The Cute Animal Pics/Videos Thread

[Artemis]

The person who took the video said the eagles are friendly with her cats and hang out with them on the porch just about every day.  I would have been concerned too, though.  I can't leave my dogs alone outside because of the owls and hawks around here.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Here too.  And eagles and foxes and coyotes.  Our cats are strictly indoors, though they have an enclosed porch that they can go "outside" on whenever they want.

[Artemis]

Yeah, all those too.  I can hear coyotes howling at night.  Do foxes attack small dogs?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

23 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Do foxes attack small dogs?

Dunno.  It probably depends on how hungry the foxes are and how small the dogs are.  I think foxes usually eat mice, but doubt they'd turn up their noses at newborn puppies, for example.

[Caya]

Fwiw, there have never been any fox/dog incidents round here, but there have been several altercations of the fox/cat variety. Probably because dogs tend to remain in their own garden (which are fenced round here) unless they're accompanied by humans (in which case it's very hard to even get to see a fox, those round here are terribly shy), while cats roam and can't be avoided that easily.

[Arcadia]

My new kitty is strictly an indoor kitty, which is a new thing for me. And I really believe it would be better for her mental health (she's so bored!) if she could go outside a bit. But I just recently learned we have foxes out there in the woods, so I'm glad she doesn't. Also there have been bear sightings in the neighborhood. And hawks and eagles. No coyotes yet, but can they be far behind? It's a jungle out there!

[Van Buren Supernova]

10 hours ago, Artemis said:

I can't leave my dogs alone outside because of the owls and hawks around here.

 

10 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Here too.  And eagles and foxes and coyotes.

 

5 hours ago, Caya said:

, but there have been several altercations of the fox/cat variety

 

4 hours ago, Arcadia said:

But I just recently learned we have foxes out there in the woods, so I'm glad she doesn't. Also there have been bear sightings in the neighborhood. And hawks and eagles.

Okay, I'm massaging my temple now trying to get rid of picture of you guys holding an antenna or something trying to get wifi signal to get into the forum from where you are, while battling a group of bears. Because where on earth are you staying at? I'm staying in the city now, but from what I remember it's also not that happening back then when I used to roam outdoor..

[Caya]

Well I can't speak about coyotes, eagles and similarly impressive wildlife, but I live at the western edge of Vienna, and the Vienna Woods are like five minutes from here, so we do get our share of wild animals wandering into the suburbs.

[Carol the Dabbler]

We're not far from some towns and cities, but we aren't in the suburbs, we're surrounded by farms and woods.  I'm pretty sure that most critters wander into the suburbs, though, at least now and then.  Some birds of prey even live in cities, and I've heard that there are foxes in London.

Cities aren't really safer for cats (and I assume dogs), even disregarding wild predators, they're just dangerous in different ways.  Mostly it's because there's more stuff closer together -- more cars being driven (some carelessly), some with antifreeze leaks forming tempting puddles on driveways (cats love the flavor, but it's deadly poison to them), hostile dogs, poisoned rats and mice that are easy to catch but deadly to eat, and so on.

City or country, I've read that indoor cats live about three times longer than outdoor cats.  It's up to us to see that they're not bored.  But bear in mind that cats naturally doze most of the time, so don't assume your cat is bored just because she's napping.

[Artemis]

I do live in the suburbs, but there is plenty of green space, even in the city.  I have woods outside my door.  The Twin Cities is mostly woodland so there are woodland creatures everywhere.  It's not uncommon to spot them running through the backyard, or off the path when I take a walk.  We even get the occasional black bear or wolf.

 

[Arcadia]

Same here …  I'm in the woods. It's not exactly suburbs, because there's no large city nearby, but it's hardly rural, either -- too many houses for that. But there is an extensive national forest within 2-3 miles, and an even more extensive … and largely forested … military base beyond that. Oh, and a massive national cemetery sort of sandwiched in between, also heavily wooded. That's been our saving grace … the developers haven't been able to get hold of the land, because it all belongs to The People, nyah nyah. Go ten miles east and you can hardly move, it's so congested.

At any rate, plenty of critters in the park, and there's lots of greenways from here to there, so we're bound to get the wild beasties from time to time. 90% of the time, you never know they're there.

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

90% of the time, you never know they're there.

... unless they happened to poop in your yard.    That's the main way we know that coyotes sometimes come into our little neighborhood.  We hear them at night too, but at a distance.

 

[Arcadia]

True, that's usually how we know the deer have been around.  

What's really fun is when it snows, and you can go out and try to identify all the animal tracks. Something dog-like usually goes up and down our driveway, and I've always assumed it was a dog. Now you've got me wondering.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Coyotes are easy to identify by their poop -- it's mostly fur.  But yeah, the footprints could well be from a dog.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Ahhhh... how nice that you guys are living near woods, farm, woodland, forest.. must be really nice. I do have access to those, thankfully but of course I need to travel and spare significant time to go, but at the very least, it's much better than my second home where the only jungle I could see is concrete. I guess I have to amend my imagination that living nearby those is associated with peaceful life (more disconnected), maybe because I wouldn't attempt to have internet connection when I am in those settings (mostly because of limitation).

Haiz, so much for imagining you guys fighting with bear just to go online.

About the danger out there for pets even in city. Yep, understand that well, add to the things you mentioned, there are actually pet poisoning here, and I don't know the answer why people do that. Anyway, I remember it was very difficult to keep my cat indoor, maybe because we had connected shop, so the traffic between shop and house was higher than normal and we were fooled by the cat because we weren't alert most of the time. Also, it was some kind of makeshift home (very simply built because we just rented the land) so there were apparently a lot of hidden accesses for her. But she was a street smart cat, never got into danger but she was a slut, so we ended up with a lot of unwanted kittens. Vet was not a familiar or easy to find concept back then.

 

 

 

 

[Artemis]

50 minutes ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Yep, understand that well, add to the things you mentioned, there are actually pet poisoning here, and I don't know the answer why people do that.

We get bouts of that too.  Some reprehensible people just go around poisoning other people's pets when they're outside.  There are also cases of pets eating other animals that have been poisoned, like mice, and dying from that.  Can't leave my dogs alone for a minute!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't happen to have any cute photos today, but I do have an animal question:  Is anyone else seeing an unusual number of turtles this year?

Alex and I will occasionally see a turtle just sitting on the road (apparently sunning itself on the nice big black rock), and we'll move it to a safer spot.  Most years we don't see any, some years we'll see a few.  So far this year it's been five!  That's three snappers and two of the mild-mannered type (box turtles, maybe, we're not sure).  What's everyone else seeing?

[Van Buren Supernova]

I see dogs. Many dogs. Many many dogs! I'm not complaining!

 

 

[Arcadia]

Happy dogs!

Saw my first turtle of the spring a couple of days ago, just beginning to venture onto the road. I would love to stop and rescue them, but it's too dangerous to stop on our curvy-but-high-speed-and-overcrowded roads … it would be likely to end in disaster for more than just the turtle. But when I drove back that way in the afternoon, there was no turtle squish , so I guess he made it wherever he was going safely.

At any rate, too soon to say whether there's more than usual, I'll keep an eye out. But I don't recall any noticeable change in turtle sightings over the past few years. Frogs, on the other hand … one or two (three?) years ago, we had a glut of those. Oh, the carnage … 😞 … and since then, there's been a noticeable drop in their singing in the swamp out back, even though it's been nice and wet back there.

[Arcadia]

For VBS ... here's an aerial view of the area I live in. Each one of those tiny gray dots beside the roads is a house. Yet you can see how wooded it still is. Even when they clear cut (strip) the land to build, they always leave the trees in between the construction sites. And in the area in the middle, where there doesn't seem to be as many roads … there are, almost. The trees are just older and denser so you can't see them as well, and also there are bigger lots in that area; more space between the houses. And just to the south is the big national forest I mentioned. So that's how we manage to have (relatively) high population density and still encounter woodland creatures on a daily basis. It's too many people for a healthy environment … mostly due to all the cars … but it could be a lot, lot worse. But you'd have to go all the way into downtown Washington DC to see nothing but concrete. I doubt if the bears make it that far. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, Arcadia said:

here's an aerial view of the area I live in.

Roughly how large an area does that cover, Arcadia?

[Van Buren Supernova]

@Arcadia

Awesome!

I have never lived in area this natural. Visited and stayed for awhile, yes, in even more remote settings.

But as a home, this seems nice, seems like what I'll need for retirement (Oh now I need to add another factor for my never-ending dilemma of mountain and beach!)

On the other hand, I can imagine quite a lot of inconvenience, or maybe not? Like daily life, daily chores, pests (in big sizes) and limited choices of facilities? But you have Wifi, with that as the benchmark, I assume that means everything else should be adequate as well.

[Artemis]

I couldn't find an aerial view of my area, but that looks pretty similar.

Exactly what kind of inconveniences are you imagining, VBS?  I can't speak for Arcadia, but just about everything I need is easily accessible and close by.  Daily life/chores are virtually the same as in the center of the city, and pests are the same size as well.  Actually I deal with fewer pests invading my place in the suburbs than I did in the city.  There is some small difference the closer you get to rural areas, but you don't need to go rural to be surrounded by nature.  Not here, anyway.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Here's my area, obviously more rural than Arcadia's:

That photo was taken in the autumn, so it's easy enough to tell woods (darkest areas) from pastures and lawns (medium color) from crop fields (lightest).  Indiana is part of the old Northwest Territory, which is why everything's so rectangular.

We have a good deal of peace and quiet out here, but we pay for it by needing to drive about half an hour for shopping and such.

[Artemis]

What a patient cat, lol.