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little baaaabeeey
rainstormdragon reblogged
keep reading if you dare....
rainstormdragon reblogged
plaese do you have pics of the wolfbulls
YES THEYRE SO WEIRD LOOKING
they were from a pair of surrendered wolves intended to be used for illegal breeding and the female arrived pregnant but when she had puppies they were like wtf these are lab puppies???? and later they found out she had been around the owners pit bull.
theyre from Mission Wolf in colorado
this is batman
this is another one. his sister i think?
its so crazy how they look so doglike but just ever so slightly scarier and unsettling
Oh yeah, these freaks! There were actually four of them: Batman, Oreo, Asia, and Buku. Asia, sadly, passed away in 2020, but the other three are still alive. The two wolfbulls shown above are, as OP said, Batman, and then his sister Asia. :)
Here's other photos of Batman.
And some more of Asia!
And since they weren't mentioned in the original post, here's their other siblings, starting with Buku.
And then finally, Oreo!
Now, just to get this out of the way, I DO NOT SUPPORT THE INTENTIONAL BREEDING OF WOLFDOGS AND I DO NOT THINK MORE OF THESE SHOULD BE BRED! However, I find these four deeply fascinating and to some extent, I am glad they exist, because wow, looking at them REALLY highlights how you can actually TELL they are part-wolf. So many dogs that are clearly just husky mixes and/or have agouti fur patterns get labeled "wolfdogs" erroneously, and you can always tell that they're not wolfdogs because they just, do not have the uncanny "something isn't quite right" look that THESE dogs do, most notably the eyes; those piercing, yellow eyes.
It has a similar vibe as the "puwo," who I like to call, the Doodle Final Boss.
Yes, those are wolf/poodle crosses. They were bred by Erik Zimen as part of his behavioral studies between wolves and dogs. Like the wolfbulls above, the puwos also just have that scary, piercing gaze that tells you, "this is not a normal dog."
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It looks funny, right? You think it looks funny.
I do too. But it lives its whole life. So you have to take it seriously eventually, right? And be respectful and shit.
I think it can digging in the ground for tubers.
This post lives in my head. I deeply love “I think it can digging in the ground for tubers”
But I can’t stress enough that echidnas cannot be doing that. They are insectivores. Their mouth is not at all capable of biting a potato.
Well…
Maybe it just keeps them. I don’t know.
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A Himalayan Griffon Vulture, the second largest of the Old World Vultures, showing off its fake eyes.
Photo husein_latif
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I felt like I needed to clarify some things before we could continue any more conversations on this godforsaken website.
I’m very proud of the European Robin, I think I really captured it.
burningmanonacid
ALSO A DADDY LONG LEGS is different in the UK vs USA. I learned that by arguing with some Brits because they said there was a daddy long legs on the wall, i looked and only saw an insect, argued with them all for 45 minutes until we all looked it up and saw that we were both correct.
British badger: jovial fellow, eats toast and jam. Might invite you in for a cuppa with the Mrs. Agricultural nuisance.
American badger: pallas cat of a wolverine. Very defensive. Fuck immediately off.
Bonus African badger: Silverback gorilla of mustelids. Should be a cryptid. Bro, don’t even. You are nothing to him.
an extremely good post addition
Opposum (US)
- gets a bad rap
- eats A LOT of ticks
- “plays dead”
- cute
VS
Possum (AUS)
- cute but Australian
Porcupines!
African (crested):
- Crazy hairdo
- Collects bones for gnawing on (to sharpen teeth)
- Also found in Italy
North American
- Climbs trees
- Eats wood
- Stinks. Like…alot.
South American (Brazilian)
- Arboreal
- Prehensile tail
- Rolls into ball for protection
- Schnozz
Old world porcupines which are found from Africa all the way to parts of Indonesia, are not close relatives to the porcupines found in the Americas despite being in the same order.
Quills have developed multiple times in rodents.
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An Incomplete List of the Animals my Grandpa brought home over the course of his 67-year marriage to Gandma:
- Annabell, a solid white and completely deaf pit bull that used to let mom draw on her belly
- The World’s Ugliest Tom Cat, who turned out to be the cuddiest teddy bear of an animal
- Cocker spaniel named “Captain”
- Stupid, the Cat
- Litter of baby raccoons
- Three more cats
- A completely bald and extremely anxious canary that sang beautifully, but only at 4 AM
- Baby Squirrel that grew up in the house and then refused to move out
- A Genuine Thoroughbred Racehorse who was a spectacular athelete but had a habit of running races in the wrong direction. Benny turned out to be a terrific trail horse instead.
- Turtle
- Snapping Turtle
- A bucket full of 43 goldfish left over from the fair. Mom counted once they were all in the bathtub in the backyard with the snapping turtle.
- Another cocker spaniel named “Major”, who had the tremendous talent of eating green beans silently
- Red-tailed hawk he found on the highway, and sucessfully nursed back to health and released.
- Dummy, Son of Stupid
- Strange, the dog that lived under the porch and only came into the house at night.
- An “abandoned” baby deer.
- Spooky, an alleged dog.
- Joey the parakeet whose tricks were 1. drinking tea out of a tiny cup 2. threatening to peck out people’s eyes 3. wearing hats
- A Really Big Toad he found behind the factory, because the other auto workers were discussing using it for target practice. Mr. Grumpity was guardian of the rosebed for several years and granny’s (his mother) favorite animal he ever brought home.
- Gretchen, a St. Bernard that had to be shaved from her prior owner’s neglect, and spent a week hiding from sight with such success in the house that they thought she’d run away.
- Arson, Burglary and Murder, three frankly adorable little kittens. They did not change the names, much to the regret of the cop who lived three doors down.
- Yet another Cocker Spaniel, named “Colonel”
- Cardinal (bird)
- Canada Goose (Demon)
- Once in the nursing home, he had a “pet” 12-point whitetail buck that would come to his window to be fed corn and get headskritches, inexplicably named “Florence”
The marriage only ended because thier time on earth did. He never kept an animal Grandma wouldn’t allow and if anything she was worse about it. She was the one who brought home a tarantula.
Questions from the Notes:
Your grandparents were Druids, right? They were a Steel Worker and Head Clerk at the local grocery store, respectively.
How does a Horse run races the Wrong way? Get near the finish line then make a U-turn becuase he wasn’t done running yet. He was also an excellent jumper and swimming horse. Much happier being a trail horse on Cleveland’s Emerald Belt.
How does a St. Bernard hide in a small suburban house? Clever use of the space behind the couches, under the sink and under beds. For a 110lb animal, Gretchen was also very quiet and knew to wait until the house was empty to move from hiding spaces or to snitch food off the counters. Once her coat grew back in she was willing to be visible again.
The Tarantula Didn’t come froma pet store, did it? You know that stereotype about Tarantuals hiding in Bananas? That used to be a real thing that happened when bananas started being regularly available in Postwar mass market grocery stores. Not very often, but it did. Grandma found the tarantula in a shipment of Bananas, and being the only non-arachnophobe working in the store, took her home and named her “Carmen Tarantula” after the famous brazilian singer. Geography was not Grandma’s strong point
Carmen Tarantula lived for 3 years and juding by the extremely blurry polaroid in the family albums, was probably a Brazilian Black.
What do you mean Spooky was an “Alleged Dog”? Well, for one thing, she Meowed.
Spooky was a 35lb delicate-limbed dog with owl-like pale green eyes and bat-like ears that was solid black save for a white patch on her chest in exactly the shape of Casper The friendly ghost, which was the only part of her visible when she would roam the halls at night, which is how she got the name.
Spooky was living in the house at the same time as Dummy, Son Of Stupid and another more Prototypical cat named Needles. Dummy would sometimes forget what he was doing and get lost in the house, causing him to mewl pathetically until one of the humans or animals found and escorted him back to more familiar settings. Typically, Needles would meow back at Dummy until she found him.
After three weeks in the house, Spooky could do an astonishingly good Cat’s Meow as well.
Spooky could also open doorknobs, get into the attic which didn’t even have a human entrance, would sit up like a human to eat her dinner or watch TV, and had a peculiar penchant for fishing. Grandpa and Uncle popeye would regularly take her on fishing trips becuase she’d gleefully dive into the lakes and finish bringing the catch in, whether it were lake trout or pike or in one case, a strugeon.
Spooky also LOVED tomatoes. More than anything else in the world. If given a choice between a ribeye and a tomato, Spooky would chose the tomato every time. This only applied to raw tomatoes though, she despised ketchup.
So while very much shaped like one, Spooky gave the distinct impression of something else dressed up as a dog. Whatever she was, she was a loving and beloved companion to the family for 16 years.
If you enjoyed this story, you can check out my #Family Lore tag on my blog, or you can pre-order copies of the Family Lore Book containing many more stories on my Patreon. I am disabled and telling stories online is my primary source of income so if you share these please link back and consider donating to my Ko-Fi or PayPal. Thank you all for your support!
DEFINITELY go read the tag. The stories are incredible! I would straight up read an entire book of them. Repeatedly.
And if you’ve got a buck to spare, drop it in that tip jar.
Appreciate your taletellers, folks. 😊
I’ve only seen this post in screenshots. My day has been made.
i, too, have only seen this post in screenshots….. and the lore about spooky has me thinking: “what if it was a spirit of the fae (or something of the like) who came and chilled with your grandparents bc they took in all the injured, unwanted, supposedly unlovable animals…?”
I’ve known Gallus was an amazing storyteller with a remarkable family for years, but this is the first time I’ve suspected an ancestral connection to Gerald Durrell.
Yet another epic. :)
I wondered why this was getting notes lol.
Some More animals from my mother’s childhood home:
- Nickel and Dime, the bait fish that lived in a teapot
- Susan, the rat snake
- Susan 2 or “Twosan”, also a rat snake but may have also been the same rat snake but bigger.
- The cats Smoke and Fire, so named because: 1. They were gray and orange, respectively 2. Fire was blind and navigated the house by following Smoke around, so literally, wherever there was Smoke, there’s Fire.
- A Goldfinch that moved into the Canary’s cage after he passed away and it was put outside one day during housecleaning
- A flying squirrel
- After my Grandparents moved to a nursing home, Grandpa had a “pet deer” that was a wild whitetail buck who would come up to the window of their room for carrots and head skritches, despire everyone telling Grandpa NO!!
- The Woodcock That Lived Under The Oak Tree. several attempts were made to name it but the next time it came up in conversation, everyone forgot what they had agreed to call it, so it became The Woodcock That Lives Under The Oak Tree.
- Romaine, a frog they found in a head of lettuce
- A Cow, briefly
- Apparently Strange The Dog had puppies at some point and they managed to find homes for Weird, Odd, and Bizarre, but they decided to keep Queer, which was a real funny animal to stand in the street calling in for dinner.
- At least 17 Bullfrogs, all named “Dog”
- Skittles the Pony who had a penchant for swimming in the local lake and biting pieces out anyone who wasn’t paying enough attention.
Honorable Mention:
- The first Dog my mom got was “Cops” a beautiful 120lb purebred German Shepherd who had flunked out of the police K9 academy.
- Cops HAD been doing very well at Bite Training, except that being A Creature of Profound Intellect and Sound Philosophy, Cops had assumed that the purpose of biting was to get the guy who was shouting and behaving aggressively to stop. So the first time he was told to Chase Down A Fleeing Suspect (the guy in the bite suit, sprinting away) Cops correctly decided that the man screaming at him to bite someone who was actively leaving the confrontation must be the aggressor, and promptly bit his handler in the dick.
- Being that he was entirely too morally upstanding for police work, Cops was surrendered to the local animal shelter as my mother arrived to adopt a dog.
- She expressed an interest, was told why he washed out and “He’s got a mean streak a mile wide- A little lady like you wouldn’t be able to control him.”
- My mother, 4'11 and the former Ohio State Weight Lifting Champion, looked down at this gentle soul and promptly scooped him up into her arms on his back like an infant, where he was thrilled to remain, tail wagging, for the rest of the adoption process.
- Cops was my mother’s loyal guardian, and largely aloof to politely hostile to nearly every man my mother brought home, which tended to end romantic relationships. Until one night when she brought a former ESL teacher turned computer programmer she’d been seeing home for a drink and when she came back from the kitchen with the bottle of wine, Cops had climbed into the man’s lap on the couch and rolled on his back while the man goo-goo’d over him like an infant.
- “That’s when I knew it was serious.” She told me, much later. “I hadn’t made up my mind about marriage at that point, but I knew I wanted children, and that I wanted him to be your father.”
—
rainstormdragon reblogged
Elephants call out to each other using individual names that they invent for their fellow pachyderms, a study said on Monday. While dolphins and parrots have been observed addressing each other by mimicking the sound of others from their species, elephants are the first non-human animals known to use names that do not involve imitation, the researchers suggested. For the new study, a team of international researchers used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyse the calls of two wild herds of African savannah elephants in Kenya. The research "not only shows that elephants use specific vocalisations for each individual, but that they recognise and react to a call addressed to them while ignoring those addressed to others," lead study author Michael Pardo said. "This indicates that elephants can determine whether a call was intended for them just by hearing the call, even when out of its original context," the behavioural ecologist at Colorado State University said in a statement.
Source: sciencealert.com
rainstormdragon reblogged
People are so stupid about snakes. If there's a little black racer chilling outside just leave it alone, you don't have to kill it, it's probably dealing with all your pests for you, jesus christ
If you kill a non venomous snake that's just silly and cruel and betrays a disgusting worldview of blind hatred and fear of other beings,
and if you kill a venomous snake that's VERY STUPID because trying to kill a venomous snake is the best way to get bitten by a venomous snake.
rainstormdragon reblogged
i the snail.
omgs
everybody here is perfect
mamaduafe
I have never seen a happier snail omg
rainstormdragon reblogged
Like a fine wine.
Source: babyanimalgifs
rainstormdragon reblogged
had an interaction with a cat at my mother's friend's house (we dropped by to feed her while my mom's friend was out of town) and my mother said "i was surprised how much that cat liked you, she doesn't usually let people pet her but she followed you around and let you pet her a lot"
and in explaining to her my interaction with the cat i put into words a thing i'd never put into words before, having always automatically understood what i was doing. But once i put it into words my mother said she'd never thought of that and it felt like something worth sharing here.
This cat did a typical cat thing where she sniffed my fingers i was holding out, and then acted like she wanted me to pet her, but then when i started to move to pet her, moved her head away slightly to prevent it.
I instinctively understand this interaction, and stopped trying to pet her and moved back to a neutral position and waited to see if she would re-initiate an interaction.
Because this is basically a consent test. This is how a cat can assess "how closely are you paying attention to what i'm telling you" and "how respectful of my boundaries are you".
If i am responsive to her yes/no game, moving to pet her when she indicates i can, stopping immediately when she seems to change her mind, then she knows she can trust me to understand her, and also to respect her choices. That's what i did, so then she knew she could trust me and relax around me and enjoy my company. She was actually a very friendly and social little cat, who clearly wanted to make friends with me.
But if i had insisted on trying to pet her when she seemed to change her mind instead of simply understanding that she didn't want to be pet in that moment, she would have known she couldn't trust me to understand or respect her, and she would have treated me like she has to treat 90% of the people who visit that house, evidently.
I work mostly with dogs these days, but i grew up with cats too, and am generally good with animals. Many shy animals will also do this same "sniff sniff okay touch me nope just kidding" routine, especially if they've had experiences with people that make establishing that kind of communication and trust important to them.
And in fact, a lot of animals will do some version of this kind of consent test in a whole variety of situations. When well socialized dogs do that thing where they are rough housing and then they both stop suddenly for a moment until one of them play bows or makes a little pouncing motion and then they fly back into rough housing mode, that's what they are doing, they are doing a consent check-in, like "whoah this is getting wild, are you still in? are we still playing, is this still a good time for you?"
anyway, that's why this lovely little cat followed me around asking me to pet her the whole time we were visiting that house, because i showed her that i understood her signals and respected her boundaries, which is something i see a lot of both men and women not doing when interacting with cats and dogs.
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hese Hyalophora cecropia are the largest moths found in North America
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nana-41175
The most tender gaze.
Tiger slow-blink and hand-holding. MY HEART.
I love you I love I love you I love you