Browsing: Animals/Pets

A Brief History On February 2, 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio fumbled the unfortunate groundhog Charlotte, dropping the marmot on her head during a Groundhog Day ceremony.  For information about Groundhog Day, please read our article “First Groundhog Day Celebration in Punxsutawney,” but as you probably gathered by today’s article’s title, Groundhog Day is not only celebrated in Pennsylvania. Digging Deeper With regards to the tragic 2014 Groundhog Day in New York, typical of politically-staged events, the lies or misinformation started right away when the groundhog was called “Chuck,” when in reality it was a female named…

A Brief History On August 6, 2005, Creme Puff, the oldest cat to make it into the 2010 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, died at the age of 38!  Digging Deeper For those of you who have ever owned a cat, you know that 38 years is more than a ripe old age; it is next to impossible for any cat to reach.  In human terms, this particular cat made it to 169 years of age, an age certainly not experienced by any man or woman in modern history.   If your cat makes it to 15, that is already good, and every year beyond that is…

A Brief History On October 1, 2014, the findings of a medical study of adults between the ages of 57 and 85 published in the online journal PLOS ONE created a little stir on the internet when it was reported that a loss in one’s sense of smell could be indicative that one has less than five years to live! In other words, how good or bad one’s olfactory system is operating could be an indicator of one’s mortality and remaining life expectancy.  The exact mechanism, i.e. the correlation between the nose and general health, for this discovery is yet unknown, and further studies are necessary. Digging…

A Brief History On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson shot his famous footage of a bigfoot at Bluff Creek, California.  The creature was later determined to be female and became known as “Patty.”  Digging Deeper Patterson was someone who might be considered an amateur bigfoot hunter.  Together with Robert “Bob” Gimlin, a rancher and horse trainer who acted as a guide, he set out on horseback to capture a bigfoot, or sasquatch as they are also known, on film.  They followed various sets of tracks (Patty’s were later found to have been the medium-sized ones…) until they reached Bluff Creek where the horses reeled upon catching sight of…

A Brief History On October 19, 2011, Zanesville in Muskingum County, Ohio became hunting grounds for lions, tigers, bears, leopards, mountain lions, and even monkeys when the owner of an exotic animal farm released his private zoo into the open and then shot himself. Digging Deeper Muskingum County was the home of Terry Thompson, a Viet Nam War vet who had maintained a private farm of dangerous and exotic animals.  Among his successes were handling animals on the Rachel Ray Show and providing a lion cub for a photo shoot which featured Heidi Klum (click on her name for a link to the video).  Despite these moments in the sun,…