Monday Morning Cute: Dogs Doing Stuff

Posted on February 17, 2014 by wellsdc

First off, the Pitweiler, from Matt3794 on Reddit, who noted: “Met a Pitweiler the other day at the shop. I almost cried in front of the mechanics out of sheer joy.”

I’m not sure I see the Rottweiler in this little guy, but cuteness that can bring people to tears must be respected.

Next up, okk- asks “What is this witchcraft?”

And in keeping with the pug theme that didn’t really exist until I just now pointed it out, here’s a pug walking a stuffed pug in a stroller:

That’s all for this week. Go hug a puppy.

Plush Terror from the Deep

Posted on February 15, 2014 by wellsdc

I freely admit to having an above-average fondness for stuffed animals, at least among 39 year-old men, and I even have some rather unconventional examples. That said, I do have some limits.

To give you one example, a few weeks ago, my friend Paul posted a link to Facebook about the axolotl, an endangered salamander native to the lakes surrounding Mexico City. Partly inspired by this, I bought a mini squishable axolotl from Squishable.com, because while the axolotl is a strange and off-putting beast, it is also rather cute in its own proud way. See if you can spot which is which:

By th1098 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

axolotl

I also have a squishable Cthulhu. Don’t try to understand why—it would only drive you mad.

(I’m adding some polite space here because the next picture might be jarring otherwise.)

Speaking of strange and off-putting beasts, this is a giant isopod, basically an oversized doodlebug that lives at the bottom of the ocean: Continue reading →

Monday Morning Cute: Weirdos of the Deep

Posted on February 10, 2014 by wellsdc

They say everything is cute as a baby. Does that apply to cuttlefish?

Yeah, I guess it does.

Here’s an adult cuttlefish, looking cute in a Cthulhu-esque sort of way: Continue reading →

Monday Morning Cute: The Lesser-Known Rodents

Posted on February 3, 2014 by wellsdc

Inspired by the naked mole rat (which is really not cute at all), I started looking into other members of the rodent order that might be unfamiliar to people in the U.S. Rodents sort of tend to be either/or in the cuteness department, as we view them either as pests (mice, rats, squirrels that actually try to touch you) or as adorable little shnookums (mice and rats in controlled environments, squirrels that keep a polite distance, beavers actively engaged in chewing on things, etc.) There’s a big wide world of rodents out there, so join me. Today we look at the rodents of South America.

Giant rat-squirrels

You don’t need me to tell you that capybaras, the world’s largest rodent species, are adorable.

By Karelj (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Continue reading →

Monday Morning Cute: The Majestic Penguin

Posted on January 27, 2014 by wellsdc

A clever penguin via Reddit user adorablyfool, who notes, “He looks so proud of himself at the end.”

Here’s an imaginative, but doomed, little penguin: Continue reading →

The Single-Minded Quest of the Dog

Posted on January 23, 2014 by wellsdc

Nothing is going to stop her from getting that fly. The computer was a necessary sacrifice for the greater good.

(The computer is fine, by the way.)

(She never caught the fly.)

Monday Morning Cute: Guardians of the Pillars of Hercules

Posted on January 20, 2014 by wellsdc

Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern tip of Spain at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, is the home of the only population of wild monkeys in Europe. About three hundred Barbary macaques live there, where they are somewhat erroneously known as the Barbary apes (they’re actually monkeys).

Gibmetal77 [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], from Wikimedia Commons

The above picture shows Sergeant Alfred Holmes (1931-1994) of the Gibraltar Regiment with two Barbary macaques, surveying the city from the Rock of Gibraltar. He held the position of “Officer-in-Charge of the Apes” for more than thirty-eight years, calling the macaques “Gibraltar’s greatest treasure.”

The consensus seems to be that the Moors brought the monkeys to Spain as pets between the Eighth and Fifteenth Centuries, but monkeys had probably been in Europe long before that. Continue reading →