Holidays got you down? Well, you've got a friend in Merlin, the cranky Canadian Ragdoll cat whose angry face has surpassed the level of 'resting' - it's just permanent. Thanks to his furrowed brow, piercing blue eyes, and signature frown, Merlin has become a star on Instagram, and now has more than 45 thousand devoted fans who hang off his every scowl. If you're one of those people who constantly gets accused of 'looking mad,' or if you're actually just pissed off all the time, Merlin is the spirit animal you never knew you had. He doesn't even give a damn about Christmas, the most jolly time of year. Are you in love yet? To read more on this story, click here:Meet Merlin, The Ragdoll Cat Who Hates Everything
STATESVILLE, N.C. -- A pitbull that has garnered himself the nickname of "pig-bull" for his eerily similar appearance to that of a pig is in search of his forever home. "He's my special project," said pitbull advocate and volunteer Jennifer Bradford. "I met him and just fell in love with him, he's so sweet." "Pig-bull," also known as Casper, is up for adoption through Carolina Big Hearts Big Barks rescue. While he's known for his energetic nature and sweet heart, the two-year-old pitbull has had a hard time getting adopted due to his breed, size and special needs–Casper is deaf. "He was born deaf," Bradford said. "He knows his hand commands." To read more on this story, click here:'Pig-Bull' Steals Hearts With Pig-Like Appearance
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True story: I was working the other day and decided to light one of my beloved Bath and Body Works holiday candles that I’d just scored during their huge seasonal sale. For the first few minutes, I reveled in the awesome, spiced-apple scent while working on the day’s assignments. But after a few minutes, I started coughing uncontrollably and I felt so lightheaded. As I tried to think of what could be causing it, my eyes wandered to the candle and it hit me — this thing was making me sick. I put the candle out and after about 20 minutes, I felt totally fine. That’s when I knew I had to start researching side-effects of using scented candles. If you’re anything like my candle-loving self, you’re about to be so disappointed in what I found. While your favorite candles may smell good to you, their chemical makeup could be making you sick. According to MCS-America, most fragranced products contain anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 different chemicals. Even more alarming is the idea that despite the U.S. National Academy of Science have declared that fragrances should undergo neurotoxicity testing, most of the products on the market have not undergone testing to make sure that they’re safe for humans. To read more on this story, click here:Popular Christmas Decoration Has Babies And Pets Being Rushed To The Hospital
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SAN DIEGO — Approximately 25 race horses were killed when a wildfire engulfed about eight barns at a training center in northeast San Diego County, the California Horse Racing Board said. Other horses that were in surrounding pastures remained unaccounted for. Nearly 500 horses were stabled at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in Bonsall when the fire erupted amid strong Santa Ana winds Thursday, and workers risked their lives to free horses from stalls and herd them into safer areas, a board statement said. Horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars who are usually carefully walked from place to place were simply set free and encouraged to run away as flames engulfed the center, which is just a few miles from where the fire broke out. To read more on this story, click here: 25 Racehorses Killed Trying to Escape California Wildfire
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A pair of canny inventors has launched the world's first running shoes designed specifically for horses. Animal lovers Louisa and Charly Forstner came up with the novel product after years of fitting steel shoes to their horses' hooves. The clip-on shoes, called Megasus Horserunners, are made from shock-absorbing plastic materials and claim to make life more comfortable for both horse and rider. Unlike steel shoes they move with the horse's hoof, and can be removed quickly to allow horses to strengthen their tendons and ligaments. A set of four shoes can be pre-ordered for £175 ($219) from horserunners.com and they can be shipped to the UK. To read more on this story, click here:The Running Shoes for HORSES: Clip-On Plastic Covers Could Make for Happier Hooves
Bearded dragons are pets that are more common than you’d think and are quite interesting little creatures. This bearded dragon named Frankie is no different. She happens to be obsessed with one kind of fruit and will do anything to get at it. If you think that bearded dragons are not that fast, you are most definitely wrong. They move like lightning, and Frankie went NUTS when she saw a piece of fruit on the ground. Little did she know that her owner was tricking her… Talk about a workout!! To read more and see the adorable video, click here:Bearded Dragon Addicted to Unexpected Object that Makes Him Go Crazy–I Couldn’t Stop Watching!
A heartwarming example of how Mother Nature can produce wonders happened in May. Emma, a mother horse delivered a miracle, defining all the odds. Her owner got a pleasant surprise when Emma laid down to deliver her foal. According to the UC Davis Center for Equine Health, “a number of factors can affect a mare’s ability to conceive, maintain a healthy pregnancy and produce a healthy foal, including proper nutrition, preventive medicine, a routine program of parasite control and exercise.” According to the Center for Equine Health, although it is common for a high number of twin embryos to abort spontaneously within the first six weeks of pregnancy, approximately 80 percent of twin conceptions that are present after 40 days of pregnancy are aborted by the eighth month of pregnancy. Horses usually give birth to one horse per conception. It is not uncommon for them to conceive twins, but it is definitely extremely rare for both embryos to survive. What usually happens in this situation is that one of the two embryos takes over the other one during some point of the pregnancy, leading to the second embryo dying early. In other cases, the veterinarian will have to perform an abortion to remove the second foal in order for one of them to grow normally and healthy. According to the Center for Equine Health, late abortions can lead to significant complications, such as infection, trauma, reduced fertility during the next breeding, illness, and inflammation of the laminae. Veterinary surgeon Nicolas Jarvis, who works at a UK horse sanctuary, said: “Although mares quite often conceive twins, it is rare that both embryos survive. If you have two foals, they are vying for space and the chances of them coming out alive and well are slim.” This basically means that usually, the foals fight inside the womb for the growing space, and one usually wins the fight. To put things more into perspective, the survival rate of twin horses is a very low 10,000 to 1. For humans, the percentage of live twin births per year is approximately 27 percent. This means that there are approximately 1 billion twins on this planet. It seems to be a lot, but considering that there are approximately 7.4 billion people in total, the number remains pretty low. Twins, in general, are an uncommon phenomenon. For horses, this number is even lower than for humans. Having foals that are twins is, therefore, an extremely rare occurrence, a wonder of nature as one can call it. So, when Emma gave birth to twins, and both of them survived, both vets and the internet became amazed. It is the first set of documented twin foals since 2009, the last ones being Colby and Leo, a set of twin foals born in the UK. It had been almost 10 years since Mother Nature produced such a miracle. The twin foals are called Grace and Will, and they are in very good health. Even better, they are both expected to live happy and long lives, making them miracles of nature. According to the Center of Equine Health, when two live foals are delivered, there is a very high risk of foaling problems for the mother, as well as a high chance at a loss of life for both foals during their first two weeks of life. The owner of Emma was (and is still) stunned by the event and didn’t even know that Emma was carrying twins this entire time.
