“Fancy Bear” from FreeCreditScore…

Posted January 16, 2013 by vulpesffb
Categories: absurdities, animal spokepersons, animals, anthropomorphic, furry, furry commercials, television

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Fancy Bear– – Seems like everyone’s a critic these days, even Fancy Bear from the FreeCreditScore commercial!  It appears that you’re just not safe from having a home invasion by a bowler-hat wearing, cane and moustache-sporting bear in a dress jacket who criticizes your taste in home decor.  “May I respond negatively about your porcelain poodle?,” interjects the well-dressed ursine intruder, disdainfully holding up the objectionable artifact.   “This should be in the trash!,” he huffs.  The commercial closes with Fancy Bear playing a piano piece while the properly scolded human couple sit listening on the couch.  

Fancy Bear is not quite my cup of tea, and I dread to think of what he would say about half of the stuff that I have sitting around my house, such as a bust of a snarling werewolf…

 

 

Snake On A Plane!

Posted January 12, 2013 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, scalies

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python plane– – We all know about the 2006 Samuel L. Jackson film, Snakes On A Plane (sample repeatable line:  “Why exactly are there snakes on this plane?”), but in another case of life imitating art(?), a scrub python hitched a ride on the wing of a plane on a flight from Australia to Papua, New Guinea.  A woman supposedly pointed outside the plane and told the cabin crew, “There’s a snake on the wing,” recalling William Shatner’s memorable performance in the classic Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.  

The nearly ten-foot-long python was tucked away under the plane’s wing but the wind caught its tail and dragged it out from its hideout.  The snake repeatedly tried to haul itself to safety only to be dragged out again by the wind.  The snake was whipped against the rear of the plane and also exposed to 10-degree freezing temperatures, and sadly it did not survive its ordeal.  Now it’s not just a koala that hates Qantas

Feline First Alert Systems…

Posted January 10, 2013 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, animals, scalies

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python– – We’ve all heard the heroic dog stories, typified by something like Lassie alerting folks to Timmy having fallen in a well.–Well, cats can do some rather helpful things, too! 

An Australian mother in New South Whales heard her cat hissing in the middle of the night, which awakened her and alerted her to the fact that a six-foot-long python was wrapped around her two-year-old daughter’s arm.  The python had repeatedly struck the girl’s hand, but her mother with some effort was able to pull the snake away.  The snake was later found, and at the mother’s request commendably released into the wild.   According to one expert, the snake initially was likely just trying to get warm rather than hurt the child.  The cat unfortunately took off, and hasn’t yet come home.  Discretion, after all, is the greater part of valor…

Cannibalistic, Jumbo Squid Invading California!

Posted January 8, 2013 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, aquatic, environmental, events involving animals, strange happenings, unexplained

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Humboldt squid– – It may alarm some to hear that hundreds of blob-like squid are invading California; on the other hand, some might think that this was inevitable, or that they might just be assimilated to become Californians.  The squid are big suckers known as Humboldt squid, who can reach up to six feet and weigh as much as 100 pounds.  They normally live at depths of 660 to 2,300 feet in the eastern Pacific.

Humboldts have been known to attack humans and are nicknamed “red devils” for their rust-red coloring and mean streak, and can hunt in schools of up to 1,200 individuals.  First washing up dead on the beaches off San Diego, California, the squid have been emerging from the depths recently, roughing up unsuspecting divers, some of whom report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear…that’s right, squid thugs!  As the animals taste with their tentacles, they may be touching divers and their wet suits to determine if they are edible.

Humboldts are cannibalistic, and in addition to eating lanternfish, shrimp, and mollusks have been known to eat other Humboldt squid that have been captured in nets.  Over 800 of the jumbo squid were hooked in the Pacific Ocean off Orange County in Southern California in just 45 minutes last Saturday.  Gradual warming of the ocean, pollution, and over-fishing of large predators are felt to be contributing to the territorial expansion of the squid…

Cat Detained With Contraband!

Posted January 6, 2013 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal occurrences, animals, furry, strange

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escape cat– – A cat being used as a “mule” for contraband was detained on the grounds of a Brazilian prison on New Year’s day as it crossed the main gate!  Strapped to the cat’s body with tape were drill bits, a saw, files, and a mobile phone with charger and memory chip, all intended for use by prisoners. 

“It’s tough to find out who’s responsible for the action as the cat doesn’t speak,” a prison spokesman memorably told the local paper. 

The largely-white cat, remaining silent, was taken to an animal disease center to receive medical care…

The Feline Avenger…

Posted January 3, 2013 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal oddities, animals, anthropomorphic, cool things, furry, furry stories

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Batcat – – If Batman and Catwoman had a child, the offspring might look something like this magnificent creature whose image originally came from Reddit and was popularized by the Huffington Post before spreading like wildfire throughout the Internet.  Thought by a number of commentators to be a Maine Coon cat, this Batcat might not have a Robin, but could probably bring you one…Meow!

 

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Take the Python Challenge?

Posted December 31, 2012 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, environmental, events involving animals, scalies

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python– – As if the ants at picnics weren’t enough, a family from Arkansas out for a picnic in the Everglades National Park in Florida was rudely interrupted by a 17-foot Burmese python slithering into their picnic area!  That could ruin your whole day, or at least your appetite.  The family caught the massive snake on camera, and a park ranger killed it.

Pythons are an invasive species in the United States, where the growing population of the snakes in Florida have devastated rabbit, fox, possum, and bobcat populations; even deer and alligators are not safe from them!  In January, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will host a 2013 “Python Challenge” to control the expanding python population, with a grand prize of $1,500 going to the person who kills the most pythons, and $1,000 going to the person who kills the longest specimen.  Where else but Florida, however, can you encounter a shark, a gator, a giant snake, and go to Disney World all in the same week?!

Mowing Turtles Down…

Posted December 29, 2012 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, conservation, scalies, things humans do

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box turtle– – While engaged in a conservation project to determine how to help turtles cross the road safely, a Clemson University student inadvertently discovered a disturbing fact:  some drivers deliberately swerve on the road, not to miss turtles, but to intentionally hit them. 

The student put a realistic rubber turtle in the middle of a lane on a busy road near his campus, and then watched over the next hour as seven drivers swerved and deliberately ran over the rubber animal; several other drivers apparently tried to hit it, but missed.  When the student sought to replicate his study using a different location road in a more residential area, the second of 50 cars to pass by that day swerved over the center line to intentionally hit the plastic reptile.

The number of box turtles is in slow decline, and a major reason is that many wind up as roadkill while attempting to cross the road for food or breeding purposes.  Turtle underpasses are seen as one possible solution to the problem… 

 

 

Pig On A Plane!

Posted December 25, 2012 by vulpesffb
Categories: absurdities, animal spokepersons, animals, anthropomorphic, furry, furry commercials, television

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Maxwell on plane– – We’ve had the movie, Snakes on a Plane, and now we have Maxwell the Pig in a commercial set on a plane, where two flight attendants are after him to turn off what they think is his “little word game.”- -Well, it turns out that Maxwell is actually using his Geico application to pay his bill, detailing a host of other potential functions which the flight attendants can’t quite swallow, one remarking that she’ll believe the accounting of the app’s functionality “when pigs fly.”  

“Did she seriously just say that?!,” marvels Maxwell to a fellow passenger in this episode which is free of the “wee” squealing and the pinwheels that were Maxwell’s hallmarks in earlier commercials.  Pigs, it would seem, fight stereotypes as do many of us for a variety of assorted reasons…

…and wishing Happy Holidays to all of our readers!

The Skulls Have Spoken!

Posted December 23, 2012 by vulpesffb
Categories: controversial, doomsday, mysteries, strange happenings

Tags: , ,

crystal skull– – Well, you’ll probably be relieved to hear that the life-sized crystal skulls claimed to have been passed down by the ancient Maya have spoken, and the world is not going to end…it’s the beginning of the new world, kinda like reality 2.0.

Several of the crystal skulls have been consulted by modern seers at the cosmic dawn Friday, Dec. 21st in Merida, Mexico, together with impressive whooping, dancing, and drum-beating in a gathering of about 1,000 shamans, seers, stargazers, crystal enthusiasts, yogis, sufis, and swamis at a convention center only an hour and a half away from the Mayan ruins at Chicken Itza.   While the crystal skulls did not break into song to perform Duke of Earl and a medley of other great hits from the fifties, a new era is now at hand in which adherents believe that they will recover the ability to communicate telepathically and levitate objects like their ancestors are reputed to have done.- -Who wouldn’t like to have telekinesis for Xmas?!

So what does this mean?–Well, believers say that the “galactic bridge has been established,” with spirals of light to enter the center of our heads, and generate powerful vortexes that will cover the planet!  It’s not an ending but rather the birth of a new age.  Those of us who were around in the 1960’s or know someone who was already have some feeling for this kinda thing…and welcome to the new age!