I came across these photos of odd animal couples, and what I find odd is that 4 out of 10 pictures show tigers that have been abandoned by their mothers. Why are so many tigers rejected their babes? I tried to do a small amount of research but didn’t find any explanations. I’ll keep searching…

Post #16 (50-100-50)

Joe is a very gentle dog. So gentle that from time to time Steve or I will feed Joe a carrot or french fry from our mouths, just to demonstrate to people how gentle he is (as shown here). Over in Ethiopia they take this to a whole new level. One family there feeds HYENAS food from their mouths. How crazy is that? Super crazy, that’s how.

Post #3 out of 50 (50-100-50)

OMG, this Cuteoverload post is incredibly cute - video of two otters floating around while napping and holding hands! The end of the video is the best!

If you’re having a bad day, this video of a puppy falling asleep will surely cheer you up! Doin’ The Puppy Paw Slide on Cute Overload.

A new piece for my portfolio in light of the holiday next week - an attempt at some simple Thanksgiving humor.

Just added a new illustrative piece to my portfolio…

“Hey, diddle, diddle!
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.”

I recently read this article, An Elephant Crackup?, about Elephant trauma. It talked about how elephants that witness something traumatic, such as seeing the death of their mother, tend to be more violent. They will rape and kill rhinoceroses, destroy small villages and sometimes kill people with their tusks. It went on to talk about how these events parallel the same type of trauma a person may go through when their village is destroyed, leaving young children to go on with no home and no sense of belonging. They too usually end up being very violent and lash out. The similarities and affects of these two scenarios are quite amazing. The article also talks about the intelligence and complex emotions that elephants possess.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to make this comparison. Ever since I started reading about animals and their emotions for my thesis project six years ago (wow how time flies!), I’ve been very sympathetic towards animals and the lack of compassion that most humans have. Why is it so hard to believe, or so shocking that elephants may be complex like us? Here’s another article, Elephants’ jumbo mirror ability, that makes a small case for elephant self-awareness. In this article, they’ve shown an elephant a mirror and the elephant recognizes itself.

I hope these studies will make people more aware of just how tender and delicate these huge animals are. And maybe we will gain more respect for them and have more interest in making sure that they survive.

I just read this story in SFGate.com - Chinese county’s rabies cure: Club all the dogs / Only police canines spared — owners got 60 cents apiece.

This has to be one of the most horrible, unnecessary and inhumane crimes against animals I’ve ever heard about. Whoever made the decision to kill all the dogs in that county is a huge moron. There are so many other ways they could have dealt with the situation. They could have tested the animals and let the animals that already had vaccinations live. I don’t know a lot about rabies, but they had to have gone overboard on this one.

In case you don’t like reading sad stories like this, the title reveals it all. They don’t get too graphic, but they go into a little more detail about how and why it happened.

Just added a new piece of artwork to my portfolio - a sort of abstract watercolor of a betta fish. I really like the color palette of this one, and it was a lot of fun to do.

I don’t know why I think it’s a she, but isn’t she the coolest? We found her on the garage. She’s so fuzzy! And above her right eyes the fuzz is a little curly, so cute!

She’s no where near as ugly as this spider, and maybe I don’t mind her as much because she was outside as opposed to in my bathroom.

Spiders are fun