If I don’t use the word I made up*, who will?
Here’s a dog who’s noticing an awful lot of tension in your back:
!["noodle massage" by m anima [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)], via Flickr](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/38266948_5fcda76be9_z.jpg "\"noodle massage\" by m anima [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)], via Flickr")
Even bunnies need to help each other loosen tight muscles:
!["Massage time!" by Carly Lesser & Art Drauglis [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)], via Flickr](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/12657985224_58154b8b25_z.jpg "\"Massage time!\" by Carly Lesser & Art Drauglis [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)], via Flickr")
It’s not just non-human animals that need to get the kinks worked out. Furries need some therapeutic touch now and then, too: Continue reading
Pun Dog may be the greatest meme in the history of the internet of at least the last few days.
Via BuzzFeed/Imgur
That is all.
Penny and Roo are “unconventional friends,” as Metapicture puts it.
Via metapicture.com
Penny is an “experimental chicken” whose program had ended, and Roo is a chihuahua born without fully-formed front legs and abandoned in a park. They became best buddies after their rescues at Duluth Animal Hospital.
Via metapicture.com
I wasn’t sure what an “experimental chicken” was, and thought maybe Penny’s appearance is due to some sort of genetic splicing or something. She is actually a silkie chicken who just had the misfortune of ending up in a lab. I learned something about chicken breeds today.
Via metapicture.com
See more at Metapicture and Bored Panda.
![By JPL [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/800px-Sagan_Viking-300x201.jpg "By JPL [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons")
Nick Sagan Speaks About His Father Carl, Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist, March 17, 2014
Dad was a difference maker. He reached out to people. He took them by the awe and wonder we feel over the most important questions we can think to imagine. He pulled them away from blind faith, away from pseudoscience, toward a deeper, richer understanding of the universe.
Russian Aggression Deserves a Response, But U.S. Lacks Credibility to Lead It, Stephen Zunes, Yes! Magazine, March 17, 2014
As someone who has spent his entire academic career analyzing and critiquing the U.S. role in the world, I have some news: While the United States has had significant impact (mostly negative in my view) in a lot of places, we are not omnipotent. There are real limits to American power, whether for good or for ill. Not everything is our responsibility.
This is certainly the case with Ukraine.
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.
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.)
This video gives us an important glimpse into the average dog’s ongoing search for its human’s leg vagina, along with all the daily pooping rituals:
UPDATE (01/27/2014): Apparently the embedded video was not “Sad Dog Diary” as advertised. Hopefully this fixes it.
The law governing “dangerous dogs” is not as well-defined as it should be, with jurisdiction often split between municipal and county courts. Procedures may vary widely from one municipality or county to another, including between a municipality and the county in which it is located. In an attempt to be brief, if a dog bites or otherwise attacks someone, the local animal control authority may take possession of the dog, and a judge must make a determination as to whether the dog meets certain criteria to be declared “dangerous” (a statutorily-defined term.) The law mandates various requirements on the owner of a “dangerous” dog, including maintaining extra insurance and keeping the dog in an approved enclosure. If the court finds that the dog caused the death of, or serious bodily injury to, a person, it can order the dog destroyed.
Chapter 822 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, which covers regulation of non-livestock domestic animals (e.g. dogs, cats, etc.) does not provide specifics about appealing a municipal or county court’s determination that a dog is “dangerous”
In Romano v. Texas, a woman fostering a dog for a rescue group was bitten (the court says “attacked,” but I’m assuming one or more bites were involved) by the dog, an a Montgomery County justice of the peace ruled that the dog caused “serious bodily injury” and was to be destroyed pursuant to § 822.003(e) of the Health and Safety Code. The rescue group appealed to the county court, which dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, albeit without any findings of fact or conclusions of law. The group then appealed that dismissal to the 9th District Court of Appeals. Continue reading
