We’ve all heard stories about the local fireman rescuing a cat stuck in a tree. What happens when the cat is stuck atop a utility pole with powerful electrical cables running off in several directions? That’s what one Las Cruces, New Mexico family found out about recently when the family pet climbed a utility pole and got stuck.

Athena, the cat, climbed the 60-foot power pole in Las Cruces and was unable to get back down. Her cries continued for 3 days as the family tried to determine what to do and prepared for the eventual probability that the cat would die.

El Paso Electric rarely gets involved in saving animals because of their policies concerning safety for their employees. This didn’t leave pet owner David Eason and his family many options but it was time to start weighing them. One idea floated out was to shoot the cat to prevent it from suffering a long, drawn out death from starvation and dehydration. Naturally, Eason’ 16 year old daughter who is the cat’s actual owner, was not in favor of this plan.

The Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Department got involved. Someone there convinced El Paso Electric to turn off the power to that line temporarily and to provide a bucket truck. Then, Lt. Mary Lou ward, a supervisor with Animal Control climbed in the bucket and was lifted to the top of the 60-foot pole where she coaxed Athena from her perch and the rescue was complete.

The family is very grateful for all the assistance they received. Eason says he believes Athena will become an indoor kitty after this adventure.

It’s not clear from the video how these ducklings were initially found, but they were found by a couple on their farm.

When the couple got to the ducklings, their cat (Dela) had one of them in its mouth. They initially feared the worse. But then they realised the duckling wasn’t being held aggressively.

So they decided to place Dela and the ducklings down. To their amazement, the ducklings went over to Dela and nestled close to her as if she were their mother, and she laid on her side and nurtured them like they were her own.

This is unusual, not just because it’s one species mothering a different species (which is a huge unusual in itself), but because cats apparently tend to eat birds.

Another amazing thing, and perhaps an explanation for why Dela didn’t harm them, is that she gave birth to three of her own kittens very shortly before she found the ducklings. In the video, you can see her nurturing her kittens as well as the ducklings. They all look terribly cute.

The narrator explains,

“for a narrow window of a couple of hours, mothering hormones would have been coursing through her body, causing her to love and nurture any small, warm, furry creature she found next to her.”

Who knows where the ducklings’ mother is or what happened to her. It’s a blessing Dela found them though; the timing’s a miracle.

Dexter the cat and Gizmo are stuck in the kitchen. Gizmo watches as Dexter climbs up a pole and uses his paw for a while to try and twist the door knob.

That doesn’t work.

He tries again. Gizmo walks closer to the door as if offering Dexter moral support. Dexter tries with one paw then two.

He climbs down the pole and looks under the kitchen door. They also both look under door.
Dexter climbs up and gives the knob one more try.

Success! Door opens!

Gizmo pauses as if to say to Dexter, “well done, mate”, then quickly exits; while Dexter sits there for a while before leaving.

Gizmo pokes his head through the door for a second or two, then he’s gone.

The video was uploaded to YouTube on Oct 16th and has had a whopping 726,000+ hits so far.

Maybe it’s a myth that cat and dogs don’t get along. Maybe they’ve been pretending all this while to keep the story alive. Because going by this video, Dexter and Gizmo get along just fine :).

If not, well here’s your chance! No, you’re not seeing things – the cat is actually walking the dog. It picks up the dog’s leash and pulls it along – the dog follows, no barking, no struggling, no fighting.

Seventeen seconds in, the dog distracts itself, but the cat gives it a meow and it’s back in line again. They go up the stairs, chill for a short while, look back, and then up they continue, up a couple more flights of stairs ’til they reach the door of their apartment.

Who said cats and dogs don’t get along?!

There have been over a million views of this video on YouTube since it was uploaded in March. The pets’ owner (Dafna Kopelis) says the cat wasn’t trained to do what she did.

Cats can be funny, amusing creatures. They can be rather human-like at times as well. Case in point: this particular cat in question is ‘knocking’ on the door for its owner to let it and the other cats in. The knocks he makes sound remarkably human. He initially knocks four times like a lot of people would. But when he gets no reply, he knocks in a more persistent and rapid fashion. He keeps on going back and knocking hastily. At times it’s like he’s about to leave a dent in the door.

The other cats don’t appear to have the same skills as he does. It’s either that or they don’t really care that much about going inside. They don’t really look that bothered.

Anyway, the cat’s insistence finally pays off and voila, the door opens!

Clever cat. What other tricks does it have up its fur? Hmm.

Hilarious! Who would have thought a hen would adopt baby kittens? Well this one seems to think that it can! And the kittens don’t appear to mind either.

The kittens are very cute though - it’s understandable that they’d bring out the nurturer in anyone — but a hen?!!

Another thing: the kittens’ mother is alive and well. She’s not missing or anything. She’s present in their lives, which makes the set-up all the more unusual.

Whenever mother cat goes away to do whatever mother cats go to do, mother hen steps right in. She apparently covers the kittens with her wings every night when they retire.

The cat and hen don’t get along. Not terribly surprising. Both ‘mothers’ are probably keeping the peace for the sake of the kittens :-).

Having another animal take care of her babies is most likely not what the cat bargained for, let alone having a two-legged one step in!

Hard to believe, but this cat knows how to do just that, open a freezer – and a tall freezer at that. Cats are pretty high jumpers anyway, but to be able to leap up, grasp the handle on the freezer, open it? Impressive.

His name is Oscar.

He didn’t attempt this feat for nothing. Oh no. There was motivation alright. Fish sticks in the freezer, that’s what.

While the little girl does the intro to what Oscar is able to do, it’s funny how he looks up and stares at the camera like he’s saying “Uh huh. Yep. I sho’ did it. That’s me.”

Cute little girl too. She did a great job of introducing him.

When he leaps up and grabs the handle, he uses the pressure of his hind feet and his weight to swing the door wide open, then he drops to the floor. He then makes a second leap into the freezer and obtains his prize.

In case you’re concerned for his safety, don’t worry, he didn’t get used to this trick for too long. The owners put a safety lock on it afterwards.

Over two million hits on YouTube in just under three months. He’ll be signing autographs next!

Pudding is an unlikely name for a cat, especially one as big as this one. The 21-pound feline charmed his way into the heart of Amy Jung with his orange furriness and laid-back style. The 36 year old Wisconsin resident was visiting the Door County Humane Society on February 8, with her son Ethan. The shelter has a no-kill policy and allows the cats to roam freely throughout the building. Jung and her son were just there to visit and pet the cats with no plans to adopt an animal.

Unexpectedly both Jung and Pudding felt an immediate connection. Even Carrie Counihan, the Executive Director of the shelter saw the connection. The cat just gravitated toward Jung. As a result Jung made one of those spur of the moment decisions everyone makes but in this case, the choice resulted in her life being saved.

Pudding stepped comfortably into his new home and displayed no signs of the skittishness so typical of cats in a new environment. Always calm, the friendly feline felt right at home.

Jung, who has been diabetic since the age of 4, went to bed at about 9:30 that evening. She began experiencing a diabetic seizure about 90 minutes later and Pudding came to the rescue. The hefty kitty sat on her chest and began to swat at her face and bite her nose. The commotion aroused Jung enough that she was able to call out for help.

Pudding, sensing she still needed help, went to Ethan’s room> When he jumped on the bed, Ethan was startled. Hearing his mom calling for help, Ethan was able to react quickly and get help for his mother.

Jung credits the cat with saving her life, saying if she hadn’t been awakened when she was, she wouldn’t have survived the seizure. Jung’s doctor told her that if much more time had passed without help, Jung could have gone into a diabetic coma and not recovered. Counihan is amazed by the cat’s instinctive actions.

Jung’s doctor suggested having Pudding registered as a therapy animal and Jung has taken his advice.

..“Her doctor said she could have gone into a coma and not come out of it if much more time had gone by,” Counihan said. “The fact that Pudding did what he did without knowing her that well is just amazing to me.” Since the scary Feb. 8 incident, Jung has followed her doctor’s advice to have Pudding registered as a therapy animal.

Pudding has had several owners and been a resident of the shelter more than once. He was first surrendered as a kitten, known as Starbuck, because his first owner’s son was allergic to cats. A woman adopted him and gave him the moniker of Pudding. When she passed away in January, 8-1/2 year old Pudding and his 3 year old housemate Wimsy were turned over to the shelter. It was almost a month later when Jung adopted Pudding. She has since adopted Wimsy as well so the two didn’t have to be separated.

Allergies are something that millions of people are affected by and unfortunately many allergies are not treatable or preventable. Currently most allergy medications simply treat the symptoms from allergies but researchers have found that there might actually be a way to reduce how likely a child is to be affected by allergies later in life.

The research released today by a U.S. based analysis firm shows that exposing children to pets in particular reduce the odds of them developing any sort of pet allergy in life. Obviously this is simply based upon reported cases but medical researchers say that this could theoretically be expanded to other allergies that affect so many people.

According to the report children are 50% less likely to be affected by pet allergies when they grow up around a pet in the first year of life. This is a surprising discovery according to many doctors who believed allergies were not developed but rather that children were simply born with allergies. Of course this research is only in a preliminary state but doctors are hopeful that it could make some significant advancements in childhood allergy research and possibly medication.

No word yet on if this same idea will apply to other allergens such as pollen or grass but many analysts say it is likely that the same principles will apply. Because all allergens affect the body in similar ways early exposure might simply be the best and easiest way to minimize the effect of allergies for children.

A team of special animal experts is now raising a young cheetah cub after it was adopted by the Busch Gardens theme park in Tampa Florida. The cheetah cub arrived at Busch Gardens after being born at a zoo in Jacksonville. Due to age and other issues the cheetah’s mother was unable to care for it so experts said the only chance for survival was to move it the cheetah.

Busch Gardens is a very popular theme park and animal park combination in Tampa so it only makes sense that they would take in the cub. At this time the cheetah is so young it is being taken care of by specially trained personnel which monitor and care for the cub 24 hours a day.

Eventually the park says the cub will be strong enough and old enough to be put with the other cheetahs at the park. After a few years the park also hopes that the cheetah could be included in their special cheetah breeding program.

At this point the cheetah is showing remarkable signs of growth and strength, giving the team of specialists hope for it to have a long healthy life. The cheetah is currently getting quite a bit of media attention so it only makes sense it will be a big hit once it is put into the park.