Need to De-Stress? Sit in a Box.

12 Thursday Feb 2015

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animals, author, boxes, cat, cats, entertainment, fun, humor, lol, Stephanie Beavers, writer

At least, it works for kitties.

This IFLS article asks, Why Do Cats Love Boxes So Much? Well, someone did a study. No, really.

As it turns out, hiding in boxes reduces stress and anxiety in new cats in animal shelters.

Now it was a small study, but are we really surprised? If you were suddenly stuffed into a prison full of strangers, wouldn’t you rather have some kind of divider between you and the rest of the world to help control interaction with said strangers? Well, this study confirmed this for cats too. In the study, some new cats got boxes, some didn’t. Surprise, surprise, the “boxed” cats were less stressed out about their new surroundings.

I imagine play time was more fun too.

Pew pew!

What the study doesn’t explain is the cat trap concept.

It even works on big kitties.

I imagine there’s a reasonable explanation. So dear readers, why do you think cats like boxes so much?

8 Lives Left

05 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun, News

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animals, cat, cats, entertainment, kitty, life, mishaps, Stephanie Beavers, writer

So there was breaking news in my town yesterday: a cat got stuck in an engine… and survived!

Now, I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised that cats occasionally get stuck in engines. I mean, an engine (when it’s not running) must look like a playground to them, with all those nooks and crannies to explore. One of my old cats used to come home with grease stains on her head after roaming around outside. Of course, climbing into an engine can end very badly for kitties.

Here’s the long and the short of this incident:

“She came in and said she was getting a new battery next door and noticed her belt was off and asked if we could put the belt back on,” said Mary Moorman with Car Craft.

“They went in to take a look and saw there was a cat stuck in there – couldn’t move and couldn’t get out.”

She said the cat wasn’t moving, scared, meowing or anything.

“We had to jack up the car and take parts off from the bottom to get the cat out. We locked the cat away until the SPCA could come and take it to a vet to get it looked over.”

Moorman said the cat had a big kink in its tail and some hair was missing, but, other than that, it appeared to be OK.

This isn’t the first time an animal has been found under the hood of a vehicle, but usually they are not found alive.

It’s safe to say lucky is now down to eight lives.

Eight lives indeed.

What Are You Afraid Of?

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun

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afraid, animals, author, cat, cats, fear, fun, grumpy, Grumpy Cat, humor, life, phobia, spiders, Stephanie Beavers, writer

Everyone and everything is afraid of something.

For example, this water is afraid of this fancy new surface that scientists have developed (or is the surface afraid of the water?)

This cat is afraid of socks.

Me, I’m afraid of spiders. Cliche, I know, but they just have too many legs and they move all wrong… I like cool critters. I like seeing beauty in deadly predators. Wolves, bears, and big cats have incredible beauty and magnificence. Snakes are gorgeous in the own way. Even sharks have an impressive presence and an eerie grace in the water. But spiders? They’re just creepy. Ugly and creepy. I’m not a fan of any bugs, really, but spiders… *shudder* I will encourage spiders everywhere to gorge themselves on the other icky-crawlies of the bug world, but if they come within the same four walls that I currently occupy, or within a couple meters of me when outdoors, then it’s game on. Flyswatter time.

Note there are no pictures of spiders. I do not like spiders.

If I were to get serious about phobias and fears, I could admit much deeper things. But this is a blog. The internets.

I am also afraid of putting my hands inside an oven unprotected if the oven is on. Even if it has only just been turned on. I’m okay if I’ve got oven mitts on, but to reach in and grab something with pot-holders? No. Too much hand exposed. Tea towel? No. Stick something in a not-yet-warm oven without oven mitts? No. Oven mitts or it ain’t happening. It’s silly, sure. But no.

No.

What about you, dear readers? What are you afraid of? What do you say NO to?

Proof That The Grinch Is A Feline

22 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun

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animals, author, cat, cats, Christmas, Christmas Carols, Christmas tree, entertainment, fun, humor, lol, Merry Christmas, pet, pets, Stephanie Beavers, writer

Merry Christmas!

And now, proof that the Grinch was a cat:

This cat REALLY hates this singing reindeer.

Need some TLC?

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun

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animals, author, cat, cats, entertainment, fun, lol, Science, Stephanie Beavers, stress, writer

Sit in a room full of kittens. Here’s proof that it works:

Perfect for a Monday morning.

Animal Babies and Us

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun, News

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adorable, animals, author, babies, birds, cats, fun, kittens, motherhood, mothers, nature, parenthood, Science, science news, Stephanie Beavers, wildlife, writer

A Baby’s Cry Transcends Species
Baby Wrens Learn While They’re Still in the Egg
Some things we have in common with our animal buddies.

Y’know, I’ve never actually looked into all that prenatal learning stuff, but I’ve always idly wondered about those mothers who press earphones playing Mozart against their swollen bellies… are they crazy, or is there something to it?
Well, for wrens, the babies definitely learn in the egg. Scientists played various sounds and calls and reached the conclusion that yes, baby birds learn in their eggs. Cue the rounds of aaaaaaw. (I have a mental picture of a little baby bird rocking out to earphones inside his egg.)

(And did you know that songbirds also share our musical scales? Whaaaat?

As it turns out, baby cries both animal and human have a lot in common, too. Mothers of various animal species would attempt to locate the source of distressed baby cries regardless of the species making the cry. Turns out parenthood unites mothers of all species.

Although really… scientists needed to do a study to verify this? I think most of us have felt our heartstrings tugged by the cries of distressed baby animals before. There are too many adorable internet videos for that not to be the case. INTERNET, PROVE ME RIGHT FOR SCIENCE!

See? Aaaaaaw!

Animal Compasses

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in News

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animals, author, birds, cat, cats, magnetic fields, migration, navigation, pet, pets, Science, science news, sea birds, sea turtles, Stephanie Beavers, turtles, writer

So I read a cool article yesterday: How a Kitty Walked 200 Miles Home: The Science of Your Cat’s Inner Compass

Some animals have the most extraordinary navigational abilities. Some days it seems like there’s nothing new for science to discover when it comes to the mammals we’re so familiar with, like birds and cats, but really, we’ve barely scratched the surface. The article above shares an anecdote about someone’s cat: the cat belonged to a local family, had been lost on a trip two months earlier, and had traveled 200 miles (322 km) in that time to arrive back in her hometown. Scientists have no idea how the cat was able to do that.

I can find my way home.

We do understand how some animals navigate. Dung beetles use the stars, as do seabirds (seabirds use the sun too). Some use Earth’s magnetic fields; sea turtles are born with a magnetic map of the ocean in their heads, allowing freshly hatched babies to run to the ocean and find feeding and breeding grounds. Of course, we’re not sure how exactly they sense and use magnetic fields to navigate, but we know that’s how they’re doing it. Seabirds get lost when it’s overcast, and sea turtles will go the wrong way when presented with artificial magnetic fields. Many animals can also sense things we can’t; a dog’s sense of smell is a prime example.

Maybe this is a reminder for us human beings to keep in mind that there’s more to our world – even the more obvious parts of our world – than we know.

For further reading: Watch: How Far Do Your Cats Roam?

Dear Kitten

16 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun

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adorable, animals, author, cat, cat food, cats, dear kitten, dog, entertainment, Friskies, fun, humor, kitten, kittens, lol, pet, pets, Stephanie Beavers, writer

Okay, so I very recently posted the first Dear Kitten video on my blog.
Now I have discovered there are more. :D
So here they all are. The first is still the best, but they’re all cute. Enjoy!

Trust

06 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

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animals, author, cats, life, narrators, philosophy, Stephanie Beavers, trust, writer

Here’s a beautiful and thought-provoking video. The style of dance displayed isn’t usually my thing, but I can still appreciate the skill, strength, and trust that goes into such a performance. And the monologue over top is interesting. I almost thought it was going to be a funny video (just for a moment) because the narrator sounds like the guy who does “Dear Kitten” and “A Cat’s Guide To Taking Care Of Your Human.” Instead it was worth watching, not for entertainment value, but for the value it brings in getting us to think about what trust is to us – perhaps even who we trust.

Here’s the video: