Archive for July 2010

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Stuffed Celebrity Animals

July 12, 2010

– – In times long past, kids actually had cowboys as heroes!  They had no superpowers,  but could shoot a gun out of a bad guy’s hand, or win in a fistfight without getting their hats knocked off.  People when they got shot didn’t even bleed or lose body parts!

“How lame!,” declares one present-day kid.

“Totally gay!,” agrees another.

–No, it’s true!  I swear! – -There were cowboy heroes like the Lone Ranger, Sky King. and Roy Rogers!   Said cowboy heroes had their animal sidekicks, especially their horses and occasionally a dog.- -Well, when Roy Rogers’ famous horse Trigger died, he had the deceased equine preserved, as in stuffed.  Once featured at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo., Trigger is now going on the auction block at Christie’s in Manhattan, and is expected to fetch between $100,000 and $200,000!  Also being sold are the preserved remains of Roy Rogers’ dog, Bullet.

– –Happy Trails to You, famous old furries!

Categories: animals, furry, furry heroes
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Paul the Psychic Octopus…

July 10, 2010

– – We’ve talked before here on Foxsylvania about how the octopus is a smarter creature than many realize, being capable of such behaviors as learning how to open jars.–Well, some would dare say that an octopus called Paul is kind of a cephalopod Nostradamus, performing such feats as predicting the winner of the World’s Cup!

Paul the octopus resides in the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany.  His predictions are made by observing which of two clear boxes marked with a national flag he decides to eat a mussel from, and he has correctly forecast the outcome of every match in which his native German home team has played as of July 8th.

With a very respectable hit rate to date in past predictions, only a sucker would bet against this octopus! – – And wouldn’t psychic cephalopod be a great name for a band?!



Categories: animal oddities, animals, Invertebrates
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What’s In YOUR Backyard?

July 8, 2010

– – Just  when you think that everything’s been discovered, someone digs up something that’s new…and we’re not talking about mob hit victims!

A guy excavating for a swimming pool in his Brighton, Tenn. backyard unearthed the fossilized jawbone of a prehistoric mammal, possibly a trilophodon, part of the mastodon family who were in turn the extinct relatives of today’s elephants.  The remains later uncovered were estimated to belong to an adult who stood up to eight feet tall and weighed up to two tons.  This would be the first time that such a species has been found in the mid-American south.

…and why can’t I dig up anything good in my backyard?!


Categories: animals, evolution, extinct species, furry, strange happenings
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Animal Aphrodisiacs

July 6, 2010

– – Believe it or not, rhino horns sell for big bucks on the black market as an aphrodisiac, with a single horn selling for as much as $40,000!  Why, you might then ask, does the rhino enjoy such a great sexual reputation?–Well, the rhino’s mating time is not less than 45 minutes, quite higher than that of any other other animal (although foxes are no slackers in that department, ahem)! Rhino horns are then considered a kind of natural Viagra, and foolish humans believe that they can achieve the same kind of sexual power with the help of rhino horns.

Traditional Chinese medicine also uses rhino horns as a cure for fever and stomach ailments.  This is all in spite of the fact that the horns are simply compacted masses of agglutinated hair that rhinos use as defense against other animals…

Categories: animals, deplorable practices, furry, things humans do
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The Devil’s Endangered!

July 4, 2010

– – When you think of large carnivorous marsupials, you probably just naturally think of the Tasmanian devil, best known as the spinning tornado of destruction Taz in the Looney Tunes cartoons.- -Well, the genuine article’s in danger, and not from being outwitted by Bugs Bunny…

…60 percent of the wild devils in Tasmania have been claimed in a single decade by a cancer known as devil facial tumor disease.  By some estimates, the animals could be extinct within 25 years.  One colony in northwestern Tasmania has shown immunity to the disease, for which there is currently no treatment.  As this may not be enough to save the species,  zoos are critical to devil conservation, and 14 zoos are endeavoring to breed 1,500 disease-free animals.  Trouble is, only 24 devil joeys have been bred since the program began in 2008…

(…so obviously, we need more horny devils!)


Categories: animals, endangered species, furry
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Coyotes Near New York City!

July 2, 2010

– – Well, foxes are infringing on Detroit, bears are in many suburbs, and now coyotes are causing problems about 25 miles northeast of midtown Manhattan!- -Can the revolution be far behind?


In the New York City suburb of Rye, N.Y., two coyote attacks on little girls have police officers shooting at them, and parents keeping their kids inside on summer evenings.  A six-year-old and a three-year-old have been injured in separate attacks, with both girls being treated for rabies as a precaution.  The state Department of Environmental Conservation has given Rye permission to shoot coyotes on sight and to kill any that are trapped, according to a wildlife biologist for the department.

Coyote attacks are rare, with news media reporting only 142 coyote attacks on people in the U.S. and Canada between 1960 and 2006.   The only known fatality of a coyote attack involved a California toddler in the 1980’s.  The natural prey of coyotes includes rabbits, birds, and rodents but in suburbia easy food sources include garbage and pet food left out.  Some people even unwisely feed coyotes.  One coyote necropsy showed that the animal had eaten pork chops!

I prefer my coyotes to be the frustrated genius types who buy a lot of Acme products and fruitlessly pursue road runners…

Categories: animal occurrences, environmental, furry
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