Animal World Tales

[CielOnTap]

A happy cat story ending just reinforces why you should always provide some form of identification on your cat in case s/he ever runs away:

A cat missing since the March 2011 tsunami in Japan has been reunited with his owners recently.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27373449

But on 10 April another couple spotted a black cat curled up in a nearby pine forest. He was friendly and wore a collar, and they took it to the Ofunato Health Centre. After several days nobody had claimed the cat, so the centre put an announcement in a local paper. It was when an employee was taking a photo of the cat that he noticed the Yamagishi name and number in faded letters on the collar.

[CielOnTap]

Mass die-off of velella velella, which are related to jellyfish and depend on waves to move them through water. It is expected that the water will return to take the carcasses back to the ocean.

Tofino, B.C., beachgoers were surprised Monday morning to discover that thousands of tiny jellyfish-like creatures had washed up on local beaches.

George Timmins was getting ready for a morning surf when he noticed the Velella velella — and shot some home video.

Last month, thousands of Velella velella also washed ashore in Oregon.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/velella-velella-turn-tofino-b-c-shore-into-sea-of-blue-1.2727489

[yukon]

Speaking of food:

Don't feed the birds. I'm not talking about the cute ones that come to the feeder for a treat, I'm talking seagulls.

You know the ones, raccoons with wings, garbage hounds that fly and are noisy beyond belief. They don't need our help, they are doing fine on their own. Around here, they are as big or bigger than a full grown raccoon, and keep on growing, so stop helping them in their quest to win the biggest bird contest.

Plenty of fish in the waters, enough chum dumped overboard to keep their stomachs full and if land locked there are more than enough garbage cans filled with a snack, that is if you don't leave it lying around instead of disposing it in the can. Bread isn't good for them so stop feeding them those crusts no one eats, the crumbs from the bottom of the bag or left overs you don't compost.

Think 3-4 times bigger and you get the idea. Before you know it they will be the size of a prehistoric Pterodactyl, so do them a favor and let them find their dinner, don't ring the dinner bell. Remember once you feed them they keep coming back at all hours.

[CielOnTap]

Blackbird pie was a pioneer staple. Pigeon pie might be cheap meat but getting the pigeons down legally is tough.
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Passed a local pet food supply shop. Saw cages (most empty) by the front window. A single young gray tabby cat had its back to the window and was asleep. Awww! Want the cat! Neighbourhood has several feral/turned out cats-not really ones that allow close contact. They like to come by and roll around or sit and watch. But don't spook them because they are fast of foot!

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Online news mentions the washing up of dead twin dolphins that were conjoinedat the tail. A rarity but commenters alluded to nuclear radioactive water to ocean pollutants contributing to their lives' fate as conjoined dolphins. A year old is their estimated age. It would have been a wonder to seem alive and swimming.

[deja vu]

I'm not sure if there is a penalty if you kill a pigeon or seagull to eat within city limits. Not that I would, but I have no idea if you are allowed or if it is even healthy to eat. They are garbage
hounds after all.

Although this lady didn't get in trouble for plucking a bird while riding on the Montreal subway system. She may face a charge of disturbing the peace, but that would probably mean a small fine.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/07/25/wo ... eal-subway

There is no law against plucking and eating a raw bird in the metro, but Couture says the woman could still face criminal charges.

I wonder if that is true across Canada or the US. I have never heard of it before this, so who knows.

[CielOnTap]

Wave action in San Diego deposited small relatives of the Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish onto shore. The smaller jellyfish are known as valella valella. While they are not usually stinging towards humans, one woman's friend did push a valella valella on her arm, causing a contact rash for a few minutes.

Sunday, the surf is expected to be 7 ft high. So be careful in the water...
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/strange-blue-sea-creatures-wash-up-on-san-diego-beaches/34596/

[deja vu]

As a visual ecologist who has spent the last few years documenting the relationship between people and bears, John Kitchin is used to checking out what his latest bear footage looks like. But even he was not prepared for what he found on his GoPro last month. Called ‘Death by Grizzly Bear’, Kitchin captured a very up-close-and-personal encounter with a curious bear. Kitchin had travelled to Glendale Cove at Knight Inlet, one of the best grizzly bear viewing spots in the world, to interview a bear biologist.


http://globalnews.ca/news/1623844/watch ... ious-bear/

Scroll down to the video, it's just over 4 minutes long and worth watching. It gives one the best view of just how big they are including their teeth and claws.

[CielOnTap]

Unfortunately in the Yukon Territory (Canada) last weekend, a grizzly bear had entered a home. The bear attacked and killed the female resident. http://www.calgarysun.com/2014/10/20/grizzly-chases-couple-from-home-and-kills-wife

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/claudia-huber-yukon-woman-killed-in-bear-attack-1.2804980

Dave Keenan, who lives in the area off the Alaska Highway, told CBC News that he had a strange encounter with a grizzly in his yard just a few days ago.

"I tried to chase him away," he said, adding it refused to leave even after he fired a couple of shots at it. An air horn finally got the job done.

It's not known whether the bear Keenan saw was the one that killed Huber.

[deja vu]

What a great picture of such a curious bear, and good thing the truck was near by to watch this in safety.

A B.C. photographer snapped a new angle on grizzly bear behaviour last week, after one sauntered up and decided to see what life was like on the other side of the camera. Jim Lawrence, of Revelstoke, submitted his photo of the photographer-bear to CBC Radio One's B.C. Almanac for its Listeners' Lens gallery, and told this story to go along with it: "The grizzly in the photo was fishing for Kokanee and making his way upstream. I set the camera up at an opening in the brush thinking I’d get a photo of him across the way.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.2822627

[CielOnTap]

If you have a pet sheep at home and it's wearing a sweater, keep a regular look out for it in its enclosure.

In the US, someone's pet sheep was found wandering near a shopping area. The sheep was reunited with its owner after a message on Facebook was sent out.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11284422/Sheep-in-Christmas-jumper-found-wandering-streets-of-Omaha.html

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A green cat is like that because of what it sleeps on! The cat's not radioactive.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11273506/Mystery-of-emerald-green-cat-spotted-in-seaside-resort-solved.html