The Cute Animal Pics/Videos Thread

[Carol the Dabbler]

Our bats are pretty cool, too.  They're small and graceful, and they eat mosquitos!

[Arcadia]

Ours too, but everyone's so freaked out about rabies that they've quite effectively demonized the poor little things. 

 

My sister and a friend found a bat lying on a sidewalk. The friend somehow got it into a box, took it to animal rescue, where she was told they both had to get a rabies shot, even though my sis never touched it. I still think that's a bit paranoid but what do I know. Better safe than sorry, I guess. :(

[Carol the Dabbler]

I guess they can move kinda fast and their teeth are really tiny, so it can be hard to tell for sure whether they've bitten you or not.  The gal who runs the local wildlife rescue place is talking about getting herself immunized, just in case.

[Pseudonym]

You think you'd still know if you'd been bitten. And I'd have thought someone who worked at a wildlife rescue would be immunised already just in case.

I love bats, cute little quirky things. I can't say I'm so much of a fan of those huge fruit bats you see in the zoo - if I had those flying around my garden I wouldn't be so keen, but ours are like titchy flying mice.

One of my friends had a baby bat fall out of his attic - I would have been thrilled, unless they were causing damage up there.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

A bat's excrements can cause a lot of damage so if a bat is in the attic or walls hire a professional to get it out and keep it out. Houses have been condemned in the US because of bats not being taken care of in a timely manner.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On the other hand, bat excrement ("guano") in its proper place (outdoors) can be excellent fertilizer.

 

Rather than letting bats live in one's attic, it's better (for you and your house) to seal up the attic and supply bat houses outdoors.  This should of course not be done when there are helpless baby bats in the attic!  Better to seal up the attic after the bats have left for the winter, and put up the bat houses in appropriate places (i.e., read the directions) nearby at the same time.  Bats prefer bat houses that have already seen some use -- I've read that it helps to take some of the guano that you've cleaned out of the attic and put it on the ground directly under the new bat houses.

[Pseudonym]

[T.o.b.y]

I think the damage bats do must depend on the type of house. The one I grew up in was over a hundred years old and bats were already living in the attic when my parents moved in. When they moved out almost 30 years later, the bats were still there. Nobody ever seemed very concerned about them - our landlord didn't take any steps to shut them out and they never bothered us. Maybe we were just very lucky...

[Carol the Dabbler]

Maybe it depends on whether you use the attic. If not, then you can just think of it as a nice big bat house.

[Caya]

The house my dad's stepfather grew up in had a huge roof, larger than the house on each side by a good 2 meters, and its rafters were (tiny) bat country. Nobody ever minded them, and like Carol said, their droppings were valued for fertilizing the roses. But then again Austria has been rabies free for decades, maybe that accounts for the lack of concern.

 

 

 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

One of our cats (Daisy) enjoyed unwinding toilet paper, and sometimes she'd eat some of it.  When our bathroom cabinets were built, we had them put a little compartment for the toilet paper into the side, like a mini-cupboard.  None of the cats have figured it out yet, but fortunately the same cannot be said for our houseguests!

[Doe]

One of our cats (Daisy) enjoyed unwinding toilet paper, and sometimes she'd eat some of it.  When our bathroom cabinets were built, we had them put a little compartment for the toilet paper into the side, like a mini-cupboard.  None of the cats have figured it out yet, but fortunately the same cannot be said for our houseguests!

 

:lol:

 

They soon discoverers...  

[J.P.]

[Arcadia]

Awwwww, so cute! And the puppy's adorable too.

[Pseudonym]

I think he looks like he's about to eat it. Something sharky about that expression

[SherlockedCAMPer]

That could just about go in the hot gifs thread as well.

[Arcadia]

Pseud! How could you.....

[Pseudonym]

Oops, will i be booted from the forum for failing to appreciate BC's unique expressions? If so, I'd like to mention I'm ill and may therefore be slightly delirious. 

[Arcadia]

Oh, really? I hadn't noticed any difference ... :p

 

Ill, huh? Bummer. I'd give you a consoling hug but, y'know, germs .... how about a bouquet instead?    Er, whoops, sorry, some of the petals fell off....

[Pseudonym]

Come here, let me cough and snot all over you...

[Arcadia]

Er, nooo, I'm fine where I am, thanks .....

[Carol the Dabbler]

Guess what I evicted from Mom's house today? [....] It was a lizard! Pretty sure it was a five-lined skink, a fairly young one (maybe four or five inches long). Took me three tries, but on my third attempt he seemed to be using the rabbit-invisibility technique (if I don't move, I am invisible), so out he went, to the ecosystem under the giant quince bush.

 

Yesterday I caught what I think was different (smaller) skink that had come in a few days ago.  I saw something slithery out of the corner of my eye over the weekend, but then didn't see it again and thought maybe it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.  But Tuesday there he was sitting in plain sight on the dining room floor.

 

He was sticking real close to a cabinet and would duck behind it every time I got close.  But when he wandered out toward the middle, I saw my chance.  Unfortunately, he was between me and the apparatus that I'd used to capture the previous skink, so I grabbed a plastic drinking glass instead.  It was obviously not quite as wide as the skink was long, but I figured I'd use the same technique that I use when capturing bugs with long legs -- go easy and give 'em time to pull their appendages in.

 

I had forgotten a little skink trick that I'd read about.  When the plastic glass came down (gently) over the skink, an inch or so of his tail detached itself and stayed outside, flopping around like a landed fish to distract the predator (me).  It remained a bit twitchy for at least an hour (but seems to be inert now).  Don't worry about little stubby, though -- he'll apparently grow a new tail within three or four months.

[Pseudonym]

That story ended better than I expected - I thought you were going to say he ran and you accidentally chopped him in half with the glass. :O

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've accidentally done that to a spider or two. :( But skinks are made of much sturdier stuff. Except for that detachable tail.

[Arcadia]

When we lived in Thailand we had all these little lizards ... I assume they were skinks ... crawling all over the windows. Sounds creepy, but they were cute, we liked them. But you could always tell when the cats had been chasing them because of the missing tails.  

 

In my memory, they were called chinchuks, although I can't find a reference to that word. But I have two little brass ones that are among my favorite keepsakes.