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I was really on a blogging kick there for awhile, but I seem to have hit a block. It's probably mostly pre-wedding stress and lack of free time, but hopefully once everything calms down I'll be able to get back into it. Back in approximately 2 weeks!

Cat eating Spagetti

You guys have to read this post and watch this video. It's hilarious. It's one of those things that will make you laugh for no reason, sort of like the dramatic chipmunk.

Product Review: Tylenol Severe Allergy

We recently adopted an adorable kitten named Keira. She's lived with us for 2.5 days now and we are smitten. She is gorgeous, active, and so lovey. She loves us as much as we love her! Take a look:
Isn't she beautiful???

The problem? I'm severely allergic. I have been since childhood, though when my family adopted LC way back when, then Smokey and Boo, I gradually got used to having cats in the house. Then came college, and I moved away from home and have lost that immunity. Not only that, but it is hayfever season and my allergies were already going nuts. needless to say, Saturday was miserable. So I went to the store and scoured the allergy aisle. I used to use Claritan during the day, and Benedryl at night. However, Claritan didn't do the job on it's own, and the Benedryl made me feel like death (not to mention the drunken effects immediately after I take it). I did pick up some Claritan during the day, but for night I grabbed Tylenol Severe Allergy. After the trouble with Nana, I've been trying to use Tylenol more often, since it's easier on the stomach, but I was pretty skeptical about the allergy use.

Picture from here.

I took it right before bed last night. Wow. I didn't feel drunk at all. Nor did I wake up feeling like a grizzly coming out of hibernation. I actually felt pretty good. My throat was a little dry, my nose a little clogged, but compared to the miserable hacking mess I've been, I felt amazing! This product works. It does say that it will cause severe drowsiness on the box, so I would be cautious about using it during the day, but paired with a nondrowsy formula for daytime, this keeps my allergies from reeking havoc at night!

Pocket Pets

What is it with Asia and the obsession with pets you can put in your pockets? First it was Tamagotchi, back in middle school, and now this. I think I preferred digital poop to a pocketful of dead fish.

Polar Bears as Terrorists?

We all know the War on Terror is, at least in part, a War for Oil. Apparently, Bush now considers polar bears terrorists. How DARE they hinder our oil harvesting in order to protect their shrinking habitat!

Pet Tanning Bed

No, your pets won't REALLY get tan, but it's an interesting concept. I'm not one to buy expensive pet products, but I do know how much my cats enjoy laying on the floor next to a sunny window.

"Man Dies in Crocodile Orgy"

Had to rip off the original title, it was too good to change. To me, this is a common sense thing. Don't jump into a pool of crocs having sex. I think it's pretty awful that they are killing the animals because of human stupidity. You'd be pretty mad too if someone interrupted your lovemaking.

Aninimal Human Hybird...

Who really thinks this is a good idea? Note that they say that a human embryo will be injected into an animal egg in which ALMOST all genetic material will be removed.

"Volunteers rescue kitty from tight spot"

It was a purr-fect rescue. The grate escape. A cat-astrophe narrowly averted. One black cat is lucky to be alive this week, after it caught its head in a drainage grate on State Street last Thursday morning and was freed only after a monumental effort from volunteers in two towns.

Stuck on the side of the road, just inches from passing motorists, the cat survived an unknown amount of time with only its head poking through the 130-pound grate before it was spotted and rescued. Rescuers called to the scene Thursday couldn't believe what they saw when they arrived.

"When I pulled up ... I said 'Wow'," said Bristol Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Viera.

"How this cat didn't get killed is just amazing," added Bristol Police Lt. Nick Guercia, who was also helped rescue the feline.

The rescue

It all began around 8:15 a.m., when police received a call of a cat stuck in a drain cover across from Magnolia Street near the old town reservoir. When police, fire and department of public works crews arrived, all they saw was a tiny black head sticking out above the grate.

"The cat was just hanging under there," said Lt. Guercia.

Crews blocked off the area and immediately set to work trying to free the young female. They didn't get far. Though they used pry bars, they had no luck pulling open the heavy drainage grate to get to the cat — it was just too heavy, said Lt. Guercia.

Not giving up, rescuers asked DPW employees to bring in a backhoe. Meanwhile, Bristol Animal Control Officer Dyanne Gibree lubricated the cat's head with liquid soap in an effort to make it slippery enough to wriggle out of the bind. That didn't work either.

Though the animal was likely in shock, Officer Gibree said she was very cooperative with its rescuers.

"It took a lot of manipulating," she said.

Plan B

When prybars, backhoes, liquid soap and coaxing all failed, rescuers opted for Plan B: Bring the cat, grate and all, to a veterinarian. They borrowed an old spare tire from nearby Watkinson's Automotive, used it as a shimmy to rest part of the grate on while they lifted the other part, and lifted the whole mess up in one piece. Once that was done, they transported the cat and its heavy new collar to the Sakonnet Animal Hospital in Tiverton. But taking it to the vet didn't assure the cat was out of the woods. When it arrived at the vet's office, said veterinarian William Condon, its temperature was about 94 degrees, well below the 102 degrees it should have been. Though he's seen similar cases, Dr. Condon said, he was still quite surprised to see the cat stuck in the grate.

"It was a pretty interesting scene," he said. "It's head was just peeking over the top."

Dr. Condon sedated the cat, lubricated its neck and head, shaved its neck, and commenced tugging and turning. After a bit of coaxing, he said, the cat finally slipped free.

"If it was able to get its head in there, it had to be able to get it out of there," he said.

The cat was kept at the hospital over the weekend, and despite its life-threatening ordeal Dr. Condon later said it was recovering well. Though it's a bit shy, he said, it should make a full recovery.

"Its vital signs are good."

Finding the owner

Doctors and rescuers are still trying to locate the cat's owner. Because it was wearing a collar at the time of its rescue, police believe it is domesticated. On Monday, the cat was brought to the Bristol Animal Shelter on Minturn Road, where it will stay until an owner comes forward. If one doesn't, it will be put up for adoption.

"I think she used five of her nine lives," joked Officer Gibree.

Martino, Stephan V. "Volunteers rescue kitty from tight spot." 2 March 2006. EastBayRI.com. 24 March 2007. http://www.eastbayri.com/story/285534572150806.php.

Jay County Pollution

At least the awful stench gives you a little warning of what you are about to see. After all, nothing that smells that bad can look very good.

Animal carcasses -- by one count more than 250 of them -- have been scattered along a steep bank that leads down to a small creek along Spooky Hollow Road between Jay County roads 600-S and 700-S.

Some of the carcasses appear to be in garbage bags, and others are just scattered around the area. There's the occasional body part here and there, a skull or two rolled up against the base of a tree and other rubbish like tires and broken glass dumped there as well.

Flooding caused by last week's rain might have washed some of the animals downstream.

Otherwise, it would be a lovely area. Really.

The winding, gravel road is called Spooky Hollow because the countless trees along it darken the sky when the leaves are out, according to residents. And in the fall, when the trees show their colors, it's really a pleasant drive.

But not right now.

Two women walking in the area last week discovered the carcasses, and the recent rains have delayed clean-up efforts by county crews.

County engineer Dan Watson said he thought the cleanup could begin sometime today.

Officials said it didn't appear that the carcasses had been there very long because they had not been ravaged by other animals.

County highway supervisor Ken Wellman said he was concerned about safety procedures during the clean-up process because of the high water.

"We are looking at different ways to handle the situation," he said. "(Jay County Conservation Officer) Dwane Ford and I are working together to see how to best handle the situation."

Nearby residents didn't seem too upset. No one claimed it was the work of aliens or a secret cult.

"I'm a little concerned about it," said Tina Miller, who has lived in the area for about 20 years. "Way out here no one ever sees anything because the houses are so far apart."

But she's not unduly worried. "Stuff like that happens," she shrugged.

Oddly enough, some of the carcasses had been skinned, including dogs, cats, raccoons and coyotes among others. But a couple of calf carcasses didn't appear to have been molested in any way.

Conservation officer Ford is leading the investigation. He could not be reached for comment Monday, but others say the investigation has led toward Mercer County, just across the state line in Ohio, because numerous pets have been reported missing there.

Jay County officials say the carcasses will be buried on county-owned property near the Jay County Highway Department along County Road 300-N.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Jay County sheriff's department, (260) 726-8188.

Routledge, Ric. "Hundreds of animal carcasses dumped in Jay County." The Star Press (2007): 27 Mar 2007 http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/NEWS01/703270322.

Human Sheep

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus.

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

"We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient,' said Prof Zanjani, whose work is highlighted in a Channel 4 programme tomorrow.

"We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body. The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten foetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many available in case the first one fails."

At present 7,168 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in Britain alone, and two thirds of them are expected to die before an organ becomes available.

Scientists at King's College, London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle have now applied to the HFEA, the Government's fertility watchdog, for permission to start work on the chimeras.

But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."

Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: "Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all."

Joseph, Claudia. "Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human." Daily Mail: 24 Mar. 2007 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=444436&in_page_id=1770.