My hamster wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiiime

First of all, sorry for the Eddie Murphy song reference. But hey it's half an hour before I'm done with work for the Thanksgiving holiday and you know what? To hell with it. I am putting my brain on pause for the rest of the weekend.

And so let's get to it. From the people who brought you "the real Boomtown Rats" (namely, The Daily Mail) comes the rat pack!!!! Although really they're not rats; they're hamsters.

If The Daily Mail continues to do stories on rodent bands, I would be the happiest person on earth. It never gets old. In spite of the inherent magic of wee rodents cranking out crucial jams, however, it does seem that our "journalist" friends are having a hard time keeping the hamster band jokes aflowing. Which is just too bad. Witness this gem of a line (it's the only really quality one):

A spokeswoman said the hamsters were initially reluctant to play their instruments without receiving payment up front.

She said: 'We used quite a bit of peanut butter and chocolate spread to get the hamsters to play with the instruments and pose.'


GROAN!!!! But in the best way possible. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it, and happy Wednesday to the rest of you. (What?? It's halfway through the week! CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON IT'S A CELEBRATION.)

Puggle VS Puggle

It's a slow week here in the world of weird animals. I've been looking all week and finding NAUGHT, and so this is it. The only post of the week. Suggested by my BFF Sarah!

So Zooborns this week had some photos of newborn puggles. If you're anything like me--always on the lookout for hybrid creatures/obsessed with finding freaky stuff on the internet--then you're probably imagining this kind of puggle, a heartwrenchingly cute combination of beagle + pug.



He's just begging someone to put him on an inspirational workplace poster.
(Unfortunately I was unable to come up with an inspirational slogan that a puppy might say, but I did find out this fascinating piece of information from Wikipedia:

Hang in there, Baby was a popular catchphrase made by a motivational poster. The poster featured a picture of a small kitten, hanging on to a tree branch. . . . A copy of the poster was famously presented to Spiro Agnew by 100 of his supporters in Congress when he was under pressure to resign in 1973.

HA HA HA!!!! What a bunch of elected nerdos.)

Um, anyways, there is another kind of puggle and it looks like (get ready) THIS:



It's a baby echidna. The adult of the species was covered "extensively" in this "article," Echidna, mon amour. (Yes, it still cracks me up that the researcher was "seized by a passion" for echidnas. I mean, HUBBA HUBBA, am I right???? "If you're not busy, take ME to lunch," yeaaaaah???)

The Zooborns pix are considerably cuter. They look slightly more charming, slightly less OH MY GOD PUT THAT AWAY BEFORE I CALL THE COPS. Check out these two, telling secrets to their best puggle BFF. Just like me and the previously mentioned Sarah. Or, on second thought, wait--not at all.



Puggles=love!

4EVA Quolls

Quolls are the best. Like many of their Antipodean kin, they have a totally awesome name that's either disgustingly cute ("numbat") or close to unpronounceable (ahem, "quoll"). I mean, I can say it, being a hyper-gifted online animal finder and supremely advanced pronouncer of words of all kinds, but you know not everyone is as gifted, am I right?

I also love quolls (sure I just discovered them a couple days ago, but love comes quickly, right? To quote the Pet Shop Boys.) for the following reasons, all of which I gleaned from a very casual scanning of Wikipedia:

1. They are referred to as "native cats." YET THEY LOOK NOTHING LIKE CATS!!!!!!! Insanity!

2. They develop a pouch, but only at certain times of the year. That is just weird. Don't try to argue with me, scientists. It's weird. It comes and goes? Like maybe my arm could just come and go, depending on whether I need to say, text message people all day when I'm at work or, like when I need to high five someone?

3. This little gem of information: "Their molars and canines smell strongly of gasoline." Oh also, the article wants to stress that they don't have prehensile tails. This is probably for the best, as who wants something that can just grow body parts and also lift up stuff with their tail. It'd just be too much! Imagine the power they would possess. Beyond that they already possess: the power to make us love. Ahhhhh....

Presenting...the numbat

I had the worst day yesterday. It was straight up horrible. It was one of those days when you're all like "Ohhhhh my God I just want to go home and drink my bottle of wine and watch 30 Rock and wait for the weekend to come" and then when you're on your way to buy yourself flowers, your muffler falls off and you're trapped at an upscale grocery store parking lot for the next 40 minutes.

Those are the type of days that make you even more grateful for weird Australian animals. They've got such caaaarazy names! They look like drawings little kids/my crazy hippie ex-roommate who believed in alien cults would make! And so let's all take a moment, in these last few hours before we can all go to happy hour, and celebrate


NUMBATS


This s#&* is so good, it don't even need a caption.





If you want to learn more about these long-tongued little fellows, check out Project Numbat. You can purchase numbat earrings from them! (For me...you can purchase them for me.)

Just in time for Halloween: baby bats!!!!

What would Halloween be without my annual baby bat roundup?? I know you guys love pictures of baby bats in blankets, and this year I found a whole new heartwarming crop of them. I am gonna go ahead and say that this concludes my very special Halloween edition of OMG What Is That.Blogspot.com. HAPPY HALLOWEEKEND EVERYBODY!!!!

Halloween party animals!

YES. Trust the UK tabloid media to provide me with a veritable FLURRY of Animals Enjoying Halloween stories. Well, OK! Magazine inspired me with this piece, complete with really splendid pictures of lemurs hangin' out with a pumpkin. (Definitely click on it: I couldn't link to any of the photos.) And then, something magical happened. The more I googled, the more media outlets appeared to be doing similar stories. Apparently this is a "thing," a trend that is sweeping zoos across the world, this serving zoo denizens a spooooky Halloween meal out of a pumpkin. So let's enjoy, shall we, seeing how our animal friends across the globe celebrate Halloween.

SCOTLAND

The best part is that the marmoset's name is Princess Leia.


AUSTRIA



USA

Halloweekend Special: Tasmanian Devils!!!!

For those of us (me) in the Central Time Zone, Halloweekend starts in just over 2.5 hours. And of course, the waiting is UNBEARABLE. I mean, what could be better? It's Halloween, and it's the weekend. Together at last! So in that spirit of waiting for work to be over/it being Halloween, here is one of however many I end up coming up with Halloweekend Special animals. And so without any further ado, here is the inaugural animal (and also perhaps the only one I will think up, I mean come on, I always talk about bats, it seems)...the strangely cute (considering its name and the disproportionately high number of rough and tumble mailroom employees I have seen with "Taz" tattoos) Tasmanian Devil!


Baby Taz=so cute!


"Heeeeey guys!" That's what he's saying.

Something nice

Allow me to start off with "in these troubled times."

Okay.


"In these troubled times," it's vital that we all help each other out. And I read about this organization today and figured that, beyond talking about giant bunnies/otters who will (one day, evolution willing) be seen shopping next to you at the record store and crazy cat hair innovations, sometimes it's appropriate to actually try and do something good. And so here comes a link to the American Animal Hospital Association. They provide medical assistance to animals who are abandoned or whose owners are having trouble paying the bills. I think this is fantastic! And you know what? You can donate on their site AND JUST IN TIME FOR THE APPROACHING HOLIDAY SEASON.

Tiny pigs FINALLY available as pets

I still don't know exactly what they are, but I love that these pigs are tiny and cute, and that the news anchor looks like a post-punk, English Carson Daly. Thanks to my friend Jaina for sending this video my way.

WAIT--THAT CAN'T BE REAL?!?!?!

It's been a couple days since The Daily Mail,my favorite news source for wacky animal stories, posted this. So far there has been no retraction. And so it must be real, right? RIGHT? It just looks so adorably...photoshopped. But since it must be real, allow me to present you with...

The tiniest/cutest baby hippo OF ALL TIME. Somehow, finding out that there are pygmy hippos was even more shocking to me than discovering giant otters. But I searched on Wikipedia and there they were, and so, as mentioned before, they must be real, right? RIGHT???? They like to live by water, are reclusive, and are nocturnal. Perhaps I am part pygmy hippo. Except for the reclusive part. That only happens sometimes.

Celebratory cute baby animal round-up

So I just narrowly prevented an air conditioner from falling out my bedroom window. (Calm yourselves: I live on the ground floor. At most it would've been super annoying and I would've sworn a lot.) And so to celebrate (and because my computer's battery is running down), I present you with these wonderful picture of a mama and baby Siamang. Ahhhhh!!!!


From Zooborns

And this herd of baby capybaras. BFFs on parade!!!


From the LA Times Blog

And finally these kissin' baby meerkats!

From the Telegraph.co.uk site


Everybody's so happy! YAY!!!

Dressing up animals: kitty wigs edition

A coworker keyed me into the fabulous and fantastic world of KITTY WIGS!!!!!! At first I thought it'd be really disturbing and kinda sad, but it is not. In fact, it totally reminds me how, as a kid, I used to dress up my awesome, dearly departed cat Dusty up in Halloween costumes such as a witch, a hula girl, a cowgirl, and a gypsy. Also possibly more: I was realllly into this. It was fun, okay???? DON'T SAY THAT THIS IS KINDA DISTURBING AND KINDA SAD. It's not. It's adorable. Quirky. But not in that "movie starring the preacher dude from There Will Be Blood as the love interest" sorta way.

Check out the Kitty Wigs website, if you haven't already. My coworker told me that the above picture reminded him of Diablo Cody, which gives the site like 500 extra points in my book. And hence this post.

Coolest French people ever and their incredible backpacker cat

A coworker keyed me into this INCREDIBLE (read: I wish this was my life, kinda) story. This young French couple decided to backpack from Miami to Tierra del Fuego, all while spending (I believe) a euro a day. AND HANGING OUT WITH THE COOLEST CAT EVER THE APPROPRIATELY NAMED "KITTY," who they encountered in Louisiana, and has been their traveling companion ever since. You can read about the journey and check out some amazing photos on their website Turn of the World.com. It's handily equipped with Google Translate.

Also check out the article and video over at the Urlesque site.

He has a tiny cat umbrella in the video. Ahhhhh it's too much--I love him!!!

Baby sloth bonanza!!!!

What's cuter than a baby sloth? This post proves the answer: A SLOTH IN A BOX. This first guy here is my desktop theme at work. I was sick the week of my birthday and it made me totally mopey and self-pitying...until I looked into this lil' fellow's adorable, kinda weird eyes. And all was right in the world. I strongly encourage you to google image "Baby sloth." There are more cuddly, Precious Moments-eyed wee slothy creatures than you could ever imagine. AND THEY ARE ALL THE BEST THING EVER.









*Pictures from LA Weekly, Daily Motion, Trip Advisor, and The WB)

Badger and Otter: Best of Friends

I am always so excited to find out about Unusual Animal BFFs. And these two are especially delightful! The young badger and otter were orphaned at an early age and struck up one of the most unlikeliest/adorablest friendships!!! Check out the video of them playing at Secret World Wildlife Rescue in England. This place sounds wonderful! And yes, I did rip off the headline of this post from the following video on YouTube. It sounds like a super heartwarming illustrated mid-century children's book.

The tiny BFFs make the funniest little giggling noises. Well, depending on your POV, they either sound cute and sweet, or like something that lives under the stairs at your grandparents' creepy old house and that runs around making mischief at night. Your call!

Muffy and Tiddlesworth's ocean adventure

Continuing the (possibly annoying) mental theme I seem to have in regards to all small animals, I readily assumed that these guinea pigs are a) British and b) on their way to the most delightful picnic/tea time/garden luncheon. "It's the most delightful day for an outing, wouldn't you say, Muffy?" they seem to be saying. But OH DIP this is Peru, friends, not Albion, and well, let's just leave it at that. Ideally the pair was released afterwards to frolic and scamper in a charming wee boat made of a hollowed out coconut and a handkerchief for a sail, a tiny conveyance that would bring them safely and shipshapedly to their friends across the ocean.

(Photo from The Spokesman Review.)

Momongas!

Thanks to my friend, the lovely and talented Stacy for leading me to these tiny fuzzy bundles of adorableness. (Also thanks to Cute Overload for not putting up one of those "I steal photos" gifs since I credited them for their hug-inducing photo PLEEEEEASE!) There is not a lot out about these cuddly lil' fellows, although I did find some sort of online squirrel forum called The Squirrel Board which has some pretty awesome pictures of tiny baby squirrels, including two baby squirrel BFFs that could probably bring about world peace in 93% of the world's war torn regions if they were to become international ambassadors. UN, think about it. Heck, that cat ambassador in Japan is doing wonders for his proud nation, and their pancakes in particular.

Caaaarazy 4 Crocs!!!!

I should just change the name of this blog to "ThingsISawOnTheDailyMailTodayAndRippedOff.Blogspot.Com." Tonight I was looking frantically on all the places I usually steal my news from, and then I thought, "Why not give the Daily Mail a look see? I want to start watching this "True Blood" show my friends are always on about." And what do you know, there, at the bottom of the Daily Mail website was a picture of this dude Chito and his best bud, some...um...flat thing. That "flat thing" turns out to be a giant crocodile who is now Chito's BFF after dude saved him from a nasty gunshot wound IN THE EYE. Chito, I commend you, sir. There exists no greater love than that between a man and his croc.

Repost from the UK: The freakish Frankenstein's monster that is the nation's ideal pet

God I love The Daily Mail. Sometimes I confuse it with The Sun, with its infamous Page 3 Girls (because everyone needs a little nudie break between the news about the recession or the war in Iraq. SERIOUSLY. That stuff is HEAVY.) Which is an insult to any newspaper--SORRY!!!

Anyways, The Daily Mail is all animals riding public transit and nutty headlines. And now all the wackiness we know and love it for has been combined into one totally breathtaking, absolutely vital weekend news story. Once again, the headline was so good I ripped it off verbatim.

No joke: I want one. So freaky cute, like Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl.

ALL BRITISH COMMUTER CAT SPECTACULAR (ok not "all")

This entire lengthy post goes out to my friend, Angie, who started a thread elsewhere about AMAZING CATS. And, as you will see, not technically "all" of these cats are British. I just liked the title, and I said I would post an entry entitled that because I liked the way it sounded, and so I did. DEAL WITH IT PEOPLE)



I Can Has Window Seat???
Commuter Cat Is Star of Bus Route
Is he ever! The title is so whimsical and wonderful, I half expect it was written by a Yorkshire Toad who wrote it up on a little typewriter while sipping some PG Tips and making witty repartee with his Mole Wife. Check out the excellent video!



Mystery Cat Takes Regular Bus to the Shops
There's also this guy, Macavity, another English cat who just can't get enough of buses! This story is a classic, and it has the awesome 4-pane "story board" presentation-style photo, which I looooove. I thought I had posted about this before, but apparently not. I did blingee.com it out, once, which was pretty awesome, and totally worthwhile to do yourself if you're bored at work!


Cat Saves Japanese Railway
Stationmaster Cat Draws Tourists
Then there is the lovely Tama, a stray who totally revived a Japanese railroad route. I love that they refer to her as "Stationmaster Cat"! Each one of these stories has video footage, and let me tell you, if you're having a crappy day, just watch one, and NO MORE! Crappy day gone.

So hats off to you, commuter cats. And also to you, Angie, for letting me totally rip off your witty and entertaining posting to another source. Ride on, furry buddies, ride on.

Wait, what am I?

That's what this baby okapi is asking Life. "Am I like, a zebra? Or a weird horse? What about my striped leggings--does this mean I'm a rollergirl?" So many questions. And since I am totally getting a repetitive stress injury from typing all the time at my new job, I am just going to direct you to the "There's a New Okapi In Town" story at Zooborns.com. Thanks as always to my BFF, Sarah, for forwarding this my way!

Adorable dormice!

Dormice! They sound so cozy. So Wind in the Willows. And since I've just described the rock'n'roll rats of the previous entry as having that weird tiny animal speech pattern I imagine everything cute has, I am not even gonna delve into that. So here you go. Here's just a bunch of pictures of dormice, doing what they do best: being adorable. And here's a link in case you want to read about them. I love them so much. I just imagine them wearing little bonnets and calling each other "Mother" and "Papa" even though they're married to each other. And the Mother Dormouse is always baking pies and the Papa Dormouse is really forgetful but teaches the Dormouse children valuable life lessons.


(Pic credit: Wildlifetrust.org.uk)


(Daily Mail)


(The Guardian)


(Cheshire Wildlife Trust)

Look to your laurels, Bob Geldof, here come the real... Boomtown rats!

Yes, I totally lifted that headline and this picture direct from the Daily Mail. They were just too good to not reuse them. Apparently some people from Holland were inspired to teach their pet rats to "play" these itty-bitty instruments after seeing a widdle guitar in a shop window. (Because, as you already know, tiny creatures like rats speak with an adorable lisp and use cutesy words to describe things. They can't help it! They are just that inherently heartwarming.) These Dutch people are truly people after my own heart. Thanks to my friend Tony for finding this. Anything where animals rock out is a-ok in my book.

Read more!

Grammar monkeys on patrol!

Um, how did I miss this? How did THE WORLD MISS THIS??? Apparently, according to National Geographic, monkeys can understand grammar. I mean, sure, most people know about Koko, the sign language gorilla. But WOW. Read more HERE.
The article describes how "previous research in cotton-top tamarins had shown that the animals can understand basic grammar, for instance, identifying which words logically follow other words in a sentence." And now our scientist friends have demonstrated that tamarins can recognize suffixes and prefixes, and when they are used incorrectly. During the study, when a suffix was used out of order from what the monkeys had been previously hearing, they turned dramatically towards the researchers. THEY WERE THAT UPSET!!!! What sticklers those little tree-swingin' guys are. This is so exciting! Now in my ideal future universe when we are record shopping alongside giant otters and hanging at poolside Vegas bars with giant salamanders, we can have book clubs with tiny punk rock-lookin' monkeys. DREAMLAND!

Baby bats continue to astound with their strangeness, heartwarmingness

As often happens, my best friend and frequent Cuteoverload.com reader Sarah has opened my eyes (and now yours!) to this adorable yawning baby bat! "Oh it's 11am! I can't believe I stayed up this late into the morning! I am so tiwed!" That is what he is saying. Because as you know by now, I'm sure, all baby animals have an adorable lisp.


(Picture from Northern Territory News in Australia.)

Rein of the giant creatures: Coconut Crab edition

Coconut crabs sound so fun, don't they? All relaxing on the beach, sipping pina coladas, maybe jammin' a little "Margaritaville." They sound like the ULTIMATE SUMMER CRUSTACEAN!!!!! Total good times, beach buddy. Then you find out they are giant. And nobody's laughing anymore.

Check this guy out. I found him on Webecoist.com, a website that apparently shares my fascination with lifeforms that are much larger than they should be. In the past this blog has envisioned hanging out with giant otters at say, the grocery store, or at a picnic, maybe. Not these crabs. They just wanna sit on your garbage can and scare the @#%^ out of you. Fortunately, like most giant things, they live nowhere near me. They are native to Guam and the Pacific Islands.