The adorable pictures thread.

[goflyblind]

i'm not quite sure why this was posted on io9, but i ain't complainin' (click for more):

[D.B. Barnes]

Oh my.

Petite Puppy Defies Odds To Survive And Could Be Record Holder

El Dorado Hills – She’s a survivor! A petite puppy named Beyonce is thriving after escaping death several times, and she could be the world’s smallest puppy. The tiny 2-week-old pup is being cared for by the folks at The Grace Foundation in El Dorado Hills who not only saved Beyonce from sure death, but also her mother and four siblings.

Beyonce’s mother, Casey, a small Dachshund mix, was found pregnant and wandering the streets. She was picked up by animal control and scheduled to have her puppies aborted, according to The Grace Foundation, but her pregnancy was too far along. Casey was then scheduled to be euthanized. Luckily, the workers at Devore Animal Control contacted The Grace Foundation and they agreed to take Casey. Five days later, Casey gave birth. The first four puppies were born without problems. However, the fifth puppy, Beyonce, was abnormally small.

At birth, Beyonce was not breathing and did not have a heartbeat. The Grace Foundation’s veterinarian, Dr. Russell, and executive director Beth DiCaprio were able to resuscitate her. Beyonce was small enough to fit in a spoon when she was born. After two weeks of being fed by hand, she’s almost as big as an iPhone.

The folks at The Grace Foundation are submitting an application to the people at Guinness World Records to see if Beyonce is a record holder.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[D.B. Barnes]

He's adorable. It really makes me happy to hear pet adoption stories. It breaks my heart when I hear the pet store puppy mill horror stories and see the videos. It's beyond appalling. Makes me sick to my stomach. Not enough people know about the whole pet store issue.

[LucasM]

He's adorable. It really makes me happy to hear pet adoption stories. It breaks my heart when I hear the pet store puppy mill horror stories and see the videos. It's beyond appalling. Makes me sick to my stomach. Not enough people know about the whole pet store issue.

Yeah, there's this average run of the mill couple (white, vaguely educated, republican, she has fake breasts, etc.) and they have two dogs both from puppy mills with papers and stuff.  They just got the younger one--a Weimaraner--and it was ostensibly going to be  "a hunting dog" so it had to be from a breeder (?!?).  Well, I asked about that, and the husband has no intention of taking up hunting.  Meanwhile, about half a dozen dogs come through on campus every year that are homeless and need adopting.  One poor wretch recently was so thin that even after being taken to the vet he didn't make it.  But at least their dogs have "papers"!

Well... for the puppies, it seems like enough to 'go' on to me.   

[SJP]

I don't have any pictures, but I was just at the cat vet the other day...and they have adoption fliers up all over the place for some of the most adorable animals.  Unfortunately, you can't take them all in, especially since a lot of them apparently have feline leukemia (or FIV+, since I guess it's now called) and can't be near cats that don't have it.  And a work e-mail talked about a dog that was part pit bull, part dalmatian that couldn't be kept because the landlord where the owner lived has a no dogs policy.  I'm not normally a fan of pit bulls, but that picture was very, very huggable.  But I've already got cats (very, very ungrateful cats, mind you...  )and can't take in any of them, so yeah, it is heartbreaking to know they're out there and need homes and I can't provide for them.  Unless I become a long-haired weirdo with 500 cats living in the house, but then, that's not fair to them, either.

[LucasM]

The two cats I've had were both strays, picked up by others but who ultimately found me.

The first one was the runt of a litter born to a rather 'active' female cat, who had six kittens [each VERY different, two were Manx, one a short-hair, the other long] which she abandoned in an abandoned van in Detroit.  A grad school classmate found the kittens in the van and found homes for them.  My runt, I'm happy to say, thanks to appreciation of her under my roof, lived longer than the other five kittens in the litter; 17 years, all but six weeks of which were with me.  She was with me through grad school, the worst of my marriage, my divorce, and all three accidents.



The second [my avatar] was a stray that my vet took in.  Since he's black, no-one would adopt him.  But during the final week with my other cat, I was stressed and sitting in the exam room, and, while my other cat was being examined (just about 3 days prior to my having her put to sleep), he just came in and quietly sat underneath the chair next to me during her exam: moral support.  I felt guilty at the time, because my cat who I'd known for so long was in such bad shape and was about to die [she'd had intestinal troubles for a while, but about a week before she was put to sleep she just stopped eating entirely], but I looked at him and thought, "my god he's gorgeous!"  [Some think I'm crazy, but I feel like she 'called' to him to come into the room to introduce the two of us.]

I gave myself a couple months to grieve the first cat's passing, [visiting the current one once at the vets in the meantime], then took him in.  He's one of the most affectionate cats I've ever known, or even known about.  He just adores LONG periods of attention, e.g. rubbing his belly for anywhere from 20-60 minutes at a time, him purring the whole time.  He'd like it if that happened four to six times a day... I usually manage two: one while I'm eating breakfast [take a bite, rub his belly while I chew, swallow, repeat], and one between my 'computer time' and when I go downstairs for my 'TV time'.  I add a third a couple times a week: right after the massage therapist leaves, as he is very vocal then, clearly saying, "MY TURN!" 



Despite my attempt at 'puppy potty-training humor' a few posts above, I agree 100% with what you said, Imrahil: it is appalling that people want 'bred' animals when it means that either those animals suffer [in the breeding/housing], or that strays are routinely euthanized because they have no-one available to take them in.  I can't imagine what my life would've been like without EITHER of these cats I've been blessed with.

[D.B. Barnes]

Great cats and great cat origin stories! 

What are their names?

[LucasM]

Great cats and great cat origin stories! 

What are their names?

The female tabby was Omaha, the all-black male is Lucas [with my last initial it became my 'nom de plume' here].  I named Omaha, Lucas was already named when I got him [I got him when he was between 2-3 years old, having lived in the vet's office with that name for about two years... I'd thought "Bobby Seale" would've been a great name for a black 'panther' cat ...but perhaps he's better off as "Lucas" ].

Here's another adorable pic I found of Omaha in her favorite place.  Sadly her spending hours on my lap each day came to an end after my third head injury, because I couldn't sit still (having both a fresh head injury and a new house to organize)... she learned to not sit on my lap after that.    Though, ONE TIME she did after that, about two months prior to her dying.  I'm sure she did it deliberately... sort of a 'no grudge' statement.


Oh, and I forgot to mention: when I first picked up Omaha from my classmate, Omaha, this TINY little kitten, calmly rode my shoulder the whole way home, just interestedly looking out the window at all the stuff we passed.   

[wurwolf]

My god, I am openly sobbing into my coffee. What a sweet and wonderful story, Lucas. 

[mattwnelson]

 

Well, since we're sharing teary-eyed stories of pets:



That was Tiger, who I had for about 15 years. We got her from a friend of my father's, along with another cat, when her husband said he couldn't have them around anymore. Being suckers for loving on unwanted cats, we took them in.

Pretty much from the get-go, Tiger decided I was her go-to person. She slept in my room, she sat with me when I worked at the computer, and she knew when I came home from work every day, because she was always waiting on top of the microwave near our kitchen door when I walked in, greeting me with a loud meow. She was quite a talker. If you talked to her, she'd respond almost every time. I took her, and another cat, Jiji, with me when I left home, and she remained throughout two apartment moves the same calm, lovable cat that she'd always been. She loved any kind of attention, and she used to let me wear her like a hat, or fold her up in my arms, or feed her saltines and french fries (LOVED potatoes and starch, that kitty).

She developed kidney failure sometime around 2009 or 2010, I think, and hung on until last August, when she started being unable to control herself on the furniture, and showed other signs that her advanced age was wearing on her. I made the excruciating choice to let her go. In March, though, before she died, an afternoon of playtime with her when I put her on my face like a beard inspired my comic, Catbeard the Pirate. She has a legacy now, and I'll always be grateful to her.



Now I'm down to just the one, my Jiji, who I named after the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. He was a stray who started hanging around the house when I lived at home, and for some reason I really liked him. He developed mites, which made him look really scuzzy and mangy, so I took him to the vet to have him fixed up. Fast forward a few years, and he's now a gorgeous, fat indoor kitty.



Hard to get a photo of a black cat, though! Sheesh.

[Bob]

I picked up my 4.5 year old Doberman from Www.hadr.org in Houston and she is a perfect 75 pound lap dog and house monster protector......

[D.B. Barnes]

There's something in my eye, and somebody is cutting onions, and somehow a frog has managed to lodge itself in my throat. 

[LucasM]

Hard to get a photo of a black cat, though! Sheesh.

You can say that again! 

But when the lighting is JUST right, it looks like Lucas' fur is a mix of satin and velvet in photos.  I keep expecting to come home one day and find that while I was gone someone snuck into my house and painted a day-glo Elvis on his side.   

[LucasM]

Back to 'adorable pictures'.  These are all of Omaha.  I turned many into notecards that I sold briefly (before the third head injury so severely limited my functioning that I couldn't deal with filling orders any longer... now I generally just give them as gifts, or family members buy sets to give as gifts).

This is the very first picture I took of her.  The title is below it, rather than up here, so you can react freely.

It is titled, "Awwww" as that is the response of 99% of people who see it. 

This next one is "Omaha a la Van Gogh" [the background being as it is because I wanted to use the pic of her for a notecard, but figured a background of my hairy legs wasn't going to be terribly marketable ].


I referred to Omaha during her life as "the World's First Feline Supermodel" as she was so good about me taking pictures of her.  Once she KNEW she was being cute, and she looked at me, expectantly.  She waited patiently in position while I went in the other room, got my camera, put batteries in the flash, set the exposure, focused it, and took the picture.
This is that picture:

The INSTANT after I'd taken the picture, she calmly hopped out.
[The pic is titled, "Who let the cat out of the ...uh... box?"]

[D.B. Barnes]

It is titled, "Awwww" as that is the response of 99% of people who see it. 

TIL 1% of people don't have a soul.