The Cute Animal Pics/Videos Thread

[Carol the Dabbler]

8 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I thought maybe you'd had a bad fright that turned your hair all white.

Feathers, my dear, feathers.

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 8/29/2019 at 6:31 AM, Arcadia said:

Carol, what happened!!!???!!!! When did you become albino????!!!

If that surprises you, you shouldn't see this:

[Arcadia]

Why VBS, I didn't know you read Penthouse.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Weĺl, inappropriate pose is not my fault.

I spare you guys from huge image though, you have to click it if you want to. 

[Caya]

[J.P.]

Yes, some wild animals adapt to the living in an urban environment.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wonder if it had any "help" getting into that pose?

[Arcadia]

Or maybe it's just a very literal-minded snake.  

It just occurs to me I've never seen a green snake. All of ours are black, brown, black-brown, reddish brown and some have spots or stripes, usually yellow. But no green snakes. Isn't that odd? You'd think green would be excellent camouflage for a yard snake.

 

[Arcadia]

[Carol the Dabbler]

8 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

It just occurs to me I've never seen a green snake. All of ours are black, brown, black-brown, reddish brown and some have spots or stripes, usually yellow. But no green snakes. Isn't that odd? You'd think green would be excellent camouflage for a yard snake.

Now I'm trying to think what I've seen around here: black rat snakes, some sort of plain brown snake, and garter snakes.  Seems to me that the garters have some green amongst their stripes, but I could be mistaken (they slither awfully fast!).

One day a few years ago when I was picking green beans, I lifted a leaf and there was the cutest little green frog, about 2" long, just the perfect color to hide under a green-bean leaf.  Haven't seen it since, but this year there's a little brown toad about that size that frequents the tomato patch and blends in well with the mulch there.

[Arcadia]

Yes, we've had lots of toads this year! One of those little guys landed plop! on my back yesterday when I went outside; I guess he'd been climbing up the door when I opened it, and was knocked loose. If it had been one of the big ones I would've shrieked, but the little ones are adorable. Good thing the cat didn't see him.  

Frogs, on the other hand … we used to have what sounded like hundreds of them in the "swamp" out back, but the past few years I've hardly heard any. There's one or two croaking right now, and that's it. And I never see them; just the ring on the water where they were a moment before.  

[Arcadia]

Speaking of reptiles, do you know skinks? 

Speedy little guys. Cute. Zip all over our porch. I've been letting my cat go out on the porch with me when I sit out there, so she won't have to stay in the house by herself. I leave the door open a crack in case she gets scared and needs to run back inside. One day she's out there, half snoozing, and there's a sudden commotion and she's got a skink in her mouth … and she dashes inside with it. Aaarghhhhh! A lizard in the house! A fast lizard! Noooo! I go running after her … and she's already deposited it on the landing. Thankfully (for me) it's already dead. She starts batting at it, then looks at me and gives the most piteous cry … "Mommy, why won't it play with me anymore?" I felt so bad for her I went into the kitchen and fed her some special treats.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

Skinks got into Mom's house a couple of times (I think because my brother has a habit of starting to leave, then standing there with the porch light on and the door open for a few minutes), and that was interesting.  I did finally manage to catch each one with a larger version of my system for catching insects that get inside -- a clear plastic produce tub plopped upside-down over the the skink, and then a piece of thin cardboard slid underneath it all -- but in one case I had to make do with a smaller container, and when the edge touched his tail, he jettisoned an inch or two.  I felt kinda bad about that, because (even though it presumably healed just fine) they don't really "grow a new tail" like people say, so he had lost part of his natural defense system.

Here at our house, they just sun themselves on the concrete steps.  Cute li'l guys!

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

they don't really "grow a new tail" like people say

Oh noes, is that true? Wah. Because my kitties have pulled the tails off of several over the years. 😞

Wait … Wikipedia says they can grow them back, but maybe not as perfectly. Hmm.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, the photos I've seen of "grown back" tails are just stubby little things with no proper tapering shape.  I seriously doubt that they could be jettisoned in an emergency, so not much point to them, unfortunately.

[Caya]

[Artemis]

 

[Arcadia]

On 9/17/2019 at 2:13 AM, Artemis said:

 

Hey, how did you get ahold of my homework assignment?

[Van Buren Supernova]

[Caya]

[Arcadia]

Ooohhh, those sneaky cats!

[Van Buren Supernova]

They are taking over the world, one donkey at a time.

[Arcadia]

Squeeee! So cute!

[Caya]

[Carol the Dabbler]

Cats do that too -- if I even sit up in bed, Walter claims my pillow.