Christmas trees add a nice touch to the holiday season — until your cat or dog gets their hands on it. Pets are naturally curious about Christmas trees, and for good reason! What animal could resist a brand new tree in the middle of your living room with a bunch of bright, shiny, dangling objects that very much resemble toys?!
But you don’t have to be cursed to forever pick up ornaments off of the floor, or come home to a tree that is fully knocked over. There’s now a half-sized Christmas tree that’s perfectly designed to keep curious paws away from it. It’s called the Parasol Christmas Tree. It’s six feet tall, but only has branches at the top, so the branches and ornaments are out of most pets’ reach.
The Parasol Christmas Tree is also useful for other purposes. It’s great for families who have young kids who tend to mess with the tree. It’s also helpful for people who don’t want to crowd up a small apartment with a full-sized tree, but still want a tree with some height to it.
Yes, this tree looks… unconventional. But with the addition of a pile of presents underneath, it still manages to retain the traditional Christmas charm of a full-sized tree. Plus, it comes in multiple colors, including a snowy version.
Unfortunately, the Parasol Christmas Tree is only available in the U.K. at the moment. Our friends across the pond definitely aren’t the only ones with naughty pets, though. It’s only a matter of time before a U.S.-based company follows the trend!
In the meantime, you could always make a DIY version or buy a Christmas palm tree instead.
There is a certain set of people who think small dogs are dumb. Or, maybe, not very manly. My fella was once verbally harassed in a McDonald’s drive thru for having my papillon on his lap, so this is definitely real.
Luckily, my husband is confident and my dog was awesome, so whatever.
Bobby Humphreys, though, used to be one of those guys who had no time for small, girly dogs. He’s a competitive bodybuilder and hardwood floor layer, and he always had big, rough-and-tumble dogs that matched his lifestyle: Rottweilers.
He thought they were regal and imposing, and he and his wife had owned three of them during their 17-year marriage.
But then his life took an unexpected turn in 2016.
It began when his wife left him (on New Year’s Eve), and continued when he injured his shoulder a week later.
He needed surgery, but he had no one to lean on. Without his wife, he fell into a deep depression that he struggled to climb out of as he healed. Try as he might, the depression remained.
One day, his friend messaged to ask if her chihuahua, Lady, could stay with him for a little while.
Bobby didn’t really want the little dog around – he’d used to make fun of his friends who carried similar pups around for their girlfriends in the past – but he couldn’t say no to a friend who had been there for him in his tough times.
Once Lady was in the house, well…everything happened rather quickly.
“Lady did not just transform my opinion, she transformed my life,” he told Bored Panda. “What didn’t she do? She gave me my self-respect and dignity back. After everything I’ve been through; humiliation shaming, abandonment, and everything else, she gave me the reassurance that I wasn’t such a bad person after all.”
She kept him going, she gave him purpose, and on the days when he didn’t want to get out of bed and go to work, her little stare made him do it, anyway.
When it was time for Lady to go back home, Bobby adopted Kira, a similar-looking chihuahua with food aggression issues. Then came Harley and Quinn, two inbred dogs that were unlikely to get adopted by anyone else.
He realized at some point that he was trying to show the dogs a kindness that society and his life had refused to show him – acceptance, no matter what.
They kept coming – bait dogs, abandoned dogs, abused dogs, hoarded dogs – and he kept them all.
“I made a promise to each and every one of them that they would never have to experience abuse, neglect, abandonment or the pain of loving someone that would not give you love in return no matter how much you tried.”
His small, unintentional mission turned into a chihuahua sanctuary called Big Guy Littles World.
Bobby takes the dogs no one wants, shows them love and kindness, and lets them live with him as long as they want.
“I call this place the island of misfit toys… Staring with myself, we are all the rejects. The ones nobody wants. The ones that don’t look perfect. The ones hat don’t fit,” he said to Bored Panda.
The dogs stay with him until – or if – they find someone they like better.
This won’t surprise cat owners in the slightest. Your cat’s purr has a real therapeutic effect, and it can even help heal you.
Cats purr for a variety of reasons. Most often, they purr out of contentment and happiness — this is the most obvious reason, easy to observe in any cat who’s happily curled up on the lap of their favorite person. But cats also purr when they are injured, frightened or hungry.
Nobody knows exactly why cats purr when they do. But given that they do so in stressful situations, it’s likely that the purring has a calming and healing effect. According to Wired, some veterinarians have even observed cats lying alongside other injured cats and purring.
It seems that the healing power of purring could also extend to humans. Purring is relaxing for humans — it calms our nerves and lowers blood pressure.
Purring may even have literal, physical healing benefits. Domestic cats purr at a frequency of 26 Hz, which is within a range that promotes tissue regeneration. In humans, vibrations at this frequency can help soft tissues like muscles and tendons, and they can also heal bones and keep them strong.
All this isn’t quite as woo-woo as it sounds. Some scientists believe that cats purr to stimulate their bones so they don’t become weak while they lay around all day waiting to hunt. Similarly, vibrating plates have even been proposed to help maintain astronauts’ bone density in space.
Girlfriend kicked you out, slashed your tires, and drained your bank account? Call a lawyer! And then go to the dog park and play with some dogs.
You get the point. Enjoy these good boys and girls!
1. Adorable.
Still not sure how this could be, but I found both an abandoned kitten and, independently, an abandoned puppy on Halloween. They are now bonded, and abandoned no more. pic.twitter.com/FoX8VfYBBf
This is Jax. His costume got lost in the mail. Didn’t arrive until today. Was wondering if everyone would be ok with celebrating again. 13/10 pic.twitter.com/rYEzoz7eBX
Halloween is a few weeks behind us, but there are still spooky creatures everywhere!
And one terrifying animal to keep on your radar is the frightening vampire cat. In fact, you may even have one of your own that is snoozing away on your couch at this very moment.
But don’t be fooled. These kitties are vicious and are the spawn of Dracula himself.
Found in an empty jungle foxhole in New Guinea, she was first thought to be the pet of one of the Japanese soldiers. The soldiers took her to a nearby POW camp and discovered she couldn’t understand either English or Japanese. So, her origins remained a mystery.
Still, she ended up in the American soldiers’ camp, where Corporal William (Bill) A. Wynne of Cleveland, Ohio, bought her off of another soldier, distracted by his poker game, for about $7.
That lucky seven bucks ended up saving Corporal Wynne’s life.
Wynne credited Smoky with leading him through heavy shelling coming from a transport ship. She warned him of the attack, and while eight other men around them were hit, Wynne made it to safety.
For the next two years, Smoky never left Wynne’s side, sleeping with him in his tent in the harsh conditions of the jungle and eating from his rations. Since she was there in an unofficial capacity, she didn’t get her own special food like the other war dogs received. Eventually, the 5th Air Force made her a member, and she saw 12 combat missions and was even awarded eight battle stars for bravery.
Her most notable mission was crawling through narrow pipes filled with soil to run telegraph wire for an airbase crewman were building. She saved the soldiers from a three-day, danger-filled task of digging up a heavily used runway, as she took only minutes to squeeze through pipes with the wire, wiggling through a space of about 4 inches in some places.
She also loved to entertain soldiers recovering from their wounds in hospitals with her tricks. She would go on rounds with the nurses, visiting the wounded and lifting their spirits, and she actually continued to do this well after WWII ended (therapy dog!).
After the war, Smoky appeared on TV where she performed tricks like riding a scooter. She was a natural entertainer who delighted audiences with her intelligence and is credited for making the then obscure Yorkshire terrier one of the most popular and adored breeds today.
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Just one – the other eight members of the litter were all hued similarly to their parents (and presumably, their parents before them).
Little Mojito was born just before Halloween in Wermelskirchen, Germany, and his owner, Joanna Justice, was at first concerned about his mint-green coloring. He was healthy, though, as were his litter mates.
Dr. Christian Dimitriadis assured Joanna (and all of us) that the puppy’s green fur would likely grow out and disappear, turning white the second time around.
Though green puppies are rare, they’re not entirely unheard of – the same week, a shamrock-colored great Dane was born in the U.S. – and another green golden retriever pup was born in Scotland in 2017.
A litter of Great Dane puppies born in Colorado featured one unusual addition — a green puppy.
Veterinarians and other scientists aren’t entirely sure why some puppies are born green, though most believe it has to do with bile pigment biliverdin exposure in the womb. This is why it’s most often seen in white dogs – the pigment has a better chance of being seen in a light-colored coat.
Biliverdin can be found in the bile, bruises, and placenta of dogs, and it shows up in other biological phenomena, as well – even in the 6-million-year-old shells of dinosaur eggs.
So anyway, I assume this mama dog loved her green baby the same as the rest – a sentiment I hope would be shared should a human child come out green, but you never know.
Not everyone grew up dreaming of a visit to Oz, herself.