Happy Tuesday! The weather is getting nicer here and I thought that we should celebrate with some pictures of dogs on bikes:
This might be a Shiba Inu
Dalmatian actually working a bike
Cool Dog
Dog on the Back
Pug up Front
All pictures found on Buzz Feed, visit if you would like to see more pictures.
I hope that you all have an amazing day!
A very rare spotless cheetah has been photographed in the African wilds. The last recorded sighting of one of these anomalies was in 1921.
It is amazing how well the big cat blends in without its traditional markings.
Here is a picture of a regular, spotted cheetah:
To read more about the photographer who took pictures of the cheetah and his search for the animal, visit dailymail.co.uk.
I’ll Have Another has won the 138th Kentucky Derby! It was amazing to watch, he came from the pack in the final stretch and run very well. It was a first time win for post position number 19, and a first time derby win for his jockey. The horse is named for what his owner says when his wife offers him another cookie.
(found here)
Today is the 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs! It is warm today, around 84 degrees, and dispite rain yesterday the track has dried and been rated as fast. Only for three year old horses, these athletes have only one chance in their lives to win this race. These two minutes mean a lot in the horse racing world!
While there are many promising horses the current favorite is Union Rags, who starts in the fourth spot:
(found here)
Union Rags’ owner has a wonderful story – she sold him as a colt and repurchased him for much more than he was original sold for when he went to auction. He has turned out to be a champion so far, will he be able to pull off a big win?
There are a couple others horses that I want to highlight before the race.
Hansen – a beautiful all white horse that is drawing a lot of attention to himself. A bit of controversy surrounds his owner Dr. Hansen who has used the horse to seemingly bring himself publicity. He wanted to dye part of Hansen’s tail blue for the last race he ran, even with threats to scratch the animal over the issue. The tail was dyed back by the trainer to prevent any problems at the anger of Dr. Hansen – Hansen placed second in that race. He has done well thus far, can he pull off a win today?
(found here)
Bodemeister – Has a lot of potential to win this race by the very nature of his speed. He won the Arkansas Derby by 9 1/2 lengths. However, he has not been raced that many times (never as a two year old) and new situations could come up that will startle him and impact his performance. Maybe he can pull off such a wonderful win today.
(found here)
Gemologist – So far undefeated, and the only horse in the field to be so, Gemologist has great potential and good odds to take the Derby.
(found here)
Take Charge Indy – He has won in a couple major races but has not gotten much publicity like other derby favorites. However, he will have three time derby winning jockey Calvin Borel – so only time will tell if this combination will take it all today.
(found here)
Creative Cause – Has had good winnings thus far and I think he is a beautiful animal:
Another horse that I like just for the name: Rousing Sermon
(found here)
Creative, and I am not sure that many people would name a horse something like this. So I am interested in seeing how he runs. Also great names: I’ll Have Another and Daddy Long Legs.
Well, today is May 4th and that means it is Star Wars Day! Get it? May the force (fourth) be with you? Yeah, it is that awesome! 🙂
Hope you celebrate this wonderful day by watching the movies, or dressing your dog up in a costume:
Princess Leia and Darth Vader:
(found here)
Ewok
(found here)
Wampa
Yoda
Imperial Dog Walker
(found here)
Today there was a little bird on our deck who was there for hours and kept calling out loudly. It would seem a baby Robin, still too young to fly, got out of his nest and onto the deck somehow.
Long shot – confirmation of his tiny size
Close Up
And here is a shot of mom coming to feed him:
Nature in my backyard…hope the baby is okay with the heavy rain we are supposed to be getting soon.
Sorry for the rather long break! I have been super busy, and then I got sick with some kind of cold. But new posts are on the way!
This is kind of how I felt today:
The Guinness record for largest rabbit in the world is currently Darius, of the continental giant breed. He is 4ft 3in long and weighs 50 pounds!
Darius lives in Worcester, England. He is still growing and could end up being a few inches longer than he already is. Darius eats 12 carrots a day!
Darius with his owner:
At the dinner table
(Today)
A Measure of his ear
To read more about Darius see MailOnline and Today
Have you seen today’s Google Doodle (the picture on the front page of Google featuring their name)?
It features Eadweard J. Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion. If you click the picture on Google you can see the horse running. Below is how the actual set of pictures looked that make up the moving image:
Eadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer who used multiple cameras to take pictures of animals and people in motion, and then project them as moving pictures before film with a zoopraxiscope. His work helped to better understand how people and animals move.
The Horse in Motion was created to settle a common question of the day scientifically: were all four of a horses hooves on or off the ground while at a trot? Art leading up to this point in history often featured the horse at a trot with all legs off the ground, the front legs out in front off the ground and the back legs out behind the horse and off the ground. He set up a series of cameras to take pictures as the horse trotted past. It took only a single picture to actually solve the debate: a horse does have all four hooves off the ground at once, when all legs are tucked up under the animal while switching between pulling forward with the front legs and pushing forward with the back legs, not as artists had depicted.
Here are a couple more examples of movement photography by Muybridge:
Horse Jumping
Buffalo Running
(Animal Locomotion, Plate 700, 1887)
Ostrich
(found here)
In Australia chocolate bilbies are an alternative to chocolate bunnies for the Easter holiday. This prominence on store shelves keeps these little guys in the public eye and could help save an endangered species.
A chocolate bilby:
(Haigh’s Chocolates)
If you are unfamiliar, rabbits are a non-native species in Australia. After its introduction into the ecosystem with European settlers 200 years ago the bunny’s aggressive nature and quick breeding talents have taken a toll on native wildlife. Especially at odds with the rabbit is the native bilby – which once filled the niche that rabbits are taking over.
What is a bilby? They are rabbit sized nocturnal marsupials. Currently numbering in the 1000s, these little guys used to bounce all over Australia. Now they are endangered, from habitat loss due to people, to rabbits pushing them out of their burrows and eating their food supply, and from being eaten by foxes and feral cats. They are omnivores who have poor eyesight but very acute hearing and smell. Like the Koala, they do not drink water because their food provides it all.
A bilby out at night:
A 9 year old girl wrote a story called “Billy the Easter Bilby” in 1968 and published it 11 years later. This story helped to change public interest to move from using an Easter bunny to native wildlife, and in 1991 the Easter Bilby Campaign was started by the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia. Chocolate makers too began to support the Bilby effort and two major chocolate makers donate the profits made from the chocolate bilby sales to groups helping the real animals. A lot of the money goes to fencing projects that keep cats and foxes out of bibly territory and into breeding programs.
Haigh’s chocolates has a page on their website dedicated to the bilby and how to help them, found here.
So if you live in Australia, please choose a chocolate bilby this year for your Easter Basket and not a chocolate rabbit. The program has already helped bring awareness to many Australians who will never see a bilby in the wild. I hope that it continues to help and these little guys make even more of a comeback!
You can read more about this on NPR “Chocolate Bilbies, Not Bunnies, For An Australian Easter“.
