelly Reeves.

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photo via Bristol Zoo

Bristol Zoo Gardens now has a special enclosure for Humans (Homo sapiens), featuring the world’s most widespread species. The zoo has no idea who’s behind the prank, but they are amused by it and they have no intention of removing the sign.

The light hearted sign explains some well known human characteristics such as: “The human is one of the world’s most widespread species, and is present on all continents. In adolescence, the offspring adopt a more nocturnal lifestyle and engage in ritualised activities of drinking fermented liquids and dancing to rhythmical sounds, which scientists believe may help them to find a mate.”

It goes on to say: “The human diet is very adaptable to regional crop varieties and personal taste, with some groups able to live almost exclusively on chipped potatoes and sugary drinks.

“Groups of humans are often fed by unrelated individuals in exchange for tokens made of paper, metal and plastic – behaviour which can frequently be seen inside this enclosure.”

via Boing Boing

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Jim Unwin has created a really cool Venn Diagram of Mythical Creatures (larger version).

via Neatorama

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orginal image source unknown

via Micki Krimmel by way of Geoff Martin

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PetSmiling recently announced the DoggieLoveDoll, the world’s first sex doll for dogs.

You may know or have probably heard about these dolls for men that are very popular in Sex Shops around the world. There are inflatable ones, full-body, silicone, as well as other models. So now the first doll for dogs has been launched in Brazil. That’s right, a doll for dogs to practice safe sex. The majority of non-neutered dogs spend a good chunk of time looking for something to hump. They try pillows, furry creatures, people’s legs and even other animals.

via K9 Magazine

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photos by Scott Beale

We’ve lost a great friend and member of our community, Chicken John’s faithful companion Dammit The Wonderdog, also know as Dammitina Dawoo, who has left us after 19 1/2 years on this earth. All of us are really going to miss you Dammit Dog.

Chicken John wrote about on Dammit’s passing on his blog, here’s an excerpt:

My heart is shrouded in grief. But how could it be any different? Chaos brought her to me, and through me… to you. We were all fortunate to have met this animal who I watched people CHEER for. CHEER! Like it was your kid in the fucking Olympics. I’ve watched people’s faith restored in the show watching this animal do her tricks with no script and no training. She was a natural. Dammit has graced the covers of magazines dozens of times. Posters. Thousands of t-shirts. She had a friggin’ theme song. People fawned over her like a newborn. An entire language crafted to like baby-talk with the entire circus reciting it. “Da da da da woo woo woo.” Her last name is what we called that language: Dawoo. A bizarre Steve Miller referene from the song Go On Take The Money And Run. Her original name she ignored, finally responding to the curse that would escape my lips when I would catch her being bad as a teenager. “Dammit dog!!!” I would say looking at the garbage can knocked over. “Dammit dog!!!!” I would shout as I would chase her down when she escaped from the yard. “Dammit dog!!!” I said one day as she was eating a pair of Danny’s panties. And she came to me like I called her. And came to me every time after that. Named herself, basically. She was put on the Earth to make your day. And she did just that, over and over again. Every day. She was an enchanted creature. Her passing leaves us poorer. Impoverished. Destitute. And will leave in me a hollowness that I will never be able to fill.

Dammitina was a Showdog. The dog of a Showman. We did it together. All of it. This is her curtain.

Our thoughts are with you Chicken, it’s sad to think that Dammit is no longer with us.

Services for Dammitina will be held at Chicken’s warehouse Monday, July 20th from 7-10. Her final resting place will be Tracey and Don’s backyard in Richmond.

UPDATE 1: Puzzling Evidence TV just posted video of one of Dammit’s last performances on stage at the age of 18.

UPDATE 2: Here are a few photos I shot at Dammit’s memorial and funeral. Dammit finally made it through the hoop.

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Remember Sonya the Slow Loris who loves to be tickled?

Here’s another ridiculously cute video, “One Day in the Life of Sonya”.

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If you’ve ever wanted to know how to do squats with your dog, this video is for you.

via ZOOMDOGGLE

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I Hope to God That’s Batman on I Can Has Cheezburger?

via The Ephemerist

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guest post by mikl-em

Texas has a fire ant problem. A fire ant is not an ant that is on fire. It’s a kind of ant. And they are bad news

The University of Texas and Texas A&M University scientists have studied the South American predators of the fire ant, and have found one called the phorid fly, which they are pinning their hopes on.

Their plan is to release phorid flies, which will lay eggs on the ants. The eggs become maggots which BURROW INTO THE BRAINS OF THE ANTS. yikes.

Oh, and then they EAT THEIR BRAINS!!!! They really do.

The ants, with maggots for brains, then become zombie ants. Zombie ants are ants that are zombies. Duh. They walk around without brains for like a month. Then their heads fall off.

Isn’t nature wonderful”?

photo by TexasBagLady

That’s not the only cause of zombie ants. This National Geographic segment explains the weirdness of the aptly named Liver Flukes (a type of tape worm) that embed themselves in ants’ brains and then control their actions, steering them into suicidal situations, so that both ant and worm will be consumed by a larger mammal and thus the fluke upgrades to its next victim.

Austin’s KXAN reports that this is not unique in the annals of natural history.

Fire ants are not the only things in nature that are affected by mind-controlling parasites. Snails and rats also get parasites that give them suicidal tendencies. The snails, specifically, grow large tentacles which attract birds. The bird rips off the snail’s tentacles which cannot be withdrawn because of the sporocystes tubes inside. Inside the bird’s digestive tract the cercaries change into the parasite’s adult stage, which then reproduces sexually and lays eggs. Those are distributed by the bird to infect further snails, which closes the generation cycle.

Here’s a brief video about the Zombie Snails which are truly freaky

I learned about this zombie ant thing via The Rachel Maddow Show (after a story about the nation of Uruguay, which recently made it legal for gays to serve in the military).

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Sam Corra makes a bunch of great Latte Art as a barista at Cafe Yala in Canberra, Australia. Recently he challenged himself to try to make as many animal shapes as possible during the last 20 minutes the cafe was open.

via Serious Eats

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photo by Lizzy Stewart

photo by sugarfreak

via Urban Prankster

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guest post by Burstein!

Pet Airways, whose motto is “Travel for Your Best Friend”, is a pet-only airline that will save your fine furry companion from the indignity of the cargo hold. Along with the joys of potty breaks, there are personal attendants and even a pet lounge where the “pawsenger” can chill until you can pick them up.

The service launches in July starting at $149 for a one way flight.

via Modern Cat

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guest post by Kevin Evans

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guest post by Burstein!

On May 18, 2007, a gorilla named Bokito escaped from the Rotterdam Zoo and attacked a female visitor who frequently visited the zoo and made repeated eye contact with the gorilla. FBTO Heath Insurance came up with an interesting approach to preventative care and handed out 2000 “Bokito viewers” at the zoo’s entrance.

via I Believe In Advertising

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Dmitry Sergeyev shot a video of Sonya his pet slow loris getting a good tickling.

via Neatorama

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guest post by Al Ridenour

It wasn’t the Easter Bunny leaving little surprises all around Los Angeles’ historic Olvera Street Saturday.  It was the hundreds of pets turning out for the 79th annual Blessing of the Animals conducted by Archbishop Mahoney himself.  While the current shindig’s more civic celebration than religious, it does have a mixed ecclesiastic pedigree reaching beyond St. Francis’ chit-chatting with birds back to San Antonio de Abad’s special relationship with swine.  Antonio is also patron of amputees, butchers, gravediggers, eczema, epilepsy, scabies, and leprosy.  Happy Easter, kids!

photos by Al Ridenour

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