I recently shared a video with a little yellow bird who wasn't afraid to dine next to two dachshunds, which was kind of an odd sight but not too strange considering some dogs don't see birds as prey.

On the other hand cats usually see birds as prey, so you'd think any bird dumb enough to go around bunch of house cats during mealtime would become an additional entree.

But redditor AusSpyder discovered birds and cats can actually coexist peacefully when they recorded this amazing footage while visiting the home of their friend "Doctor Doolittle":

This crow showed up at my friends house one day. It had an injured wing and couldn’t fly at first, but It’s been like 3 or 4 months now and the crow can fly again though not quite as good as it originally could. It’s just chosen to hang around and it still eats with the cats or my friend if she eats outside. He will happily sit on your shoulder and eat biscuits if you have any. It’s not exactly a pet, like it isn’t stuck in a cage and could easily fly off any time it wanted, it just chooses not to and for some reason the cats never chose to attack it.

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

Cats love to chase mice, RC cars and Roombas, so it's only natural for them to go after anything that is zooming around in their line of sight, especially if it's small enough for them to catch and possibly chew on.

So when the curious kitty in this video saw a Hot Wheels car zooming around the track he had to spring into action.

But he probably would have been better off chasing a mouse, because that Hot Wheels car left him eating dust!

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

Some dogs take to snow like a fish to water, others simply abhor the way that cold and wet stuff feels on their paws so they're miserable when their humans force them to walk around in the snow.

But whether they love it or loathe it all dogs can agree on one thing- sledding through the snow is way cooler than walking around with cold paws like a mangy mutt.

The dog in this video from Bogart, Georgia wants to be cool but he's not brave enough to sled on his own, so he decides to ride piggyback on his owner instead!

(YouTube Link)

-Via Tastefully Offensive

Henriette Kleppan's family moved to a new home with their cat, Sverre. The house needed some work, including building new stairs. After the carpenters were gone, the family couldn't find the cat. They called for Sverre and finally heard him crying weakly from inside the new stairs! Four-year-old Julie and 7-year-old Mikkel were quite upset.

(YouTube link)

Sverre was closed up inside the stairs for at least five hours. He was pretty glad to be out, and doesn't seem to hold a grudge about the misadventure. -via Digg

Dogs amaze us with their ability to detect scents from just a few molecules. At least we recognize their abilities, and use them to find things like drugs, explosives, and even cancer. But how to we train dogs to focus on one kind of smell? It's a basic dog training technique that's been refined to suit the dog's future job. But there are inherent dangers in these jobs, too.

While rare owing to the fact that the dogs are being used to find hidden drugs (thus likely barriers between the drug and the dog), it does sometimes happen where the dog may be exposed to something so toxic that even trace amounts pose a risk to them, such as relatively recently happened in Broward County, Florida where sniffer dogs were exposed to the extremely potent opioid fentanyl.

To get around this problem, the dog’s handler will keep a vigilant watch and particularly not deploy sniffing dogs at all if there are any loose drugs present. For the unseen drugs that nonetheless may be particularly potent, the handler also might carry things like naloxone with them, which rapidly reverses/blocks the effects of opioids, just in case.

Read about the specific training technique for drug detection dogs, plus some of the benefits and dangers of using dogs to detect drugs and other contraband at Today I Found Out.

It must be difficult for keepers to weigh all the different animals that come to their zoo, especially the ones that don't take kindly to being cornered by humans.

But 3-week-old Winsol the aardvark is probably a pleasure compared to the really feisty critters found at the Cincinnati Zoo, even though he refuses to sit still long enough to get weighed.

(YouTube Link)

Winsol was born on the same day as the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2017, hence his strange name, and he hasn't left his mom's side since he was born, which is probably why he was so squirrely while he was being weighed.

A post shared by Cincinnati Zoo (@cincinnatizoo) on Dec 30, 2017 at 7:34am PST

-Via Laughing Squid

Ship's cats have always been common, because they are the best way to exterminate rats and other vermin on long voyages. However, cats are just one of many types of pets taken on ocean travels throughout history. Sailors have been accompanied by dogs, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and other animals, and not all of them were for dinner. Patricia Sullivan, founder and curator of the online Museum of Maritime Pets, talked to Atlas Obscura about the little-known tradition of land animals at sea. They served in wartime and peace time, too.

Pets were also trusted companions for maritime explorers. “Many pets were working animals on exploration vessels,” Sullivan says, with dogs used for hunting at ports of call and cats on exterminator duty. More than all of this, seafaring animals played important emotional roles on long, grueling, monotonous, dangerous voyages plagued by uncertainty. “Sailors were out at sea for months or years at time, so pets were important de-stressors” she says. “I think people would have gone mad without something to pet.”

A few years ago, Sari Mäenpää, a curator at the Maritime Museum of Finland, was conducting research when she first really noticed the presence of pets in the museum’s image archives. “I came across loads of photos, especially from the sailing ship era, where cats and dogs were portrayed in ‘official’ crew photos, and suddenly I started seeing images of them everywhere.”

Read about more of these seafaring pets at Atlas Obscura. 

(Image credit: Australian National Maritime Museum Collection, Samuel J. Hood Studio)

Wherever there are people there are dogs coexisting with human populations that are as diverse as they are, and whether they're trying to please their masters or snatch what they can while the humans aren't looking dogs will always be by our side.

London-based street photographer Alan Schaller normally focuses on “the realities and diversities of human life", but as he traveled the world he noticed the dogs he met were pretty diverse too.

So Alan started focusing his lens on the dogs of the world, shifting his focus from man to man's best friend, but before he shoots he really gets to know his subject:

The process involves getting familiar with the dog first, creating some kind of a bond and gaining their trust. "I find dogs are in general more consistently friendly, unpredictable, and amusing than humans," says Schaller. "Almost every dog I have photographed, unless the scenario has been tragic, has made me laugh at some point when meeting it."

See Street Photographer Travels The World Portraying Very Different Personalities Of Dogs here

There are thousands, if not millions, of pets sitting in pounds, shelters and rescue centers around the world, all of them just waiting for some kind humans to come and take them home.

It's important that as many pets as possible are adopted from pounds and shelters and given a better life, and to help expedite the process some pets have sadly taken to pretending to be purebreeds to make themselves look more adoptable.

But if you're going to adopt a pet don't be a breed snob, because mutts make awesome pets too!

(YouTube Link)

Take Me Home is a short and sweet CG film by Nair Archawattana and students from the Academy Of Arts University, and it reminded me why I love mutts so much- because many of them have an indomitable spirit!

The Odd Cat Sanctuary in Massachusetts focuses on finding homes for odd cats: feral, disabled, neglected, elderly, or otherwise hard to place cats. They heard about Maya, a cat with a chromosomal abnormality that was headed for euthanasia at another shelter. Maya has a flattened snout and vision issues, but the more you look at her pictures, the cuter she becomes. The sanctuary placed Maya in a foster home, and now she has a forever home where she lives the life of a normal house cat and is quite pampered. Maya is also doing her part for other cats by being the unofficial face of the Odd Cat Sanctuary and drawing attention to other cats who need homes. See more Maya at her Instagram page.

(Image credit: meetmayacat)

(YouTube link)

Cats have a firm sense of private property, but it only pertains to themselves. A cat sees something, it will take something. "I found it, it's mine now!" You know, like the seagulls in Finding Nemo, just quieter. Enjoy this compilation of all kinds of cats taking all kinds of things for themselves. -via Tastefully Offensive

David Graham of Charleston, South Carolina, was simply trying to discard the Christmas tree. His plan was to dump it over the backyard fence into the woods. His wife Erin wondered why it was taking so long, so she peeked out the window and then had to grab her camera.  

(YouTube link)

Their two dogs weren't making things easy at all! Did they consider it a game of tug-of-war? Or were they just upset that the wonderful tree was going away? I would bet the former, as the dogs seem to be having a great time. David, not so much.  -via Tastefully Offensive

This picture was taken by Staff Sergeant Martin Riley of the Marine Corps in Korea. The image of a Marine feeding a two-week-old kitten with an eyedropper offered a tender moment in a brutal war, and was published in over 1,700 newspapers in 1953.

In the middle of the Korean War, this kitten found herself an orphan. Luckily, she found her way into the hands of Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor. He adopted the two-week-old kitten and gave her the name “Miss Hap” because, he explained, “she was born at the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Miss Hap was still luckier than her mother and sibling, because she found the right person to take care of her. Read the story of the kitten and what eventually happened to her here. -via Strange Company

Fast food workers meet hungry people at the drive-thru window on a daily basis, and they also get to meet the customers' dogs who, if asked, are usually just as hungry as their owners.

That's why most dogs greet the person at the drive-thru window warmly, because they can smell the food cooking behind them so they're hoping for a handout.

A post shared by Natasha (@ebdogs4096) on Jan 7, 2018 at 8:19am PST

Einstein Bagel Company employee Natasha Jones takes a picture of all the dogs that greet her at the drive-thru window whether they're friendly or full of snarls, then she shares their pic on her Instagram account EBDogs4096.

A post shared by Natasha (@ebdogs4096) on Dec 29, 2017 at 11:36am PST

Natasha's account is a sweet look at the friendly canine faces she sees at work every day, and since she hooks them up with a free doggie bagel they've stopped wanting to go for a walk and now want to go for a ride in the car- straight to the drive-thru!

A post shared by Natasha (@ebdogs4096) on Jan 7, 2018 at 10:50am PST

See more of these adorable pics at Laughing Squid

This little ferret wants the dresser drawer open, and will not give up until it is! You have to wonder what's in there. Maybe it's ferret treats, but it could be something as simple as underwear to play with or a place to curl up and sleep.

(YouTube link)

Persistence pays off! Yeah, she fell at the end, but the drawer is open enough, and she can get back up there whenever she wants. -via Laughing Squid