OnToMe.com

If you’re looking for a few nice websites that sell cat products, we have a few to recommend:

KittyPod: KittyPod has a few modern looking and environmentally friendly chaise lounges and safe claw sharpening products for your kitty cat - a few shapes and sizes - the products promise your kitty cat a fine time sleeping, yawning, whatever they do in the reclining position.

Pre-Fab-Pets: Pre-Feb-Pets have great modern pet furniture products for kitty cat and dog pets too - of mention is one house inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright - the great American architect of all time. The products, mostly made out of wood such as doggy and kitty wooden lath beds also have a distinct Japanese styled simplicity about them - highly recommended. There are some nice looking throw pillows too for the little ones.

Cats Play: If you’re looking for pet products that are a little less modern and prefer the wrought iron day beds, plush pillows etc., why not check out CatsPlay.com - the look is more regal; if you’re that kind of person who likes to leave millions of dollars to your favorite pet in your will (well, we hope you won’t do that above your kin), then Cats Play is a nice site for you. Victorian, decorative, luxury style. Pet houses, luxury pet beds, pet tents and luxury pet sofas. Both for cats and little doggies. For us, its a little too much plush but there are a great few finds in between such as a corner pet bed, unique cat houses in various colors called the ‘Kat Kabin’, bistro cat feeders and more.

Amazon.com: You can always find a few pet product treasures at Amazon.com - like the Fun Tunnel by Abo Gear as seen in the following illustration:

At One Form Design, there’s this absolutely lovely ‘cat cocoon’, pictured below.

For more products, check out the New York Times article “Good Design - Happy Cats?“

Nora the cat piano player is thrilled to sit with her owners at Raven’s Wing Studio and play piano with her students.

There are a few sequels with a kitty break in between.

Nora the Cat plays the Piano

Found by Jennie at Neatorama:

A hunter-trapper Brian LaDoon was taking care of his pack of Husky dogs on a Canadian tundra whilst German photographer Norbert Rosing was setting up his cameras, when out of nowhere a large polar bear walked up to one of the dogs.

Brian knew that the bear had not eaten for months, and thought it was “curtains” for the dog when something completely unexpected happened: the polar bear and the dog started playing with each other! As if that wasn’t enough, the polar bear returned every night for the following week to continue playing with the dogs.

Here’s the audio slide show given by Stuart Brown about the encounter:

link

Thursday, Oct. 21st 1999

In keeping with our record of cat mutilation cases, here’s a case that was determined to have been caused by ‘human hands’. The wicked shall never rest. I think the Animal Cruelty Societies are now seeking far tougher convictions for such crimes.

You must click on the picture to read the entire article.

Landy 18×24 Fine … Buy From Art.com

In following up with our investigation on cat mutilations, something we saw recently on mystery sites touting unearthly reasons for the mutilations - by unearthly we don’t mean witchcraft but UFO’s. All this seemed to have happened a while back in Denver in 2003 but we think its important enough to discuss the implications of too much hysteria; easily picked up by these mystery-mongering websites which would like to suggest that UFO’s are now picking up cats; having expanded their practice from cattle mutilation, to examine them to see whether they are affected by BSE or other form of CJD disease.

To make our point, we’d like to refer to this post from ‘Walter in Denver’ - his thoughts about the cat mutilations, media frenzy and mass hysteria. Walter in Denver - A Case Study on Media Frenzy and Mass Hysteria.

We cannot sufficiently stress how important it is to ‘keep our head’ on - Walter puts a straight view on the hysteria:

“Note how 45 cats spread over a year became ‘almost every day.’ “

Read the Sydney Morning Herald article (yes, the cut mutilation news reached as far as Sydney, Australia!) on the cat mutilations that happened in Denver in 2003 - “Cat killers cut swathe through suburbs”

It all makes you wonder - why on earth would aliens and UFOs decide to mutilate cats, keep half of their bodies for examination and leave the rest to frighten us? The reasons these sites give for leaving the other half on earth is to inform us (in a not-so-direct manner) that they are ‘looking out for us’. They are trying to tell us - “look, hey you, your cat may have BSE or CJD disease and we’re trying to hint to you that we are doing experiments on them.”

A sex-addicted Koala bear, Chumbee, is being lined up to make the rounds at Koala bear zoo colonies after being loaned once to show a reluctant male Koala in Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo ‘how to do it’. To the delight of the zoo manager, Chumbee just can’t stop going and stops only to sleep and eat.

Four Australian Koalas are Shown on a… 16×12 Photograph… Buy From Art.com

Chumbee, 5 years old, was borrowed by Schoenbrunn Zoo from Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo. According to Schoenbrunn Zoo Manager, Helmut Pechlaner:

“Chumbee hasn’t stopped since he got here, it has been almost non stop sex in the koala enclosure ever since, and now even our own male is joining in.

“We are confident we will soon be seeing the padding of tiny koala paws.”

Several other zoos now want to borrow Chumbee to invigorate other zoo Koala colonies.

Read more …

September 27, 2007

The Humane Society of the US (HSUS) is calling for jail time in a Pittsburgh dog mutilation case in a second high profile Pittsburgh case involving animal cruelty charges in recent months.

The HSUS has written to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. today, urging strong prosecution of a shocking case in which a 30-year old Homewood man, Mr. Jamarow Trowery, is accused of shooting his newly adopted dog, severing the animal’s paw and attempting to decapitate him.

A Solitary Dog Looks into the Distance 56×42 Photograph… Buy From Art.com

Mr. Trowery is charged with animal cruelty and a firearms violation in connection with the dog’s horrific death earlier this month. The HSUS asked Zappala to seek meaningful jail time, mandatory psychological counseling and a ban on owning or living with animals upon any conviction in this case.

Read more …

Tanja Askani posts her photographs online at fotocommunity.de. She’s now captured the most moving different-species animal friends - a deer and a rabbit - who seem to LOVE each other’s company. Some of us have seen similar friendship bonds between different animals (no, we are NOT talking about human to dog or human to cat).

Below, you’ll see other animals that love each other in a common compound. We’ve seen dogs and cats as best friends who must spend the night snuggled together, right?

Tanja is one of a kind certainly, because if you view her portfolio, you begin to realise that she not only loves photography, she LOVES animals, and some of the kind which we fear, such as white wolves.

Source: http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/01/real-life-bambi-thumper.html

Dog & Fox Friends

Wolf and Dog Friends

Other Tanja Askani Photos:

Tanja’s photo site at fotocommunity.de is certainly worth visiting. If you’d like to buy Tanja Askani’s book on wolves (with whom she relates - see her history); you can get it at Amazon.com: Kinship with the Wolves -

About Tanja Askani:
Tanja Askani is Czech author and animal scientist who lives with her husband at a game park in Germany. Originally, they had established a falconry at the park, bred raptors, and presented bird shows with their birds of prey.

Then her husband brought her an orphaned three-day-old wolf pup and Askani’s was introduced into lupine life. The orphan wolf, ‘Flocke’ , meaning ‘Snowflake’ in German, was weak and required intensive care given by Askani and her dog, Snowflake eventually lived.

The bond between Askani and Sonwflake has survived its return to the game park and Snowflake’s mating with another hand-reared wolf. Eventually, a third, younger male wolf was added later and eventually all three wolves treated the humans like auxiliary wolves.

Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal, Nov 2006:

“This is not a scientific treatise but a warm and carefully observed portrait of one woman’s efforts to change our perceptions of the sadly reviled wolf. The numerous photographs–close up, striking, and informative–will make animal lovers weak in the knees.”

Nancy Bent, Booklist, Oct 2006:

“. . . the charming, diary-like writing style and the plethora of color close-ups of the wolves will enchant wolf-lovers.” “. . . great insight into the world of the wolf. . . . the charming, diary-like writing style and the plethora of color close-ups of the wolves will enchant wolf lovers.”

Here’s a good one; a man trying to sell a ‘loving cat’ whilst filming ‘the introduction to the loving cat’ on video gets bitten during filming; unfortunately the cat went ‘wild’ and bit him:

TAKE 1: Pinky the cat is introduced as ‘ a very loving cat’

TAKE 2: Pinky bites down hard after a cat fight to get away from being ‘adopted’ as a ‘loving cat’

TAKE 3: The Salesman in Pain

Have a look at the REAL video HERE!

Report By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 1, 5:25 PM ET

CUERO, Texas - Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

“I’ve seen a lot of nasty stuff. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.

What tipped Canion to the possibility that this was no ugly coyote, but perhaps the vampire-like beast, is that the chickens weren’t eaten or carried off — all the blood was drained from them, she said.