Julia Gorin has the story.

A Christmas Story – Journey Of The Angels/Silent Night by Enya

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by inousch on Nov 15, 2011

You can also watch/download this video
on my website: http://www.ine-pps.nl/
http://www.facebook.com/ine.braat
Christmas is approaching!
I composed this clip: “A Christmas Story”
with wonderful images out of the
the beautiful movie: “Eight Below”(Walt Disney)
It’s really worth to watch the whole movie again,
when you’ve some free time in the Holidays.
It’s an amazing story of friendship.
On 5:39 min. the images are really “MAGIC”
and on 11:00 min. “TOUCHING and HEARTWARMING….”
Music by Enya: “Journey Of The Angels”".
and “Silent Night.”
Another beautiful story for Christmas: “The Path Of My Wolf” click:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bXtPlNy1kc
With this videoclip
I’m sending my warmest Christmas wishes
to you and your family.
May your Christmas be filled
with peace and love…Ine♥´¯`•.¸¸★°•.☆.•°
__*
__/\
_/**\
_/***\
_/****\
/______\
__[_]
☆☀☆Merry Christmas
☆☀☆Joyeux Noël
☆☀☆Vrolijk Kerstfeest
☆☀☆Feliz Natal
☆☀☆Buon Natale
☆☀☆Frohe Weihnachten
☆☀☆Wesołych Świąt
☆☀☆Boldog Karácsonyt
☆☀☆Feliz Navidad
☆☀☆Vesela Koleda
☆☀☆Kala Christougenna
☆☀☆God Jul
☆☀☆Noeliniz Kutlu Olsun
☆☀☆Selamat Natal
☆☀☆Souksaan Wan Christmas
☆☀☆Ulihelisdi Danisdayohihvi
☆☀☆Miilaad Majiid
☆☀☆Shèng Dàn Kuài Lè
☆☀☆Nollaig Shona
☆☀☆Felix Dies Nativitatis
☆☀☆Miilaad Majiid
☆☀☆Nollaig Chridheil
☆☀☆Merii Kurisumasu

Journey Of The Angels lyrics:

Somewhere
in a winter night
the angels
begin their flight;
dark skies
with miles to go,
no footsteps
to be lost in snow.

They fly to you
Oh, new-born king
They fly to you
Oh, angels sing

one is sorrow
one is peace
one will come
to give you sleep
one is comfort
one is grief
one will take
the tears you weep

New star
in a midnight sky
in heaven
all the angels fly
soft wings so true
and all things
they will give to you

Somewhere
in a winter night
the angels
begin their flight

Tonight
all sing
Oh, angels,
a new-born king
Tonight
all sing
Oh, angels
a new-born king

Marche des Anges

Quelque part
dans une nuit d’hiver
les anges
commencent leur vol;
ciel sombre
avec des miles à parcourir,
pas de traces
d’être perdu dans la neige.

Ils volent de vous
Oh, le roi nouveau-né
Ils volent de vous
Oh, les anges chantent

on est la douleur
on est la paix
viendra
pour vous donner le sommeil
on est le confort
on est deuil
on prendra
les larmes que vous pleurez

nouvelle star
dans un ciel de minuit
dans le ciel
tous les anges volent
ailes souples si vrai
et toutes les choses
ils vont donner à vous

quelque part
dans une nuit d’hiver
les anges
commencent leur vol

Ce soir
chantons tous
Oh, les anges,
un roi nouveau-né
Ce soir
chantons tous
Oh, les anges
un roi nouveau-né

By CzechRebel

OK, I am a bit fan of bilingual puns. Since the only two languages that I can sort of communicate in are English and Spanish, most of my bilingual puns are in those two languages. My favorite goes something like this:

“People are always worried about something. Either it is the Greek debt crisis or world hunger. People always worry about something, but everyone knows there will always be arroz in Spanish Harlem.”

For those of you too young to remember, “There is a Rose in Spanish Harlem” was a very popular song once. For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, the word for rice is arroz.

Now for those of you who are not so familiar with English and Spanish pronunciation, a person who has Spanish as a first language would pronounce a rose and arroz, their word for “rice,” exactly the same. So, to them, the song title would sound like “there is rice in Spanish Harlem”.

I am not sure when I first heard it, but I could swear I hear kids singing, “Don’t cut the toes, don’t cut the toes, don’t cut the toes off the gatos.” OK, I am old. I may be confused. Maybe I even imagined it. But it is always there in my memory, like a few other songs that I wish would leave (see Earworm.)

Well, I have always hated the thought of declawing cats, so maybe that is why it sticks. So, I had to post this next video. Now, I need to give a disclaimer. I really don’t have much use for PETA and this video comes from PETA. So, I think back to that old adage. “Even a broken (analog) clock is right twice a day.” Well, I doubt that PETA is right that often, and I sincerely apologize to all broken clocks for comparing them to PETA. I ask that you heed this video without feeling too bad about where it comes from.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Puss In Boots “No Pants” Pants

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by pussinboots on Aug 11, 2011

Introducing Puss In Boots “No Pants” Pants. Because all you need… are the boots!

Puss In Boots (2011) NEW Official Long Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by movieclipsTRAILERS on Jun 20, 2011

Check out the brand new Puss in Boots Official Trailer 06/21/11.

A story about the events leading up to the sword fighting cat’s meeting with Shrek and his friends.

Puss in Boots, is an upcoming computer-animated adventure film being produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Chris Miller (who directed Shrek the Third in 2007), executive produced by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Blade II, Pan’s Labyrinth), starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, and written by Tom Wheeler. It is set to be released in theaters November 4, 2011 in 3D and IMAX 3D.

The film is based on and follows the character of Puss in Boots from Shrek and his adventures before his first appearance in 2004′s Shrek 2. The prequel’s story centers on the swashbuckling cat and how he comes to meet Shrek and his friends, while introducing new characters as well.

The film has been in development since 2004, when Shrek 2 was released. As a Shrek 2 spin-off, it was originally planned for release in 2008 as a direct-to-video film, but this was changed in 2006 in favor of a theatrical release. Production on the film began after the release of 2010′s Shrek Forever After. Banderas said in an interview in early 2010 that he had completed the first recordings of his character. The film is scheduled to be released as a 3-D film. Late in 2010, Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, had signed on as executive producer.

Except for Puss, the film will feature all new characters. Citing the co-writer, David H. Steinberg, “It doesn’t overlap with Shrek at all. Partly that was done to tell an original Puss story, but partly because we didn’t know what Shrek Forever After was going to do with the characters and we couldn’t write conflicting storylines.”The film was teased in Shrek Forever After when Shrek finally put the book of Shrek away and put it next to a book titled “Puss in Boots”.

Lookin’ Cute in their Birthday Suits

ZooBorns: Rare Sand Kitten Birth Gives Hope for Conservation

(h/t: Blazing Cat Fur)

After 63 days of gestation, a rare Sand Cat Kitten was born at Israel’s Zoological Center Tel Aviv Ramat Gan – Safari. Once plentiful in numbers in the dunes of Israel, the Sand Cat has become extinct in the region. This is Safari Zoo’s first successful Sand Cat birth and it is hoped this kitten will join Israel’s Sand Cat Breeding Program in order to help reintroduce the species into the wild.

Three weeks ago, the kitten’s mother Rotem refused to go into the night chamber at the end of the day. Keepers let her stay outside and the next night she gave birth to a tiny baby in the den in the outdoor enclosure. Keepers first saw the kitten when it poked its tiny head and looked out from the den.

More kitten cuteness here.

ZooBorns: First Ever Birth of Pallas’ Kittens with the Help of Advanced Science

Three healthy Pallas’ Cat kittens (two males and one female) were born on June 8th, 2011 at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden following a laparoscopic oviductal artificial insemination (AI) procedure conducted by scientists from the Cincinnati Zoo’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW). This pregnancy and birth are the first ever in Pallas’ Cats from artificial insemination.
[…]
Pallas’ cats (Otocolobus manul) are native to Central Asia and are considered near-threatened in the wild due to poaching, habitat loss and rodent control programs. In North American zoos, Pallas’ cats are managed in a captive breeding program under the auspices of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). Currently, there are ~50 Pallas’ cats housed in 19 North American zoos.

CREW scientists have worked with Pallas’ cats for the past 15 years, including collaborative research studies with wild Pallas’ cats in Mongolia that involved the collection, cryopreservation and importation of semen from ten wild males. The recent success of oviductal AI in Pallas’ cats may facilitate the use of this frozen Mongolian semen to introduce new bloodlines into zoos without requiring the removal of additional cats from the wild. The new oviductal AI method has been used by CREW within the past year to produce pregnancies in ocelots and sand cats in addition to Pallas’ cats.

More here.

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First, let’s hear fellow conservative blogger Stogie strut his stuff on the string bass:

“Stray Cat Strut” With String Bass! (Stogie Band)

I really like the music of the British American rock group “Stray Cats.” They tried to capture the spirit of 1950′s rock and roll and did a great job of it. Their band used an upright string bass, like the great old rock groups of old, and the string bass has acoustic qualities that the electric bass has never been able to equal. Here’s my group where I try out my string bass on “Stray Cat Strut.” We were pleased with the result.

The video was captured using a Canon hand held camcorder, so the acoustics are not perfect by any means. Our keyboard player Kenny sings and does a surprisingly good job, I think. Are we feminists or not? Our lead guitar player is a woman, Lorraine, and she is “better than sex” on guitar. Great riffs!

YouTube: Stray Cat Strut – Cover Band

From the description:

Uploaded by GaryBass100 on May 23, 2011
Trying out the string bass on this classic rock.

Stray cats aren’t welcome in some parts, and even domestic cats are being made to stay inside. Let’s hope their owners will take advantage of the opportunity to spend some quality time with their felines!

Cat curfew is purrfect remedy for wildlife attacks

By Amy Pyett – Wed Jun 8, 9:08 am ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Cats in several suburbs of Sydney will be ordered to curl up inside from dusk to dawn under a curfew that hopes to curb overnight attacks on native wildlife.

The move in by the Leichhardt local government area, on the inner west side of Sydney, was inspired after deputy mayor Michele McKenzie’s son rescued a brushtail possum and its baby when they were attacked by a cat.

There are also plans to reintroduce a colony of ringtail possums, which are much smaller in size, to the municipality, and McKenzie wants the animals to have the best possible chance at survival.

But the odds are stacked against the possums unless cats, which can climb trees to catch the animals, are stopped from prowling at night.

There have been some 564 reported cat attacks on ringtail possums in the last year alone, making up the biggest part of total cat attacks on wildlife, wildlife protection agency WIRES said. “It’s a small thing to ask people to keep their cats indoors if it means protecting our native wildlife.” McKenzie said “After all, they were here first, we’ve introduced domestic pets, so we have a responsibility to control them.”

Whilst the curfew cannot be strictly enforced, an education and information program to be sent out by the local government will propose that cat owners keep their pets indoors between dusk and dawn, monitor their cat’s activities during the day and attach two bells to their collar.

The proposal will cover the suburbs of Balmain, Rozelle, Lilyfield, Annandale and Leichhardt. McKenzie said local residents were very responsive. Cat owners “don’t imagine, because they feed their pets, that they are attacking wildlife. But it is a natural instinct, cats will prey on wildlife — and because they can actually get up in the trees they are a bit more dangerous than dogs,” McKenzie said.

“Dogs will do terrible damage to a possum, but they don’t get them quite as often because they don’t climb trees.”

WIRES reported that over a 5 year period, there were 16,775 attacks by all types of domestic pets on native wildlife…

However, Basement Cat says:
“You call possums wildlife; I call them cat food!

YouTube: Hungry Fat Cat

While at my computer and much too tired to sleep or to do anything else, I recently checked out the latest visual adventures presented at Dark Roasted Blend. Unusual or amusing signs and charts are a recurrent feature there. I happened upon a collection of artistic riffs on barcodes entitled Japanese Creative Barcodes. All of them seem to be real barcodes; some can actually be scanned.

At the end of this article is a link to Barcode Kitties, which DRB described as “And as it is a custom nowadays to finish with a cute or LOL-lified cat pictures, no matter what the subject of an article, here are the “Barcode Kitties!” – Hello Kitty spin-off for those in need of a truly geeky cuteness…” (thumbnails are clickable)

According to the Barcode Kitties site:

Barcode Kitties is an adorable anime-influenced property starring a group of cute little kitten characters with bar code whiskers. Owned by Nagoya-based SEIKODO Corporation, the original idea for the Barcode Kitties characters grew out of the realization that (under the 2005 Sunrise Initiative establishing a global bar code standard) every product in the world – including the animals sold in pet shops – would have to have a bar code. That realization was eventually expressed through the idea of a special species of cartoon cats with bar codes as their whiskers.

That got me to thinking about microchips for reuniting lost pets with their human staff. No, I am certainly not one of those who think that barcodes – or microchips, whether in a cat or elsewhere – represent the “Mark of the Beast” from the Book of Revelations. Rather, it’s a way to get one’s beloved pet back if something goes wrong.

From Wikipedia:

A microchip implant’ is an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin of a dog, cat, horse, parrot or other animal. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rice and are based on a passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology.
[...]
Uses and benefits

Microchips have been particularly useful in the return of lost pets. They can also assist where the ownership of an animal is in dispute.

Animal shelters and animal control centers benefit using microchip identification products by more quickly and efficiently returning pets to their owners. When a pet can be quickly matched to its owner, the shelter avoids the expense of housing, feeding, providing medical care, and outplacing or euthanizing the pet. Microchipping is becoming standard at shelters: many require all outplaced animals to receive a microchip, and provide the service as part of the adoption package. Animal-control officers are trained and equipped to scan animals.

In addition to shelters and veterinarians, microchips are used by kennels, breeders, brokers, trainers, registries, rescue groups, humane societies, clinics, farms, stables, animal clubs and associations, researchers, and pet stores.

Several countries require a microchip when importing an animal to prove that the animal and the vaccination record match. Microchip tagging may also be required for CITES-regulated international trade in certain rare animals: for example, Asian Arowana are so tagged, in order to ensure that only captive-bred fish are imported.

System of recovery

Effective pet identification and recovery depend on the following:

• A pet owner either adopts a pet at a shelter that microchips some or all adoptee animals, or the owner with an existing pet brings it to a veterinarian (or a shelter) that provides the service.
• The shelter or veterinarian does a pre-scan to verify that the animal initially does not have a chip, selects a microchip from their stock, makes a note of that chip’s unique ID, and then inserts the chip into the animal with a syringe. The injection requires no anesthetic.
• Before sending the animal home, the vet or shelter performs a test scan on the animal. This helps ensure that the chip will be picked up by a scanner, and that its unique identifying number will be read correctly.
• An enrollment form is completed with the chip number, the pet owner’s contact information, the name and description of the pet, the shelter’s and/or veterinarian’s contact information, and an alternate emergency contact designated by the pet owner. (Some shelters or vets, however, choose to designate themselves as the primary contact, and take the responsibility of contacting the owner directly. This allows them to be kept informed about possible problems with the animals they place.) The form is then sent to a registry keeper to be entered into its database. Depending on regional custom, selected chip brand, and the pet owner’s preference, this registry keeper might be the chip’s manufacturer or distributor, or an independent provider. In some countries a single official national database may be used. After receiving a registration fee, the registry keeper typically provides a 24-hour, toll-free telephone service for pet recovery, good for the life of the pet.
• The pet owner is also provided the chip ID and the contact information of the recovery service. This is often in the form of a collar tag imprinted with the chip ID and the recovery service’s toll-free number, to be worn by the animal along with a certified registration certificate that can be sold/transferred with the pet. This ensures proper identification when an animal is sold or traded. A microchipped animal being sold or traded without a matching certificate could be a stolen animal.
• If the pet is lost or stolen, and is found by local authorities or taken to a shelter, it is scanned during intake to see if a chip exists. If one is detected, authorities need to figure out which recovery service has the owner record, because there may be several different ones, each competing for the patronage of the pet owner. (Issues and solutions dealing with the problem of multiple registries have been moved to the article Pet recovery service.) They then call the recovery service and provide them the ID number, the pet’s description, and the location of the animal. If the pet is wearing the collar tag, anyone who finds the pet can call the toll-free number, making it unnecessary to involve the authorities. (The owner can also preemptively notify the recovery service directly if a pet disappears. This is useful if the pet is stolen, and is taken to a vet who scans it and checks with the recovery service.)
• The recovery service notifies the owner that the pet has been found, and where to go to recover the animal.

Many veterinarians perform test scans on microchipped animals every time the animal is brought in for care. This ensures the chip still performs properly. Vets sometimes use the chip ID as the pet’s ID in their databases, and print this number on all outgoing paperwork associated with its services, such as receipts, test results, vaccination certifications, and descriptions of medical or surgical procedures.

More here.

Cat mom hugs baby kitten

It’s been said that dogs have owners, but cats have staff. This cat brilliantly shows his loyal human just what needs to be done:

＝口＝當貓奴有時候真的很無言 (Crazy Cat Migou)

(h/t: Blazing Cat Fur)

Uploaded by crazycatmigou on May 6, 2011

他的名字是Migou ，我們住在台灣。 謝謝你們喜歡他!他的品種是Mix，之前是隻流浪貓，他現在3歲。是很聰明也很可愛的一隻貓，總是帶給我歡笑!謝謝大家的關心，我的手沒有受傷! (轉載影片請註明出處,勿作商業用途!謝謝)

His name is Migou and he lives in Taiwan. I am glad to know you all like it. He is a mixed breed cat. He was a stray cat and his age is 3 now.He is a lovely and smart cat for he often brings joy to me. finally my hands didnt get hurt and thanks for your caring. ps:If cross-posted, please state the source and do not use it for commercial purposes…

We now have a feline counterpart to Cesar Millan’s popular Dog Whisperer show!

Animal Planet Videos: My Cat From Hell: What’s In Store

Meet Jackson Galaxy, a musician by night and a cat behaviorist by day. He’s helping cats — and their owners — work through behavior issues that are taking a toll on their relationships.

Click link for a series of video clips (not embeddable). See Jackson’s video clips on the right way to pet your cat, and on how to deal with a scared cat. Having tamed a few feral cats myself, I can vouch for the accuracy of Jackson’s advice in that regard.

JacksonGalaxy on Twitter

Cat’s amazingly cute encounter with dolphins becomes Internet sensation

(h/t savages_girl)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 1:42pm PDT
By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

Recently-posted video footage showing a cat’s incredibly cute encounter with dolphins at a marine park in Islamorada, Fla., is touching the hearts of viewers from around the world. The playful bonding between a cat named Arthur and dolphins named Thunder and Shiloh occurred in the late 1990s at Theater of the Sea, during the facility’s swim-with-dolphins program. The footage, showing Arthur rubbing his head against and lovingly pawing the slender snouts of the sleek mammals, has gone viral since being uploaded to the Internet last month.

Beverley Osborne, then a dolphin trainer and now curator at Theater of the Sea, said Arthur was one of the facility’s many house cats and used to look forward to the swim programs and the arrival of dolphins and guests at the shoreline floats. “That was his area and he was there for every program,” Osborne recalled. “He’d walk toward the dolphins when they’d arrive but the dolphins would come over to him, too. But he was very friendly with Thunder and Shiloh during that particular session.”

Click here to view the video.

Welcome to our Caturday category!

Even though I’m not in the health care field myself, I happened upon a thread on the allnurses.com forum about unusual and funny doctors’ orders posted in patients’ charts. This entry is heartwarming:

Funniest real orders you have seen in a chart?

No. 385
From anticoagulationurse
Mar 10, 2007, 12:55 PM

An elderly patient needed a note from the doc to give to her apartment superintendent to allow her to have a pet.

A prescription was written: “One cat, use as directed daily and PRN”.

I photocopied it and blacked out the patient ID info and added it to my “funny pile” which I read on the bad days at work.

The unusual appearance of this Sphynx therapy cat has helped children to deal with chemotherapy:

Bald Sphynx cats help bring patients warm fuzzy feeling

Nurses at the J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit in Muscle Shoals, Ala., say giving patients a calm, velvety, hairless cat to pet can bring them peace and happiness. RN Sharron True and her family practitioner husband, Terry, breed the rare cats, including Jak, the first registered therapy Sphynx cat in the U.S.

Strange-looking cats? Maybe.

Pam Moore concedes that if someone is accustomed to long-haired cats, a Sphynx can be off-putting at first. But after a Sphynx curls up in the lap of one of her patients, Moore, a registered nurse at J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit in Muscle Shoals, Ala., says the animal brings about a transformation in the human. “They bring so much peace and happiness to the patients,” she says.

Serene-looking humans? Absolutely.

Sphynx cats love to cuddle with people and are as soft as velvet. “They’ll just curl right up on a patient’s lap and stay there,” Moore says. “That’s not the training. That’s just the way they are.”

The cats are rare – only several thousand exist in the USA. Jak, the first registered therapy Sphynx in the country, belongs to Terry and Sharron True of Muscle Shoals. The Trues breed and show Sphynxes.

Terry True says holding Jak is like holding “a suede hot-water bottle.” When the Trues first started doing therapy with cats, they visited oncology units in a children’s hospital where patients were undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. “I wanted the children to know you can still be hairless and be beautiful,” Moore says. “The kids’ eyes would just light up when they’d see Jak.”

Visit the original thread and read the comments here.

To locate other pet-therapy-related threads on allnurses.com, click on http://tinyurl.com/allnurses-pets.

Would you and your pet make a good therapy team?

If you have a friendly, outgoing, and calm cat, dog, or other domestic pet, and you are interested in working together with your pet to become an animal-assisted therapy team, please visit the Delta Society website for more information.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the Delta Society in any way, nor is my cat. He is too old and too afraid of new situations to be suitable for this type of work.

Delta Society: Moment By Moment

Click here for more Caturday stories!

まるです。

Says YouTube member WaterJug10, “Maru is safe, his owner blogged the day of the disaster to let everyone know Maru is OK and to keep the Japanese in our thoughts and prayers.”

覆面ねこ２。

(h/t: (vagabond trader: “Maru is all set with his special radiation gear.”)

Family cat saves boy’s life

(h/t: BizzyBlog)

The family cat, a volunteer fire fighter and a miracle — that’s what a Brockport woman says saved her nine-year-old grandson. Their house caught fire this morning. Her 12-year-old daughter made it out okay but the nine-year-old was trapped inside.

Monday morning, Linda Pearl when went to an early morning doctors appointment she left her 12-year-old daughter and her nine-year-old grandson at home. She intended to be gone only 30 minutes but what happened in the next half hour left the family homeless and sent her grandson to the hospital.
[...]
The fire could have been much more devastating. Pearl’s nine-year-old grandson Kendran Hall was upstairs and nobody knew it. “If the cat hadn’t woke him up, we wouldn’t have found out until it was too late that he was even in the house. He missed his bus and he never misses his bus.”

The cat died in the fire. “His cat Stitch died to save him, to wake him up.”

Kendran was able to break a window and hang out of it. The 12-year-old girl ran across the street to fire Lieutenant Tim Russell’s house. He didn’t have any breathing apparatus to go in and rescue the boy. His only hope was to jump. It was intense. “I just didn’t want him to panic and I didn’t want him to leave. There was a lot of smoke coming out the window and I was trying to get him to jump.”

The young boy landed in the arms of Russell and a police officer and despite losing so much and facing homelessness, Pearl says, “The kids made it out, even though nobody knew he was in that house, he still made it out alive and I’m grateful for the fact that everybody is alive.”

Kendran is at Strong Hospital. His grandmother says he suffered smoke inhalation, but was breathing and feeling better this afternoon.

The Red Cross is assisting the family with food and shelter but Pearl says she’s not sure what they will do tomorrow.

Read the rest.

As I’ve mentioned before (see Dog Haters in Iran and San Francisco), Iran’s mullahs have been issuing fatwas against dogs. Dogs are targeted not only as unclean animals under shari’a law, but also as symbols of Western influence. Ads for pets and for pet products have already been banned in Iran.

Keeping – and pampering – a pet dog has become a symbolic means for dissident Iranians to protest against the regime of the mullahs.

Dogs: Iran’s symbol of rebellion

…Over the past few years, dog ownership has become yet another unlikely arena for the social and political dispute within the tumultuous politics of Iran.

It is well known that dogs, along with pigs, are considered unclean in Islam. Strictly speaking, the theology doesn’t ban their ownership, or petting; the Sunna prescribes that dogs are “pollutants”, contact with them rendering believers ritually unclean. This means that ritual cleansing is required before one is able to perform prayers. Despite this, dogs have been kept by Muslims for centuries. For example, salukis, an ancient breed of hunting dog, have historically been valued by the Bedouin, who breed them for both their beauty and their prowess in hunting.

However, having domesticated animals free to roam inside a house, contact with which would require ritual cleansing, would be quite tricky from a practical point of view for Muslims who are required to pray five times a day – even though there is no actual legal prohibition of dog ownership.

The Islamic Republic of Iran makes not only the application of the laws of Islam its constitutional duty, but also the promotion of godly behaviour its social remit. It has an Orwellian state ministry tasked with the promotion of “better behaviour” according to Islamic mores. This is the sharpest point at which the ideological state comes into contact with a people, who are at least as fun loving as they are God fearing.

…The state prohibition of anything in Iran is an open invitation for its widespread social promotion. Blond hair and garish makeup, nose jobs (of which Iran is the world capital) and extravagantly sculpted and gelled hairstyles for boys are all forms of sedition – political statements with a small “p”. The state’s legitimacy is thus questioned and openly ridiculed, at least by a certain section of the population.

As it happens, opponents of the state and its ideology also have the means and the spare time to indulge in such practices because they are, by and large, members of the affluent urban elite. But the religiously informed state disapproval of dogs in Iran has a deeper resonance than a garish pair of Dolce & Gabbana crystal-studded sunglasses. Before the Muslim invasion and conversion, Iran’s state religion was Zoroastrianism. In ancient Iran, dogs were particularly treasured and well-treated animals. The Gathas were explicit in the promotion of dogs as good and godly creatures; furthermore, the Zoroastrians believed that the bridge to the afterlife was guarded by dogs, so being nice to dogs in this world might have its reward in the hereafter.

After the Islamic conquest and the gradual but eventual mass conversion of Iranians from their national religion, disdain for dogs was not only a way for the conquerors of humiliating nation but a way for the new converts to prove their devotion to their new religion…

…Dogs are now as much symbols of safe, middle-class resistance as false eyelashes and green wristbands. Pooches have never had it so good, and rare breeds, especially small lap dogs, change hand for tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An underground industry of dog beauty parlours thrives, mostly run out of private homes, as do a plethora of canine protection and welfare charities. A legal and substantial kennel industry has developed into what is fancily called “dog spas” where the middle class deposit their dogs when on holiday or, in the case of some of my conflicted relatives, when a devout auntie comes to stay…

Read it all.

Perhaps that is why the Iranian mullahocracy’s jihad against dogs is escalating. Some Iranian MPs are doing all they can to make it impossible for Iranians to keep dogs as pets.

In Iran, the Despots Grow Desperate

…In 1999, the then-head of the judiciary, Mullah Mohammad Yazdi, ruled that dogs must not be taken to public places. At the time, he conceded that they could be kept in people’s homes. But in June 2010, the senior hardline mullah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi issued an edict eradicating that privilege. When asked to clarify the position of Islamic religious law on the growing number of dogs kept as pets in Iran’s big cities, the senior cleric postulated that keeping pet dogs was an irrational imitation of Westerners, who often love their dogs more than their husbands, wives, and children. Makarem Shirazi also claimed that there are many references to dogs being unclean in Islam, though the Quran itself does not specifically address the topic.

The pets issue has fueled a perennially heated debate, but in recent weeks it reached a fever pitch in the Iranian parliament (Majles). Thirty-nine MPs submitted a resolution that would prohibit dog owners from walking their dogs in public. The resolution’s preamble maintains that keeping dogs and taking them for walks on the streets has become a serious problem in Iran’s big cities. The MPs claimed that dog-walking poses a public health hazard and deepens the threat of cultural corruption. If they can’t stop Iranians from owning dogs, the MPs figure, they can squeeze them out of their homes and forbid their presence on the streets.

Should the resolution pass, a dog owner caught walking his dog would be fined up to five million rials — approximately $500.

The pooch itself would face a steeper penalty: euthanization.

What’s more, if other residents of an apartment building or a house object to a fellow resident’s pet, that alone is grounds for the pet to be impounded by the regime’s authorities. And to top it off, the resolution gives full authority to the Ministry of Health to come up with a list of other animals considered dangerous or unclean.

If all this isn’t absurd enough, it was recently reported that the Iranian regime is cloning 4000 drug-sniffing dogs to help in their so-called anti-narcotic campaign. Since the regime has been outed as one of the world’s biggest heroin traffickers, Iran’s mullahs have succeeded only in supplying their subjects with yet another punchline.

Read it all.

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat: Audition Outtakes

(h/t: snowcrash)

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Eats a Tiny Ice-Cream Cone

Actually, the adorable tabby kitten, Scout Jr., eats just the ice cream itself, not the cone. Unlike dogs and human beings, cats are “obligate carnivores”; that means they need plenty of animal protein just to stay alive. Kittens require an even higher percentage of animal protein in their diets than do mature cats.

These YouTube clips are actually from advertisements for Lake Street Creamery, a mobile ice cream vendor. As a disclaimer, I have yet to sample their wares. Though I admit to liking butter pecan ice cream, I very rarely indulge in ice cream or, indeed, in any form of sweets. I can’t abide artifical sweeteners, and due to a hereditary condition known as impaired glucose tolerance, sugar in any form disagrees with my innards. Like Scout Jr., I feel much healthier when I have plenty of protein. But because I’m not a cat, for a limited period of time I can get by with various tree nuts, as well as the humble but delectable peanut.

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Gets Another HORRIBLE SURPRISE

It is obvious to me that every government building needs to be kept clear of rats, both literal and metaphorical!

LA Times: Larry the cat takes up residence at London’s famous 10 Downing Street

Photo: Larry looks out a window at Number 10 on Feb. 15. Credit: Mark Large / Reuters / Click thumbnail to see original

Larry the cat — a rescue from a London shelter, we're pleased to point out — has joined the staff at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister, in response to concerns about the rodent population there. Prime Minister David Cameron's office is now home to the tabby-and-white domestic shorthair, who was adopted from the U.K.'s well-known Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

A rat scurrying around Number 10 was caught on video by the BBC last month, and speculation quickly began swirling that the prime minister would get a cat to take care of any rodent problems. Apparently Cameron's children were hot on the idea, so after some weeks of hesitation, Larry finally arrived at Downing Street this week.

Prior to striking it rich, Larry was a stray found wandering the streets of London. He's believed to be about 3 to 5 years old and appears to have been on the streets for some time, according to Battersea. He had no identification and was not microchipped.

[...]

Asked why Larry was chosen over other cats at Battersea, Cameron spokesman Steve Field told Bloomberg News that the cat "showed a very strong predatory drive and enjoyed playing with toy mice," important qualities for a cat in Larry's new line of work…

– Lindsay Barnett

Read it all and see Larry’s picture in full size.

Update:

See: Wikipedia: Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office

Does anybody know where this photo came from?

Where did the rescue take place? Who is the firefighter? What type of cat is this?

Update:

Brick says:

If you google images – fireman rescues cat russia – it’s the second image listed. The DU track puts this pic online fall of 2009. The russia track puts it online prior to Jan of 2006.

I found this comment on the Museum of Hoaxes site, which considers the image to be real and not a hoax:

The expression on this cat’s face is pretty wild, but I don’t see any evidence of photoshopping. I found the image on this Russian livejournal site, so I’m guessing it might be a Russian fireman who just saved the cat.

But then, when I followed the above Russian Livejournal link, the photo image no longer appeared.

If the rescue indeed took place in Russia, then the cat is most likely a Siberian cat.

Bunk X says:

“Tineye comes up with 116 matches for that image.”

The Know Your Meme site suggests that the cat was “supposedly rescued from an air vent.”

Does anyone have more information about this photo?