Animals
Cobras show up in the darnedest places
Lets go cool off in the river
Another day working in the fields
“I don’t feel so good, I’m telling the foreman I’m sick and going home.”
A beautiful day to sunbath on the beach here in Cape Town.
Winnipeg Zoo wants to sell booze on its grounds
Exotic animals and drinks. Now this sounds like the perfect combination.
The Assiniboine Park Zoo hopes to be fully licensed soon.
Zoo official Laura Curtis says the Winnipeg attraction applied for a liquor licence for the entire grounds and hopes to have the new rules in place by the summer.
Curtis said the application is an effort to make it easier to host the many private events held at the zoo, which include weddings, receptions and private dinners.
When certain patrons get too looped, lets hope they stay on the paths.
Oh oh, two intoxicants stumbled into the polar bear enclosure. Hudson the bear is moving in to check them out.
80-Year-Old Man builds Dog Train to take Stray Dogs on Fun Rides
BoredPanda
Eugene Bostick, an 80-year-old retiree in Fort Worth, Texas, spends his days operating what just might be the coolest train in the world. His homemade dog train takes rescued strays out for fun rides around the neighborhood and in the surrounding woods.Eugene and his brother Corky live on a dead-end street where many locals bring their unwanted dogs to leave them behind. Eugene began adopting them and taking them for rides with his tractor. “We started feeding them, letting them in, taking them to the vet to get them spayed and neutered. We made a place for them to live,” Eugene told Dodo.“I seen this guy with a tractor who attached these carts to pull rocks. I thought, ‘Dang, that would do for a dog train.’ I’m a pretty good welder, so I took these plastic barrels with holes cut in them, and put wheels under them and tied them together,” Eugene continued. “Whenever they hear me hooking the tractor up to it, man, they get so excited.”“I started out with my tractor… I’d put 4-5 dogs in there and take them riding”“All of a sudden, a couple more dogs showed up. I said, ‘Oh, that’s not enough room’ – and that’s when I came up with THAT”“I’m a pretty good welder, so I took these plastic barrels with holes cut in them, and put wheels under…”Now, the 80-year-old retiree takes his rescued dogs on a train ride twice a week“Whenever they hear me hooking the tractor up to it, man, they get so excited”
“I started out with my tractor… I’d put 4-5 dogs in there and take them riding”
“All of a sudden, a couple more dogs showed up. I said, ‘Oh, that’s not enough room’ – and that’s when I came up with THAT”
“I’m a pretty good welder, so I took these plastic barrels with holes cut in them, and put wheels under…”
Now, the 80-year-old retiree takes his rescued dogs on a train ride twice a week
“Whenever they hear me hooking the tractor up to it, man, they get so excited”
Badger buries entire cow
In January 2016, Evan Buechley found one of his carcasses in Utah’s Great Basin had disappeared.
The conservation biologist, who leaves animal corpses out in the desert and sets up cameras to record scavengers, figured a pack of coyotes had dragged the 50-pound calf away.But after a short search yielded no sign of the carcass, Buechley downloaded the camera’s images to see if he could find some clues.What he saw, no one had ever seen before.Over the course of five days, the photos reveal, a single American badger excavated tunnels beneath the calf carcass until the whole thing collapsed into a pit. The badger then covered the carcass completely and constructed a burrow beside it, inside which it feasted on beef for 11 straight daysLater investigation into the scientific literature revealed no one had ever recorded a badger entomb anything larger than a jackrabbit.Found throughout the United States, southern Canada, and northern Mexico, American badgers are known for creating underground food lockers called caches. Such stores keep food safe from competing scavengers and prevent decomposition, thanks to the earth’s natural coolness.Similarly, the corgi-size creatures, which are related to weasels and wolverines, have a number of adaptations that allow them to dig like nobody’s business.For starters, badgers have powerful, heavily muscled forelimbs and long rakes for claws, which allow them to rip through hard, compact dirt. Their heads are cone-shaped, perfect for a life spent scooting around in tunnels. The burrowers also sport a third eyelid, called a nictitating membrane, which helps keep dirt from getting in their eyes.But for all their burying prowess, no one has ever seen a badger tuck away such a large carcass, not to mention one more than two times its weight.
Medical Marijuana for the Pooches
‘We have our dog back’: B.C. woman treats pet with medical marijuana
CBC
There was a time when Hudson’s anxiety would mean no one in the family could be in the same room as him. Now he’s calmer thanks to being treated with medical marijuana.
Rebecca Hass says the only thing that’s helped her aging canine is cannabis, but that doesn’t mean it’s pot for pets.
Hudson is a 14-year-old Portuguese water dog — he’s in his late 90s in human years. As he’s gotten older, Hass says Hudson has been in increasing distress, whining and yipping every day, often for hours on end.
And if Hass and her family go out, Hudson’s anxiety grows even more.
“We’ve had separation issues that have accelerated to the point that we can’t go away anymore. I think we’re pretty much … married to Hudson now ’til the bitter end.”
There seemed to be nothing physically wrong with Hudson: he was eating well and going for walks and Hass thought he may have anxiety caused by dementia — in dogs it’s called cognitive dysfunction.
“When we talked to a vet they supported that idea, especially since his yipping at that point was really getting worse after 4 p.m., sort of the witching hour apparently.”
Hass says mornings weren’t so bad but “by supper we really couldn’t bear to be in the same room as him.”
One vet told Hass it was cognitive disorder, but there was no real treatment for dogs and they would just have to unfortunately live with it.
But for Hass that wasn’t an option.
After trying some treatments which made no difference, Hass learned that some people were turning to hemp to try and help treat their dogs, and she gave it a shot.
She notes that marijuana is extremely dangerous for pets — so it’s not about sharing the marijuana a human would buy. There’s a big difference between marijuana and hemp that’s rich in a chemical called cannabidiol or CBD — which she claims offers the medicinal benefits without psychotropic effects, though it can be deadly if used improperly.
Hass says Hudson is now calmer: he sleeps better, he’s more mobile, he plays again, and he’s no longer licking obsessively.
“I know it doesn’t work for everyone but it has really changed our life with our dog,” Hass is happy to say.
Hudson getting his treatment
“We feel like we have our dog back.
“I just couldn’t ignore this dog that I can’t seem to comfort,” she tells Tremonti.
Where could this go?
The MarkoZen Blog 