Category Archive

I saw the article first in the paper I work for and wanted to blog about it. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten around to blogging much this past week and it’s been a bit. I still think it’s a great heartwarming story and should be told…

In Meriden, CT at the CT Humane Society… a mother cat who just gave birth to kittens adopted a 6 day old Rottweiler puppy that was abandoned by it’s mother. The pup is named Charlie. Charlie’s mother was found by the side of the road in Meriden a couple of months ago. She gave birth to two puppies, but one was stillborn. As sometimes happens with a stillborn in the litter, the mother refused to accept Charlie. “The kittens scrum up with him and the kittens treat him like one of their own,” Chorney said. “There’s a certain social benefit of small animals being with each other.” Volunteers are hoping that dog owners will volunteer their puppies to be Charlie’s playmates. “Dogs need to be with a litter of puppies, to learn to play with other dogs,” Chorney said. “He has to learn to be a well-socialized dog. Here is the Meriden Humane Society’s website. Also, here is the article about the whole situation.

And a photo:

And a video!

I just stumbled upon this article about long-tailed macaque monkeys in Singapore causing havoc. Basically they roam the streets in groups of 20 and ransack houses - taking food, opening cupboards, overturning trash bins and pissing on the rug. It’s not even just houses anymore… Out for a game of golf, did you pack a lunch? Consider it gone if these packs of monkey’s come around. Nowhere seems safe anymore. Lock those doors and fear the monkey’s wrath! According to an article about these incidents: “It’s not that they want to attack. They just think, if you have the food, why don’t you share it? Why are you eating and not sharing? Can I have some? They cross the line.”

Here is a video of a monkey in a Singapore parking lot stealing an apple:

Here is another video of a monkey in Singapore AGAIN stealing and eating someone’s food. It’s crazy to see.

Here are some great stock photos I have found just for you… enjoy them!

I have gotten the worst news today that has sent me spiraling into a depression. You will have to excuse me if I slack a bit on the posts for the next couple days since I haven’t been too happy about this news. My kitty “Skittles” (she is half Siamese, half Persian and gorgeous) has Feline Leukemia. It is in the 1st stage of the virus and could live 3 more healthy years (on the bright side) but that doesn’t mean she will. You wouldn’t even be able to tell she had anything wrong with her as she looks and acts the same as she ever did. The bad news came from a regular Vet checkup. It’s good that it was caught early because the 2nd stage only means bad things for our furry friends. I have decided to post a few facts about this virus for everyone’s information… it will show also what to look for (as in signs)… although I would urge everyone to just bring their pet for regular checkups because my baby isn’t showing any signs at all but she still tested positive.

What is Feline Leukemia Virus?

Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), a retrovirus, so named because of the way it behaves within infected cells. All retroviruses, including feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), produce an enzyme, reverse transcriptase, which permits them to insert copies of their own genetic material into that of the cells they have infected.

How common is the infection?

FeLV-infected cats are found worldwide, but the prevalence of infection varies greatly depending on their age, health, environment, and lifestyle. In the US approximately 2 to 3% of all cats are infected with FeLiv. Rates rise significantly - 13% or more - in cats that are all, very young, or otherwise at high risk of infection.

How is FeLV spread?

Cats persistently infected with FeLV serve as sources of infection. Virus is shed in very high quantities in saliva and nasal secretions, but also in urine, feces, and milk infected cats. Cat-to-cat transfer of virus may occur from a bite wound, during mutual grooming, and (although rarely) through the shared use of litter boxes and feeding dishes. Transmission can also take place from an infected mother cat to her kittens, either before they are born or while they are nursing. FeLV doesn’t survive long outside a cat’s body - probably less than a few hours under normal household conditions.

What does FeLV do to a cat?

Feline Leukemia virus adversely affects the cat’s body in many ways. It is most common cause of cancer in cats, it may cause various blood disorders, and it may lead to a state of immune deficiency that hinders the cat’s ability to protect itself against other infections. The same bacteria, viruses, protocoa, and fungi that may be found in the everyday environment - where they usually do not affect the healthy animals - can cause severe illness in those with weakened immune systems. These secondary infections are responsible for many of the diseases associated with FeLV.

What are the signs of disease caused by FeLV?

During the early stages of infection, it is common for cats to exhibit no signs of disease at all. However over time - weeks, months or even years - the cat’s health may progressively deteriorate or be characterized by recurrent illness interspersed with periods of relative health. Signs may include:

• Loss of appetite
• Slow but progressive weight loss, followed by severe wasting late in the disease process
• Poor coat condition
• Enlarged lymph nodes
• Persistent fever
• Pale gums or other mucus membranes
• Inflammation of the hums (gingivitis) and mouth (stomatitis)
• Infection of the skin, urinary bladder, and upper respiratory tract
• Persistent diarrhea
• Seizures, behavior changes, and other neurological disorders
• A variety of eye conditions
• In unspayed female cats, abortion of kittens or other reproductive failures

What are the two stages of FeLV infection?

FeLV is present in the blood (a condition called viremia) during two different stages of infection:

Primary Viremia, and early stage of the virus infection. During this stage some cats are able to mount an effective immune response, eliminate the virus from the bloodstream, and halt progression to the secondary viremia stage.

Secondary Viremia, a later stage characterized by persistent infection of the bone marrow and other tissue. If FeLV infection progresses to this stage, it has passed a point of no return: the overwhelming majority of cats with secondary viremia will be infected for the remainder of their lives.

How can I keep my cat from becoming infected?

The only sure way to protect cats is to prevent their exposure to FeLV infected cats.

• Keep cats indoors, away from potentially infected cats that might bite them. If you do allow your cat outdoor access, provide supervision or place them in a secure enclosure to prevent wandering and fighting.
• Adopt only infection-free cats into households with uninfected cats.
• House infection-free cats separately from infected cats, and don’t allow infected cats to share food and water bowls or liter boxes with uninfected cats.
• Consider FeLV vaccination of uninfected cats (FeLV vaccination of infected cats is not beneficial). Discuss the advantages of vaccination with your veterinarian. FeLV vaccines are widely available, but since not all vaccinated cats will be protected, preventing exposure remains important even for vaccinated pets. FeLV vaccines will not cause cats to receive false positive results on ELISA, IFA or any other available FeLV tests.

I hope this has helped inform you of the risks out there and to seriously consider getting your cat vaccinated. I never thought it would happen to my cat and it did. She hardly left the yard when she went outside, she was a scaredy cat about roaming around the neighborhood, and still she caught it. Please do me a favor and check on your cat… if everyone took better care and diagnosed their cat, this wouldn’t be becoming more of a common problem. I now have to keep Skittles indoors and worry about her getting all sorts of infections bringing her to the vet every few months. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

This is my skittles… her eyes are light blue, so it’s hard to get a good photo of her eyes looking normal:

She also loves to sit on your shoulder like a bird ever since she was a kitten. Here she is with my boyfriend… chilling on his shoulder:

I was quite tired today after work, so I appologize that I haven’t put much up but I couldn’t leave you with nothing at all, so here is some goofy cat pics.

This morning I was sent a group of pictures in my email of hands that were beautifully painted in the style of many animals and photographed to look like that animal (hard to describe, the pictures speak for themselves). It didn’t give the name of the artist, so I did my own research and came up with two links (One is his very own website and the other is a link to an article on Animal Planet about his work.) His website — Animal Planet Article. Here are some of my favorite painted hands that were sent to me:

Caption It! I think this should be fun. Go for it…

You can just tell they love each other! This is the definition of Adorable!

Thanks to qplog for giving me the link to this site, it was fun and I found some animal related dolls that I thought were cute. Here is the site in case you want to make your own.

My Boss sent me this in an e-mail. I thought it was funny and cute!

The cat goes in to investigate…

A closer look is needed…

A second sniff and the cat needs to retreat…

The smell knocks the cat out…

It’s true… your feet ARE smelly!

Here’s a terribly sad story that I am reluctant to bring to everyone’s attention. Unfortunatly I feel as if these pets who died should be mourned. At the Seminole County Animal Services building in Sanford, Florida a fire was started and the suspected cause of the blaze was a clothes dryer. Firefighters came to the rescue but couldn’t save all the animals in time. 32 cats and 7 dogs were killed. There were around 270 animals that survived and were treated on the scene and expected to live. It is sad to hear of this tragedy and all we can do is mourn for the lifes lost. Here is the article.

And here are some photos of the survivors…

I found a video of the prehistoric shark I mentioned in a past blog. It’s pretty fascinating.

Found some cute Cat/Kitty photos in Stock Photography, enjoy!

This kitty had 2 great shots, they both show massive personality and a cute tongue.

Fuzzy kittens… I love it!

This kitten looks ready to strike or fall asleep… I can’t decide.

I wanted to write something on design schemes and furniture for your pets. There are so many crazy, cute and exciting things to buy for your pets and I am going to fill you in on some of the coolest and cutest functional designs I have seen or found. If you come across any of your own, please comment with your own (possibly with a link on where to purchase the item.) Each picture below if clicked on will bring you to the website where you can purchase it.
One of the most common items for a cat would be a Cat Tree. These are great for climbing, scratching and being able to reach higher places (like sitting on the cat tree by a window and bathing in the sunlight). Cat Trees break down to other furniture such as Cat Steps, Towers, Condos, and Scratching Posts. (I am not making any profit listing these, this is for your own reference and I am just impressed by the items enough to link for them).

This little house doubles as a Dog or a Cat House. I loved the bed on the top. If you have both a dog and a cat and they get along, what a great piece to add for both of them. It costs a little over $100 but it is handmade in nice wood stained beautifully.

This Cat Hammock attached to a cat tree is one of my favorites. It’s a great company called Dr. Foster & Smith which sell GREAT pet supplies.

Here’s a great addition to any window - The Kitty Sill

One of the things I wanted to show everyone was the cat tent my roommate got for Tag Kitty but I don’t think Ikea sells that anymore unfortunately. If you really like it maybe you can find it on EBay or something sometime but I have to show it anyways… here is Tag in his tent.

I love the look of these Dog items:

I love this modern looking Dog house.

Great Dog bed with rollers, such a great design.

This wall mounted fish tank is so stylish and cool!

HGTV has a whole section on room designs for pets. Check it out here!

Right down the road from me this animal shelter had a photo on their website of a cat in his very “own” room which I thought was cute. Click on the photo to read the article.

Yet another cat room:

Hope you enjoyed all these ideas and I hope you splurge on your pet… they deserve it!!

Here is an instructional video on how to wash a cat. It is quite funny actually but has great tips as well. Enjoy it!

I have decided to enter a contest that is being hosted by engtech on wordpress. The contest information is posted here in case you are interested. Basically the question that needs to be answered is: Why I started this blog. I wanted to participate not only because of the prizes (free credits on wordpress) but also because I want my readers to know how dedicated I am and how much I care about what I write.

So here goes nothing:

Why I Started Adorablay Animals: By Amber Ostheimer

I have always liked blogging and have done so for over 8 years. This is not to say that I am a genus blogger but I believe if you like blogging it shows. Many bloggers are aspiring writers, or even published. I am not one of these people. Although I did very well in all English classes, I never had the talent for it like some do. I enjoy it but that is as far as it goes. I am an artist in many ways; photography, graphic design, drawing and more but alas have no drive to become a professional writer. Although my talent may be lacking, when I first started blogging it was something I enjoyed. This was strange because I never enjoyed writing papers for class and things like that. I think the enjoyment came from “no expectations”, there wasn’t someone grading me or looking at my writing from a literary stance. I was writing about things I liked, loved, things that happened in my life, my thoughts on issues but not forced to write about some topic given to me by a teacher.

After I moved onto blogging about things I had found on the Internet (in a previous blog on myspace) and I got great feedback from it. I loved that people would read what I wrote and they would come back for more. I had a following of sorts. I had a knack for finding things on the Internet that were interesting and blogging about them. I know that doesn’t sound very professional but as I said before, I have never done this for fame or literary value. About two weeks ago I got the idea to start anew with a blog on a specific topic. It didn’t take me long to pick animals because I am obsessed with them. For example, any time I go to someones house, I give more attention to their pet than to the person who invited me over. Yes, it seems rude but I can’t help it. Sometimes I think I love animals more the people even though sometimes I think that this thought is very silly, I am torn.

With a topic at hand, I started this blog. Adorablay comes from the word “adorable” and was the way my boyfriend pronounced it (he was being silly, he does know how to pronounce the real word). I loved the sound of the word and it instantly came to mind when I thought of names for the blog. I think it fits nicely. I started the blog about a week ago and already I have had not only great success with hits but with finding people who love animals as much as me. WordPress is very impressive with their social network ability and with the easy to use interface. I was instantly impressed and knew that this would be something I could continue and do so with enjoyment. I have already gotten many responses to my posts that make me feel appreciated for taking up this task. I also have posted articles, links and news about animals in need. If I can make one person a month learn more about their own pet, adopt a pet, help any of the animal related community service links… I have done a good job and this will make me feel like I have made some kind of difference. Even if I can make someone smile with a funny, cute photo or video, I have touched someone that day and possibly have brightened their day. This is what makes me happy and why I am glad to have started this blog in the first place. I thank everyone who has become friends with me in such a short time and I am very grateful for all the support. Support the animals! Love the animals!

I guess it’s time to post some of my animal pictures I have with yours truly (Amber, yes that’s my name). All these photos were taken from a camera phone unfortunately and I did my best doctoring them up in photoshop (honestly didn’t make very much of a difference).

Tag kitten is the one I am cuddled up with and he is my roomates cat (I plan on stealing him when I move out.. shh, don’t tell my roomate!) He sleeps and cuddles with me all the time. And yes, he is the cat that chases his tail like a pro.

This is me in Florida with the kittens… they were so cuddly and playful. I wish I could have taken them with me to Connecticut but I guess I can visit them when I want since my Dad kept all of them.

This is my boyfriends cat Peeper (the star of my blog since he is all over my blog header!) This is how he sleeps 50% of the time (directly on his face… and NO I am not joking). He has a forehead/head fetish I think because not only does he sleep on his face but he loves to head butt you for attention. My boyfriend has called him “eggplant” because of the shape he makes when he sleeps like this.

That’s right! Fabruary is National Pet Dental Month. This is SO important because so many pet owners tend to neglect this part of their animals health. Animals are very prone to getting oral diseases if not properly cared for and on a regular basis.

“According to the AVDS, 80 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats show signs of oral disease by age three, often indicated by bad breath, a change in eating or chewing habits, pawing at the face and mouth and depression. Besides causing receding gums and tooth loss, the infection may enter the bloodstream, potentially infecting the heart, liver and kidneys.”

If you own a pet please check out this site which has a bunch of useful information about Pet Dental Care. Take care of those little fuzzy love bugs! They depend on YOU!

Here is a Bunny Wallpaper just for you. Enjoy!

Click on the photo for the wallpaper download page. Click save as and then save it to the desired folder on your computer.

1600×1200:

800×600:

Animal Stock Photography I found… they caught my eye and I had to share!

Is this puppy even real? It kind of looks like a stuffed animal doesn’t it??

I love the expression on this monkeys face… he looks so darn happy (and a bit goofy).

This next one I will be turning into a wallpaper in the next post. The rabbit was too adorable not to!

I know my blog is about cuddly, cute, adorable animals but when those animals become victim to horrible deaths, I can’t let this go unnoticed. I not only want to brighten someones day with pictures, videos and stories of the cute and adorable but also to inform people of animals in the news, how to help them and to know what’s going on in the “animal world”. Sometimes this comes with hard to hear news, like this bombing in the Baghdad pet market. What annoys me the most was the fact that when I first read about it, there were death and injury tolls of people but hardly anything was said about the animals involved. I am not trying to say anything here about whose life is more important, but I do believe it would do some good if people were aware that humans are not the only victims of war. Here is a news article from CBS about the bombing (and after reading it, you will see what I mean).

After looking into the story a bit, I found some videos I would have rather not watched from the war regarding animals. It may have not had anything to do with this particular case but I started to realize how much the animals were suffering due to this war… something I didn’t even think about (being a huge animal lover). In the videos you will find animal cruelty to a huge degree. One shows an American soldier throwing stones at an injured dog just for fun. Another shows live donkey being fed to a lion with many onlookers (this in a Baghdad zoo). Thinking about these videos, I realized that the animals the were in the Pet Market were probably just left there (especially if they weren’t even mentioned in any of the articles). Doesn’t anyone care? Are there no reporters who have a soft spot for animals?

This said, it is up to you if you would like to view these videos I have mentioned. I am not placing them on the blog directly due to the content. It is not easy to watch, I warn you. I don’t recommend it, but if anything… if it brings enlightenment so be it. It should be known they are victims of cruelty just as much as people are over there. I hope something can be done about this.

This video reminded me of Gladiator times with the lion… it’s so awful… particularly the audience cheering in the background and with comments like “this is f*ckn awesome”, shame on them!!!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXEePi7a2Pw

These soldiers torturing an injured dog is just plain sadistic. I can’t believe my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ubFeESQbU

One of my favorite comics out there is Get Fuzzy. The characters are hilarious and both the Dog and Cat (Bucky and Satchel) remind me of animals I have owned. The papers around my area do not publish Get Fuzzy, which is sad. Most of the time I have to read them online but I have also purchased all the books they have come out with (it’s too irresistable). Most of the comics I can relate to, which is vital to a comic being funny (in my opinion). I love the way Bucky has this typical cat attitude (especially with his violence).

Here are a few comics (just in case you haven’t been exposed to the wonders of Get Fuzzy).

This creature you see here is called a frilled shark. Sightings of these sharks are rare because they usually live thousands of feet below in the Ocean. This shark was spotted by a fisher in Japan. After being caught, the shark was moved to Japan’s Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Unfortunatly the shark died not shortly after being captured. Some speculate that it came to the surface because it was sick. We may never know.

Photos courtesy of National Geographic.

If you didn’t know already, every year Animal Planet airs a show called Puppy Bowl. Puppy Bowl airs the same time the Super Bowl is on and consists of puppy’s placed inside a field like enclosure. It’s cute and can be interesting and fun to watch for a short time. This is aired all day long and can be a bit too much if you attempt to watch it all day. The funniest part is when a puppy poops and they call it a foul. I found this video on YouTube that shows a dog watching the Puppy Bowl on TV and it’s ADORABLE! Let’s just day this dog REALLY gets into the game!

Saw this ad during the Super Bowl (just a few minutes ago) and had to share it with everyone. It’s adorable, just perfect for adorablay!

*Note the video below is a preview of the commercial… the link below it will take you to IFilm to view the entire video (wordpress doesn’t seem to accept IFilm’s codes). If anyone knows how to get around this please let me know.

IFilm’s Full Commercial Click Here

One of the funniest things I have seen an animal do is chase their tail. My roomate’s cat Tag does it from time to time and it always manages to make me laugh (without fail). So in honor of the animals that don’t seem to realize their own tail is not an enemy… we love you and your astonishing stupidity! Here are some pictures and videos just for you to enjoy and get a laugh from:

Found this stock photograph and had to share it. The puppy just cries out “Love Me!”

I have always been interested in Sugar Gliders because they are so darn cute! So I decided to do an entry on them:

Sugar Gliders are small marsupials, which originate from New Guinea and Southern Australia. Sugar gliders are nocturnal animals and spend almost their entire live in trees. For more information about Sugar Gliders check out Wikipedia’s page on these adorable animals! I hear they make pretty good pets too. Here are some of the cutest Sugar Glider photo’s I found:

Through the years of reading, researching and caring for animals, I have come across many cases of what they call Animal Hoarding. Animal Hoarding is basically when a person becomes obsessed with animals (mostly common household pets like Dogs and Cats) and decides to adopt (rescue) an especially high number of them. As wonderful as adopting is, it becomes a problem when the house is overloaded with them to the point of uncleanliness. In most cases the animals are without enough food/water and some haven’t been properly up to date and cared for medically. This problem is very common unfortunatly and doesn’t seem to get enough attention. As sad as it is to see these animals living under such conditions, unfortunatly the owner is usually under the impression that they are doing nothing wrong, perhaps even feeling as if they are helping these animals. There has been developed a psychological condition for such people called Animal Hoarding/ers. According to Wikipedia: “Animal hoarding is a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder rather than deliberate cruelty towards animals. Hoarding involves keeping higher than usual numbers of animals as pets without having the ability to properly house or care for them, while at the same time denying this inability. Hoarders are deeply attached to their pets and find it extremely difficult to let the pets go, since they cannot comprehend that they’re harming their pets by not providing the right environment and hygiene. Hoarders tend to believe that they provide the right amount of care for their pets.”

The ASPCA even has a unit that deals with Animal Hoarding cases and people. According to their website most cases they have come across have a sad ending where the animals taken out of the home are too old, sickly or unsociable to be adoptable and are more than likely euthanized. The best advice they give to someone who knows a hoarder and wants to help them and the animals they are hoarding is:

1. Try to convince the hoarder to accept help from the ASPCA Cares team. Animal hoarders are usually worried that these animals will not be returned to them but assure them that the ASPCA mobile clinic is parked outside their home for the entire length of the visit and that the animals will be returned after medical treatment and surgery.

2. Help the hoarder prepare the animals for the mobile clinic visit. On the night before, remove all food and water so that the animals do not eatbefore surgery. Gather cardboard or plastic carriers to contain the cats and enough leashes for dogs. Find a room that can be cleaned and ventilated so that the animals can recover there after surgery. On the morning of the mobile clinic visit, put the cats in individual carriers and leash all dogs in order to deliver them to the mobile clinic, which is usually parked in front of the hoarder’s home. In the afternoon after surgery, help the hoarder remove the animals from the clinic and return them to their recovery area.

3. Stay in touch with the hoarder to ensure that the animals are recovering from surgery. Help the hoarder with medical treatment of sick animals.

My hope in bringing this to attention is to get others to gain knowledge and understanding about this condition. It is something very common and more the likely could be happening right under your nose. Hopefully, the care needed for these animals and one suffering from this condition can be taken care of in the correct manner where everyone involves comes out for the better.

The Scottish Fold kitten is one of my favorites. The way the ears are set make the eyes so big and doe eyed. Enjoy.

Triple RPets stands for Rescue, Relocate and Reunite. This agency does exactly that for pets in need after any kind of crisis situation and they work across the country to do this. The group was former in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This group has spread nationwide where they have formed shelters, support groups, foster care, donations, transportation and supplies. Their website includes adoptable pets through the petfinder search engine, a way to donate to the cause (even available through online payment), a page full of pets that have already been adopted to loving homes. This is not all… there is even a link for information on how to ready your own pets for a disaster situation as well as many other things such as links, news and ways to volunteer. I highly recommend you check them out and take the time to do whatever you can for this organization. They have already done so much for animals all over the country and are ready to help many more.

To contact Triple R Pets:

Phone: 708.738.1438
Email: info @rrrpets.org
Or visit their website for all the information listed above AND more at http://www.triplerpets.org

Peeper is my boyfriends Cat. He is cow colored and loves to head butt people. I think he photographs very well and this is the reason some of my favorite photographs have been of him. Here are some of those photos that I have taken.

Peeper, why do you look so mad?

Peeper Yawning… such a lazy Cat!

He likes to clean himself, making him very soft and fuzzy.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Peeper. He loves sitting by this window on this pillow… like he is a King. The curtains in the background give a great backdrop with the shadows of the trees outside. I think it may be one of my best pictures yet.

What better way to start this site than with my own animals including some that have crossed my path and have touched my heart. Not only do I adore animals but my love extends to photography as well. This said, it may be obvious that I would have plenty of pictures of my own to share. Animals are usually my number one subject and I tend to catch some pretty good shots. Enjoy them.

While visiting my Dad in Florida I was extremely surprised to find out he had 4 adorable kittens at his home. They didn’t even have names yet, so I was lucky enough to name them as well. My Dad has this bar outside with an overhang and these kittens loved laying on the bar during the hot summer days. I got some great pictures of them lounging on this bar. Check it out:

All the kittens together:

Here is Black kitten sleeping:

Ink kitten sleeping:

Combat kitten sleeping:

Flip kitten sleeping:

This one is the same picture above but without being cropped. If you look closely, the book behind Flip kitten is Meditation for Young People. This was not a planned picture… it just happened to be there. I was a little wierded out that my Dad even owned a book like that.

Meano Cat is the Daddy Cat to all these kittens. He was super friendly and loved to talk.

Combat kitten and one of the other kittens playing… roughly.