Animals

John Dolan was hospitalized with a skin condition last week. His wife says their dog Zander took it hard. She says the dog sulked and even cried.

Then Zander, seemingly decided he had to be by his owner's bedside. Zander broke out of the Bay Shore home and made his way to the Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center more than 2 miles away.

mayor of a sleepy Alaska town is… [a] part-Manx cat… Talkeetna, Alaska… 900 residents… a write-in campaign shortly after he was born 15 years ago. … The general store where Stubbs hangs out says it gets dozens of tourists a day asking for him.

A black bear that had wandered around the campus of the University of Colorado was tranquilised by wildlife officials before dropping with a thud onto a heavy mattress. [Video]

...50-year-old [man] was opening a bag of coffee with a knife... wife asked him a question... turned to her... a cat ran under his feet and he fell with the knife in his hand... steak knife went about an inch into [his] chest... treated at a hospital and police say he will be fine. [Cat thinks: FAIL!]

Octopuses have the largest brains of any invertebrate.... The common octopus has about 130 million of them in its brain. A human has 100 billion.... Three-fifths of an octopus's neurons are not in the brain; they're in its arms. "It is as if each arm has a mind of its own...."

So far, scientists know that squirrels, upon detecting a rattler, "approach it head-first in an elongated posture, making flaggin movements with its tail," according to a UC Davis report. The robosquirrel can flick its tail as well as heat it -- features controlled independently. Now the research team has determined the snakes respond to the heated tail. "It was the first example of infrared communication in the animal world…."

A beloved squirrel monkey known as Banana Sam was returned scared but safe to the San Francisco Zoo on Saturday night, two days after he was taken. ... The monkey was found by a bystander who saw him come out of the bushes. "He managed to coax the monkey into his backpack" ...

"If you want to learn how badly your public lands are managed, just look at the wild horse program," says Leigh, who has closely followed and challenged the roundups for two years. "It's not working at all." This is one thing on which wild horse advocates and ranchers can agree. [Photo series from Hughes Ranch, Bartlesville]

Navy SEAL U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jon T. Tumilson was among the 30 American troops killed August 6 when Taliban insurgents downed their Chinook helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. At his funeral in Iowa, his dog Hawkeye paid his last respects, walking up to the casket, lying down in front of it, and heaving a sigh.

On the Constitutional rights front, one has to wonder why no one in the Denver news media has explored the subjects of whether it's lawful for law enforcement agents to (1) step foot on someone's property without a warrant and (2) seize someone's private property (livestock) based solely upon an anonymous phone call to a hotline that pays up to $2,000 for tips.

what is being called an "animal hoarding" case involving a reported Washington County SPCA employee... total of 81 dogs and cats were seized.... "a lack of clean ingestible water in the recent 100-plus degree temperatures...." "unbearable odor of 'dead animals', urine and feces..."

A three-metre great white shark breached into a vessel carrying marine researchers yesterday. While none were injured, they said it gave them "the fright of our lives".