Category: squee

Hips don’t lie: Fat squirrel stuck in manhole cover rescued; then eats more

December 8, 2016 • 3:15 pm

I’m going to shamelessly steal this entire story from the BBC site because it’s so damn funny. Click on the headline to go to it, but the entire text is below:

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-2-13-32-pm

A red squirrel who got stuck halfway through a manhole cover thanks to his curvy hips is recovering after a lengthy rescue operation in Munich.

Initial attempts to free the animal by slathering him in olive oil failed, with his huge behind preventing him from squeezing his way out.

He was finally freed after animal rescue services lifted off the cover and eased his head through the hole.

Locals have nicknamed the squirrel “Olivio” after his oily encounter.

After the ordeal on Friday, an exhausted Olivio was wrapped in a warm towel and fed glucose, local media report.

Staff at a local animal shelter say Olivio is recovering well and has now moved on to a diet of Christmas nuts.

“He was almost dead,” Sabine Gallenberger from the Squirrel Protection Association told German media.

“Now he is eating a lot and sleeps all the time.”

The BBC was unable to verify the size of Olivio’s behind.

 

That last line is a classic.

Here’s the original headline from the German paper online, with the lovely German word for squirrel (click on screenshot to go to story auf Deutsch):

screen-shot-2016-12-08-at-2-16-25-pm

My translation:

Hips too wide

Squirrel stuck fast in manhole cover

Olivio can no longer free himself from the hole

h/t: Michael

Afternoon squee: capybara with ducklings on its back

May 18, 2016 • 2:45 pm

I’ve noticed that the evening news on television always ends on an upbeat note, clearly designed to leave the audience feeling good—and perhaps to tune in the next day. So today I’ll do the same, showing two adorable beasts interacting in the bathtub. The capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), is, of course, the world’s largest rodent, and can weigh up to 66 kg (145 pounds!). I’m told they’re good to eat, but they’re too cute to kill. They’re South American and largely aquatic, and so could be on the way to becoming hippo-like, or even whale-like. But on to the squee:

From boingboing, which notes:

“This is JoeJoe the Capybara, enjoys baths and hanging out with baby ducks.”

In addition to his YouTube Channel, Joe has an instagram account and a Facebook page.

That’s a chill rodent.

h/t: Grania

Baby pandas make it hard to get work done

May 17, 2016 • 3:20 pm

. . . and I mean that in two ways: not only eating up your time on the Internet, but interrupting this cleaner at the Panda breeding sanctuary in Szechuan. I actually visited the place some years ago and got to touch a giant panda.

I doubt this worker was upset at the interruption!

Is there any baby animal cuter than a panda? I can’t think of one.

Friday squee: three rescued animals in love with their mentors

March 11, 2016 • 3:00 pm

It’s the end of most people’s work week, and I like to finish it off with some heartwarming squee. This week I’ve been sent, or found, four items.

Let’s start with this:

https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/708363221745442816

And then go to Ozzie the Desk Weasel. Don’t get any ideas about adopting one, as this is a rescued orphan and weasels can be really bite-y pets. But Ozzie seems tame, and it’s nice he was rescued. His staff’s notes:

Yup, he loves to play. So do I. But before I get to go online and start killing, I’m being camped by this fearless fighter. But then again; his ping is so much lower than mine…

Disclaimer: A weasel is not a pet. They hate being locked up, they’re not friendly when hungry. Don’t get one. Seriously. Ozzy is a special case rescue baby. Cute, but deadly. 😉

Another cute video of Ozzie is here.

*******

And meet Cujoe, a kangaroo whose mom was hit by a car. He’s been adopted by a policeman in Cue, a small town north of Perth, and you can read about it in the PuffHo piece, “Cop saves orphaned baby kangaroo“.

Click on the screenshot to see Cujoe’s savior, Constable Scott Mason, and watch the joey try to find a pouch in Mason’s teeshirt:

Screen Shot 2016-03-11 at 12.03.41 PM

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Finally, here’s the lovely story of an oil-soaked penguin, Dindim rescued by a kindly Brazilian man who cleaned it up. The Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) apparently bonded with the man and so, every June the penguin shows up near Rio and spends eight months with Mr. Pereira de Souza before departing to breed in southern South America.

Here are two videos:

and this one:

h/t: Malcolm, John, Hempenstein, Gethyn

Tuesday: Hili dialogue

March 8, 2016 • 6:15 am

It’s March 8: International Women’s Day (see next post), so women should be demanding cakes and goodies and stuff along with their rights. On this day in history, Johannes Kepler discovered his third law of planetary motion: “The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of thes emi-major axis of its orbit.” In 1910, French flyer Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot’s license. In 1971, this was the day of the famous Joe Frazier/Muhammad Ali fight, won after 15 rounds by Frazier. In 1974, the execrable Charles de Gaulle airport opened outside Paris, and, five years later, the first CD was publicly demonstrated. Two years ago on this day (was it that long?), Malaysia Flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared, presumably crashing into the Indian Ocean, where debris has since been found. Births on this day include Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841), Otto Hahn (1879), John McPhee (1931), Lynn Redgrave (1943), Carole Bayer Sager (1947), and Rabbi Sacks, Templeton Prize Winner and gay marriage opponent (1948). Those who died on this day include William Howard Taft (1930), Billy Eckstine (1993), and Joe DiMaggio (1999).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has read the translation on Listy from Faith Versus Fact about whether the evolution of humans was inevitable:

Hili: Did humans had to appear in the process of evolution?
A: Probably not.
Hili: See? And cats had to.
(Photo: Sarah Lawson)
Ah
In Polish:
Hili: Czy w procesie ewolucji człowiek musiał się pojawić?
Ja: Prawdopodobnie nie.
Hili: No widzisz, a kot musiał.
(Zdjęcie: Sarah Lawson)

As lagniappe, here, courtesy of reader Sue Rosenthal, is a sea otter giving birth—a wild sea otter (Enhydra lutris) that clambered onto the rocks outside the Monterey Bay Aquarium, dropping a baby otter just last Saturday:

Their notes:

A wild otter mom, seeking shelter from stormy seas, gave birth to her pup in our Great Tide Pool with guests and staff looking on. It was an amazing moment. Not that long ago, southern sea otters were hunted to near extinction but now, thanks to legislative protection and a change of heart toward these furriest of sea creatures, the otter population in Monterey Bay has rebounded.

Our sea otter researchers have been watching wild otters for years and have never seen a birth close up like this. We’re amazed and awed to have had a chance to witness this Monterey Bay conservation success story first hand in our own backyard. Welcome to the world, little otter!

 

Monday kitten

March 7, 2016 • 7:30 am

Among domestic animals, there’s nothing—nothing—cuter than a kitten at about 7 weeks of age. I brook no dissent here. Here’s a tw**t from Whiskas Ireland (sent, of course, by Grania) that makes me want to get a cat now. 

It’s a short video, so be sure to press the arrow.

https://twitter.com/WhiskasIreland/status/706803899756388353