This video is so incredibly cute and funny! Apparently this cockatoo really likes the Backstreet boys and totally rocks out when he hears them…

Am I crazy or does that bird have mad rythme!?!

It’s a Whirlcat!!

Ever since I was a kid, I knew what all of our baby animals would look like when they grew up. That’s the beauty of “purebreds”. But is that nearly as fun as discovering new species in the tropics?!?!

Well, in Puerto Rico, when you adopt a baby animal, you have no idea what it will end up being. Take for example, the cat we adopted (after finding him starving in the middle of the road). We thought he was a mere cat. But, no. I have decided that he is really a cross between a weasel (long body), squirrel (outrageously fluffy tail) and a cat. Chichieto is a Whirlcat. Who woulda thought…

My friend Carrie has two (Puerto Rican) dogs from the same litter and you would totally not believe it. One is tiny (8lbs?) with a short brown coat and the other dog is 4 times his size with a long ivory-colored coat. I really thought she was joking when she told me they were brother/sister.

Do you ever stumble across “inventions” that make you think , “WTF?”. What do you think about an acrylic dome window for your fence so your dog can shove his face inside and take a look at the world? I don’t know about you, but this seems kind of silly…unless you and your dog live in a submarine. If not, then I would recommend walking your dog in order to “help satisfy their curiosity and make it possible for them to have a peek.”. Then you don’t have to cut a hole in your fence and attach this silly doggie window (that your dog probably won’t even use).

When we found our little kitten (Chichieto, or Cheech for short), he was only 4 to 4.5 weeks old, which is almost too young to be away from his mommy. But, he was abandoned, so we didn’t have any choice. One of the funny things the he developed is his love for our fuzzy, cheetah print blanket. He immediately took to it and whenever he sees it, he can’t help but run over to it, gently grab it in his mouth and start nursing on it. He usually does this for about an hour or until he falls asleep (with the blanket still in his mouth).

He got a little nervous when I shot this video of him, but normally, he is going off with the kneading and he purrs like crazy. It’s obviously soothing to him, sort of like when a kid sucks it’s thumb. So cute!

We’ve narrowed down the names for our kitten to the following six. Pick your favorite!

Sleepy time!

I think Stefan may have been trying to breast feed the poor little guy…

We were just trying to go to dinner and we ended up adopting a kitten…We were driving down a dark highyccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccAΩ≥≥≥AA… Okay, let’s try this againd…0…(the kitten keeps walking across my laptop. Sorry!) Any how, we were driving down a dark highway on our way to dinner and this little guy was sitting in the middle of the road:

Stefan swerved to miss him, but we still ended up running over him. Luckly, Stefan swerved enough so he went between the wheels and did not get hit. So, long story short, we stopped the car and Stefan plucked him out of the street just before the next car came around the bend. And there you have it. We have a kitten. What else could we have done…

So, our new kitten need a name! Any suggestions?

No, I don’t have huge feet, the kitten is just muy pequeno!

After talking to my mom (who knows an insane amount of information about animals. Especially for a programmer…), this kitty is about 4.5 weeks old and is most likely a male.

Did you know that the majority (80% or so) of orange cats are males? And that all calico colored cats are females or hermaphrodites? That is what I learned from Robin today…interesting, eh?

Any how…let’s play, Name That Kitten!

For those of you who don’t know, Kuta is my dog, BFF and bodyguard. Kuta is a 9 year old Australian Shepard and I welcomed him into this world, the very day he was born. My mom used to be an Australian Shepard breeder and Kuta’s litter was the last litter that came out of On Q Australian Shepards (my mom had already retired from dog breeding, but when I was 20 years old and ready for my 1st dog, she made it happen . ) As I mentioned before, I was there when Kuta was born. From the moment he was born, I held him. I was there every day. Before he could see or hear (puppies can’t see or hear for the 1st two weeks of life), he knew my smell. At two days old, I held him while his tail and duclaws (thumbs) were cut off (brutal, I know, but 99% of Australian Shepards have their tails docked). I carried Kuta around like a little lapdog until I could no longer lift him (he grew into a 70lb super Aussie) and have loved every second that he has been in my life. In return, I have the most loyal bodyguard a girl could ask for.

For most people, Kuta is a big pain in the ass. Not because he’s an annoying, dumb, slobbering, yappy, hairy dog, but because his life revolves around protecting me. And he is VERY, very smart. People don’t get it, but there are Kuta Rules in my house.

The Kuta Rules
1. If Summer is sleeping, you can not make a movement towards the bedroom.
2. If Summer is in the shower, you can not even walk near the bathroom.
3. Do not walk into Summers office.
4. Do not say “Summer”, no matter how sweetly you say it.
5. Do not knock on the door.
6. No prolonged hugging of Summer is allowed.

I don’t even know how Kuta made up these rules, because I sure as hell never taught him to protect me. As a matter of fact, I had him neutered because I had roomates that were pissed that they couldn’t walk by the bathroom, when I was in the shower. Nothing changed. Walk by my bedroom/bathroom and you risk getting bit in the ass. Sorry.

Even if you are a “dog person” and/or even if Kuta loves you, the rules above apply. Although I never set out to have a bodyguard on duty 24/7, you know what? It suits me just fine. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to come over to Kuta’s house .

While I’m in San Diego, I’ve been staying at my brothers house occassionally. Today I was getting ready to go into work and was going through my luggage. The shirt I wanted to wear was a bit damp and I figured that my lotion or something leaked on the flight, so I stuck it up to my face to sniff it out and see what broke. Oh. Cat piss. Nice. My brothers cat decided to piss all over my clothing and in my new suitcase.

I’ve never really been a cat person (although I like all animals), but this is the clincher. Cat are just gross. Actually, I take that back. Any animal that lives 100% of its life indoors, and shits and pisses in your house, is disgusting. Don’t you think it would be gross if I kept a box of my dogs crap and pee in a box in my bathroom? I don’t care what kind of fancy litter box and expensive cat litter you use, if you own a cat, you house smells like shit (and piss). You don’t notice it because you live in it and you’re used to it. Gross. Animals are not meant to live indoors.

I want a tiger pig!

These pictures are actually for real (no photoshopping). They were forwarded to me with this story:

“In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of tri plet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother’s cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the rightage to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans” that could be
found quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?“

Since I’m one of those, “don’t believe everything you hear” types of people, I did some snooping and found out that the pictures of the piglets dresses up in tiger stripes, hanging out with a grown tiger, ARE actually real, but the story behind it is not.

The tiger/pig pictures above were taken at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Thailand where, unlike most zoos, it offers circus-like features such as the mixture of adult animals and the young of very different species in the same enclosure.

More info on the tiger pigs at Snopes.com.

Kuta was being clutzy this morning and accidently stomped on Monkey, which sent her into attack mode. The dumb bitch tried to eat Kutas face and tore into his eyebrow pretty good before we could separate them (1 second later).

Can’t we all just get along?!

Kuta could definately use another stitch or three, but I really don’t trust a Puerto Rican vet that I don’t know to put Kuta under anesthesia (no offense to Puerto Rican vets, but Kuta is old and has had some weird health problems). So, Stefan and I are keeping the wound clean and hopefully it will heal okay. If not, I’m flying Robin down to PR to teach Stefan and I how to stitch up a dog face…

Arg. F&$^ing Monkey. I’m not down with overly aggressive dogs and Monkey (an English Staffordshire Bull Terrier) just has that in her blood. If anyone could break the aggressive tendancy it would be Stefan and I, but we’ve had no luck.