– – HAPPY HOWLOWEEN to all of you!!! It’s always been a special occasion to me, a day on which you can let your inner furry self out, and not be as totally out of place.–So give your imagination a good romp, and remember to be at least furry inside the other 364 days of the year!
– – Yeah, he’s cute…but some dogs might die of embarrassment with the way that their owners dress them up, especially at Halloween. The question accordingly arises, do dogs feel humiliation? Experts disagree, but a dog that appears unhappy in clothes probably feels more exposed than embarrassed.
The wild heritage of dogs causes them usually to dislike standing out; wolves that stand out from the pack are more susceptible to attack. The tightness, weight, or texture of material might also be disliked by a pet. Dogs additionally have never been taught to associate being dressed up with pleasure.
In all likelihood, unhappily dressed animals are probably reacting to the costumes themselves or to the limited mobility that they have when so attired…foxes, however, have been known to charm their prey, that is, to act crazy so as to lure prey animals closer out of curiosity before pouncing!
– – I have terrible news…Paul, the Psychic Octopus, is no more! The tentacled tipster, who on eight separate occasions correctly predicted the winner of FIFA World Cup soccer matches, passed away in his tank in the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany early Tuesday morning.
Paul’s predictions were rendered by which of two mussel-containing boxes representing competing teams he picked. The odds of picking eight straight winners are estimated as being more than 300 to 1. Someone who had bet $20 on Paul’s picks from the start of the World Cup and then let the bet ride throughout the tournament would have walked away with about $4,500!
Sadly, the octopus is not a long-lived creature, and Paul expired at the age of two and a half. An octopus, it is said, generally grows to maturity, breeds, and dies…just the basics. It is rumored that the psychic cephalopod may have known of his own impending death, but if so he kept it to himself. The candles which burn the brightest burn the briefest, after all…
— There are those who wish that every day was Christmas; I couldn’t stomach that! It’s bad enough that Xmas has expanded its boundaries to be promoted and pushed for the last two months of the year; the stores have their “trim-a-tree” shops ready to pounce, and very soon you’ll be hearing your first Xmas carol and commercial promotion! Poor Thanksgiving is almost pushed out of the running as a road bump in the annual Xmas express.
I could do, however, with a little more Halloween! It’s a wonderfully weird and twisted holiday, one in which the imagination reigns supreme, and even the mundanes are free to let a little of their inner selves out. Halloween is furry-friendly, and always has been; alternate identities are what the occasion is all about. If you want to wear a fursuit or maybe just ears and a tail, no one is likely to give you a second glance on October 31st. I can still remember wearing a leopard suit when I was in elementary school, kind of a case of an animal impersonating a different species. I suffer a mild depression when Halloween’s over, just as some do following Xmas and knowing that it will be a long wait until my time of year is here again. My interests are still Halloween-esque year round.- -It’s my world, and welcome to it!
But the real deal is almost here, and the question is…are you ready?!
– – Did you know it’s legal to buy real plastinated body parts online?–Yuppers, a German anatomist famous for his controversial Body World exhibition is selling both human and animal body parts which have had water and fat replaced with plastic for preservation purposes. One of the tamer examples of such a process is pictured, but you can get a whole body, torso, or just a head. For the budget-conscious, transparent body slices are also available…
Only “qualified users” who can provide written proof that they intend to use the parts for research, teaching, or medical purposes can place an order, however. This doesn’t mean that the general public can’t buy jewelry crafted from animal corpses or reproductions of the real human body parts.- -I swear I am not making this up!
A bit of the ghoulish submitted for your approval as we approach Halloween…
– – Madagascar is a kind of lost world that is home to a variety of unusual wildlife. One primate-like cryptid reputed to live there is the Kalanoro, a small humanoid creature that is supposed to be yet strong enough to kill and maim; it has been described as a “little man” less than a meter tall with hair all over its body and long potentially dangerous fingernails. The subject of one investigation on a recent Destination Truth episode, Josh Gates and his team go into the dense jungle in Madagascar in search of the Kalanoro. Seemingly credible witnesses there believe in the creature, including a park guide who says he was grabbed by one and Dr. Goodman of the Chicago Museum of Natural History.
They get a hit on a thermal imager and something on an IR camera, but are unable to track down the anomalies. Footprints are also found in the soggy terrain that are too wet and deteriorated to allow for a casting to be made. A hodgepodge of sounds are also heard from many of the animals that live in the area.
During later analysis, it was felt that the thermal hit and the IR image were the size and shape of a lemur, which a local zookeeper feels is one of the animals that the Kalanoro could easily be mistaken for. The multiple animal noises prevalent in the area are felt to give rumors of the reported creature a larger than life reputation…
– – What’s a great job for a furry?–Why, mascotting, of course! Not that every mascot is a furry…some mascots represent humans like warriors, archetypes, or historical figures, and some are unidentifiable weird creatures that don’t exist in reality. Additionally, not all those playing mascots are of the furry fandom, although working as a mascot or having contact with one may lead to further identification and empathy with animals. Many mascots of high school, college, and professional teams are identifiable animals, and that’s where the fun as well as the challenge begins!
Now if you want to be a mascot, don’t think that there are oodles of opportunities; it’s probably easier to land a job on a professional sports team that to be a professional mascot! There are only about 125 professional mascot positions available in the United States, so opportunities are few, with many interested applicants for the few available positions. This doesn’t rule out college or high school mascotting practice, or for that matter, dressing as a cow to promote the local dairy!
A mascot is a furson of many talents, a kind of actor/actress and performance artist who really must learn to work it! You’ve got to be able to kind of get into the skin that you’re wearing, both physically in terms of the performance demands and psychologically; you have to learn the politics of working with individual coaches and advisers, and understand what behaviors are acceptable and expected and where and when to manifest them. There are schools where the finer points of marketing a mascot are taught, and where aspiring mascots are helped with everything from costume design to performance tips.
There are horror stories, too…of mascots being abused by drunks or opposing fans, and of user-unfriendly costumes worn in earlier times. Dry-clean only costumes if neglected could become infested with fleas, and when chemicals were put on to kill the fleas, fur could fall off! Today’s costumes are lighter and even machine-washable, weighing in at around ten pounds. Compensation is better, and fans appreciate, support, and when necessary defend their team’s mascots.
Even after you take it off, the costume stays with you, kinda like the “furry inside” experience many of us in the furry fandom can relate to. Mascotting is really both a sport and a performance art, and it deserves more recognition and rewards…
– -It’s “Deer Gone Wild” time, with mating season or “the rut” having begun last week and ending in late November.- -Yup, deer will be chasing one another in fits of passion (Don’t look, Ethel!), making the roads in states and areas with significant deer populations a bit more hazardous. Deer are not known for their prudence on roadways, anyways!
Nearly 50 percent of vehicle crashes statewide in Pennsylvania involving deer occur during the rut, according to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation.
“You have males chasing females; females running away from males; males fighting males for females,” said one naturalist. “They’re not in their right minds.”
Ahh, love!- -A fine insanity!
– – Someone once said that animals sweat, men perspire, and women have a rosy glow.–Well, a study performed at Osaka International University in Japan and reported in the journal Experimental Physiology indicated that men sweat more and more efficiently than women, with men who are physically fit sweating more than anyone else!
Physically fit people begin to sweat at a lower core body temperature, which is adaptive since sweating is the body’s way of cooling off and preventing overheating. A sweating person can then perform longer and better at whatever it is that they are doing. Fit men tended to sweat the most, whereas fit women had higher sweat rates than inactive men or inactive women.
Sweating may be the manly thing to do, too, as prior research has shown a link between the male-sex hormone testosterone, physical training, and an increase in sweat rate…so sweat proudly, knowing that you are a manly man, and that the proof is in the nostrils!
– – How many cats are too many?–Well, certainly 77, especially if you’re keeping them in two cars. I swear that I am not making this up…
Police in Bennington, Vermont cited two women for animal cruelty after finding 77 cats living in two cars. Plates of food were inside the cars, and some of the cats had fecal matter matted to their fur. One of the cats was found dead in the trunk of one of the cars Friday.
The women charged owned two of the cats, and were apparently looking for homes for the rest. Police investigated after someone complained about seeing people sleeping in the cars with the cats. Prosecutors will consider whether to upgrade the civil citations against the two women to criminal charges…
FOXSYLVANIA 
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