A veterinary insurance company analyzed its database to find Scary, Creepy and Macabre Pet Names...
In honor of the initial Friday the 13th, Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI) analyzed its database of more than 500,000 insured pets to find out how many pet owners opted for macabre monikers for naming their furry friend. In addition to possessing more than 3,000 black cats in its database, VPI, the nation’s oldest and largest provider of pet health insurance, has a variety of dogs and cats with monikers that match some of the scariest movie characters in the history of cinema. Below is a list of the most common pet names in VPI’s database that were inspired by spine-chilling movie characters (total number of pets sharing that name in parenthesis): Most Common Pet Names Inspired by Scary Movie Characters 1. Jack (2218) – “The Shining” 2. Ripley (175) – “Alien” 3. Norman (136) – “Psycho” 4. Freddy (125) – “Nightmare on Elm Street” 5. Salem (68) – “Salem’s Lot” 6. Cujo (61) – “Cujo” 7. Michael (47) – “Halloween” 8. Carrie (32) – “Carrie” 9. Damien (30) – “The Omen” 10. Jason (25) – “Friday the 13th” 11. Chucky (23) – “Child’s Play” 12. Regan (23) – “The Exorcist” 13. Hannibal (14) – “Silence of the Lambs” 14. Jaws (8) – “Jaws” 15. Voldemort (1) – “Harry Potter” Happy Friday the 13th!! ;-)
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7 Amazing Facts You May Not Know About Your Canine Companion
Dogs can be very open to their owners but their behaviors may also sometimes be hard to understand. How well do you know your dog? For instance, if your dog acting is mysterious after a good night’s sleep, is it because he is trying to catch your attention or is there really a serious matter that needs to be addressed? Let’s talk about some facts you may not know about your dog.
Many pets exhibit strange, seemingly unexplained behaviors. If your dog’s behavior changes, particularly if it does so suddenly and without cause, you should consult with your veterinarian. It’s not impossible that your dog is experiencing a medical issue that is causing the change. MONTREAL, (AFP) - A fishing village in easternmost Canada tried on Monday to auction off on eBay a sperm whale carcass that washed up onto its shores.
By midday, the town of Cape St. George, Newfoundland had received dozens of bids -- the highest topping $2,000 -- before running afoul of the online auction site's rules and the law. The 12-meter (40-foot) sperm whale carcass washed ashore about a week ago. The town of 1,000 residents does not have the means to dispose of the rotting carcass itself, according to the mayor, and Canada's fisheries department declined to get involved. Worried that the smell from the rotting carcass would soon become intolerable, the town's council voted on Sunday to list the whale on eBay, hoping to find a buyer to take it away. Federal officials "didn't offer any suggestions about what to do with it, and didn't offer assistance, they just said 'You have to get rid of it', so we decided to list it on eBay," Mayor Peter Fenwick told AFP. "Frankly we would sell it for zero if we had to... as long as they take responsibility for removing the whale," he said, suggesting that its skeleton could be put on display in a museum. The eBay listing, after gaining notoriety, was soon removed by the online auction website because it is against its rules on not selling animals, alive or dead, an employee told AFP. At the same time, federal officials contacted the mayor to tell him it is illegal to try to sell the whale carcass. "We are now at a point where we want to have a look at the regulations and see if there is any way around that," Fenwick said. He said he doesn't want to break the law by "selling a whale illegally," but added, "we don't have very much choice because if it sits there, as it starts to rot... it will give off a tremendous stench." Coincidentally, two other Newfoundland towns faced similar problems after two endangered blue whales washed up on their shores. One of them began to bloat from a build-up of methane gas inside, threatening to explode its stinking innards on the town of Trout River. An Ontario museum is sending a team of researchers to collect the pair of whale carcasses this week. The rare animals' skeleton and tissue samples will be stored in the museum's research collection, which will be accessible to researchers worldwide. A myotonic goat, otherwise known as the fainting goat, is a domestic goat whose muscles freeze for roughly 10 seconds when the goat feels panic. Though painless, this generally results in the animal's collapsing on its side. The characteristic is caused by a hereditary genetic disorder called myotonia congenita. When startled, younger goats will stiffen and fall over. Older goats learn to spread their legs or lean against something when startled, and often they continue to run about in an awkward, stiff-legged shuffle. A cat spent five days trapped inside a sofa donated to a London thrift store before the new purchasers of the second-hand furniture did a first-class act: They ripped up the sofa to free the couch potato pet, tracked down his owners and returned him. Crockett, a 10-year-old tabby, apparently snuck inside the sofa after it was partially disassembled for hauling to the thrift store. "We can't believe how he must have tucked himself into the sofa during the short time the bottom was removed and remained silent for so long," said pet parent Pauline Lowe, pictured here with her husband and the returned Crockett. The sofa reportedly went through "normal routine checks" by thrift store employees before being sold on March 27. One day later, the BBC reports, the new owners heard meowing from beneath the material – and then saw two claws poking out. "In order to release the cat they had to rip the material under the sofa,” recalls the thrift store manager. During Crockett’s time in sofa solitary, pet parent Lowe was “devastated” that her cat was missing, and was “delighted” to have him back. Crockett’s furniture ripping rescuers asked to remain anonymous, but told the BBC: ''We are so thrilled that he is safe and sound and was found in time." WASHINGTON, March 31, 2014 (AFP) - Volcanoes and asteroids are sometimes blamed for wiping out nearly all life on Earth 252 million years ago, but US research Monday suggested a more small-time criminal: microbes.
These microbes, known as Methanosarcina, bloomed in the ocean on a massive and sudden scale, spewing methane into the atmosphere and causing dramatic changes in the chemistry of the oceans and the Earth's climate, according to the new theory put forth by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues in China. Scientists studied sediments in rock formations in south China, seeking to explain why the end Permian extinction happened and what caused the largest of five major death events in Earth's history to reap so much destruction over tens of thousands of years. Volcanic eruptions on their own could not explain why the die-off happened so fast, but they may have released extra nickel into the environment, which fed the microbes, said MIT researcher Gregory Fournier. "A rapid initial injection of carbon dioxide from a volcano would be followed by a gradual decrease," said Fournier. "Instead, we see the opposite: a rapid, continuing increase," he added. "That suggests a microbial expansion." Microbes can increase carbon production exponentially, which might explain the speed and potency of the mass extinction, he said. The research, funded by the US space agency NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Basic Research Program of China, appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer reviewed US journal. In celebration of his 5th birthday, Beco the elephant showed off his impressive water polo skills at the Columbus Zoo on March 26. The adorable Asian elephant tirelessly stomps through a miniature watering hole and pursues a shiny red ball to no avail in a video from the zoo featured above.
Despite Beco's numerous attempts to squash the darn thing, the ball is resilient and manages to escape form beneath his heavy feet several times. It's a hilarious merry-go-round of fury and frustration. Eventually, though, the adorable elephant resigns from the strenuous water polo game and plops down on his hiney. Watch the video above for the most adorable elephant video we've ever seen. Breaking news!!!
This year’s annual Manure Expo is in Springfield, Missouri! That’s right, for all you manure industry enthusiasts out there, this expo combines not one, not two, but THREE attractions into a single national event: an industry trade show, manure technology demonstrations, and educational events. Veterinarians are....uhhh...ummmm.... sort of manure experts. If you give them a sample of manure from a clinically healthy domesticated farm animal, they can usually identify said animal based on the appearance of its manure alone. And that, my friends, is a skill one should put on one’s resume. Here's an interesting factoid....swine feces can almost quite literally come in a rainbow of colors, and sometimes the color of the manure gives you the diagnosis. Here's another life altering bit of information....caterpillar excrement is called frass. This is the only place one could ever include a facts like these. Knowledge is power. Consider yourself educated! This year’s theme at the expo is: “valuing manure and the environment.” According to the website, this is “the only trade show on the continent to focus specifically on manure management and application issues.” Strange as it may seem, manure really is big business. And actually, if you crunch some numbers maybe it’s not that strange at all. Consider the following data from the EPA: they estimate that an average 200 cow herd produces just over 24,000 pounds of urine and feces per day. If you’re raising beef cattle on an open range, this isn’t much of an issue, as the animal waste is spread naturally over the ground. But if you’re running a dairy, for example, and the cows are housed mostly in large barns between milkings, that twelve tons of waste has to go somewhere.That “somewhere” is where manure management kicks in. Many dairies have large pits called “lagoons” which are holding tanks for animal waste. Word has it that many a farmer has fallen into one over the years. Talk about your worst nightmare. These lagoons are emptied periodically, with the waste spread over crops as fertilizer. So, mark your calendars for July 8 and 9 for a family vacation to Springfield, Missouri. Who wouldn't want a free hat that said “MANURE MGT”? BEIJING, March 19, 2014 (AFP) - A Tibetan mastiff puppy has been sold in China for almost $2 million, a report said Wednesday, in what could be the most expensive dog sale ever.
A property developer paid 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) for the one-year-old golden-haired mastiff at a "luxury pet" fair Tuesday in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Qianjiang Evening News reported. "They have lion's blood and are top-of-the-range mastiff studs," the dog's breeder Zhang Gengyun was quoted as telling the paper, adding that another red-haired canine had sold for 6 million yuan. Enormous and sometimes ferocious, with round manes lending them a passing resemblance to lions, Tibetan mastiffs have become a prized status symbol among China's wealthy, sending prices skyrocketing. The golden-haired animal was 80 centimetres (31 inches) tall, and weighed 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds), Zhang said, adding that he was sad to sell the animals. Neither was named in the report. "Pure Tibetan mastiffs are very rare, just like our nationally treasured pandas, so the prices are so high," he said. One red mastiff named "Big Splash" reportedly sold for 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in 2011, in the most expensive dog sale then recorded. The buyer at the Zhejiang expo was said to be a 56-year-old property developer from Qingdao who hopes to breed dogs himself, according to the report. The newspaper quoted the owner of a mastiff breeding website as saying that last year one animal sold for 27 million yuan at a fair in Beijing. But an industry insider surnamed Xu told the paper that the high prices may be the result of insider agreements among breeders to boost their dogs' worth. "A lot of the sky-high priced deals are just breeders hyping each other up, and no money actually changes hands," Xu said. Owners say the mastiffs, descendants of dogs used for hunting by nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet, are fiercely loyal and protective. A 911 dispatcher in Portland, Oregon, had to ask a supervisor if they should send police out on a most unusual call. A man was reporting that his family had barricaded themselves in their bedroom to hide from the family cat, which had gone berserk and was attacking the family, he said.
The cat can be heard on the 911 tape howling and hissing. The ruckus began when the Himalayan cat named Lux scratched the 7-month-old baby of the family. Lee Palmer, the baby’s father, told The Oregonian, “I kicked the cat in the rear, and it has gone over the edge. He's trying to attack us — he's very hostile. He's at our door; he's charging us." When police arrived, Lux ran into the kitchen and jumped on top of the refrigerator. Police captured the 4-year-old, 22-pound kitty with a dog snare and placed him in a crate. “The cat remained behind bars in the custody of the family and officers cleared the scene and continued to fight crime elsewhere in the city," Portland police told CBS News in a release. "We are debating what to do," Palmer said. "We definitely want to keep (the cat) away from the baby and keep an eye on his behavior." Dr. Stephen Zawistowski, science advisor for the ASPCA, said that there are various reasons a cat might become aggressive. "Where a cat came from and how well socialized it was as a kitten are factors that often influence a cat's behavior. Sometimes cats will show redirected aggression. This is especially true if there are other cats outside in the neighborhood. The indoor cat gets very anxious and aroused and may attack anyone, anything in the vicinity. This might also happen if other activities have aroused the cat, such as rough play or some type of commotion in the house. For some cats, this might be a baby screaming and crying, and the parent's reaction to the baby.” Yelling, screaming and kicking the cat might escalate the situation, Zawistowski explained. “If a cat becomes aggressive or hostile, one option is to throw a blanket or towel over the cat. You can bundle up the cat and hold it until it calms, while staying safe from claws and teeth." Zawistowski said cats shouldn’t be left alone with babies, especially if the cat has shown aggression in the past. |
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For the LOVE of Pets The goal of this blog is to help educate pet owners by sharing pet health facts and pet news articles...and ... sometimes put a smile on your face with a cute or funny pet story! Categories
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