Giant anteaters

Giant anteaters are from South America, are as large as German shepherd dogs, and are endangered. That last bit is especially lame.

They are pretty amazing animals, able to eat up to 30,000 ants or termites a day with a super-long tongue. 

Recently, there was an anteater born at the San Francisco Zoo, and it's crazy cute. Pictures of it are on this site that you will surely waste hours of your time on, ZooBorns: "The newest and cutest exotic baby animals from zoos and aquariums around the world." That's right: A website full of photographs of baby zoo animals. What was that noise? The sound of your head exploding? Cool. It gets worse, though: It has "Fennec Fridays." Regularly scheduled fennecs? Yikers.

Check out the adorable baby giant anteater here. Regret it you won't!

Gangster Fries. And a squirrel.

Are you two readers out there sad because the past few posts have not been heavy on pictoral kitty porniness? To make it up to you, the Petophile presents ... Gangster Fries! 

What are Gangster Fries? Good question.

It's the signature dish of Phoenix, Arizona's own Eat This! Deli & Grill, located inside the Pump-N-Munch gas station. Yes, that is Pump-N-Munch. Photographic evidence:

 

What makes those fries so gangster? Well, they're topped with cheese, and you can get them with "xtra meat" for an additional $1.99.

 (I pitta the foo who can't spell "pita.")

 Tiny Toon Adventures characters on the menu? Is that kosher?

Well, purrvs, consider that your dose of bunny porn for today. So what if it's in the form of long-forgotten '90s-era animation? 

That was unfair to tease you two readers like that. Please accept the Petophile's apologies with this real (cute) rodent:

Just so there's no confusion, though, to the best of the Petophile's knowledge, this is not a gangster squirrel.

(Photos by the Petophile.)

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: There's an app for that

More news about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
A few weeks ago, this nonprofit marine wildlife conservation organization launched an iPhone app. It's available for download free at the iTunes store. According to the Huffington Post, it "gives a positive new meaning to the term 'armchair activist,' offering users the opportunity to take part in Sea Shepherd's hi-stakes campaigns from any iPhone mobile device."

Wiki leaked whaling deal

Earlier this month, there was this headline in the Guardian U.K.: 

"WikiLeaks: Secret whaling deal plotted by US and Japan."

It gets worse. Here's the subhead:

"American diplomats proposed Japan reduce whaling in exchange for US help cracking down on the anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd, leaked cables reveal."

And there was this incident in 2010 where a Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru No. 2,  struck and destroyed Sea Shepherd's $2 million activist ship, the Ady Gil:

(Photograph: Jo-Anne McArthur/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society/EPA)

See a video of the collision here. The article goes on:

"The American proposal would have forced Japan to reduce the number of whales that Japan killed each year in the Antarctic whale sanctuary in return for the legal right to hunt other whales off its own coasts. In addition, the US proposed to ratify laws that would 'guarantee security in the seas' – a reference to acting against groups such as Sea Shepherd that have tried to physically stop whaling."

Sea Shepherd's founder, Captain Paul Watson, responded:

"The US government may have very well looked into Sea Shepherd's activities and if they did so, then they obviously did not find any irregularities or unlawful activities because Sea Shepherd was never contacted by any US government official in connection with this matter. For Sea Shepherd, the most important part of this document is the declaration by Japan that Sea Shepherd has been responsible for the whaling fleet not reaching their quotas for the last few years. This completely validates Sea Shepherd's actions as effective."

Read the rest of the story (by John Vidal) here!

Why do girls love horses?

 What is the deal with the fascination girls have with horses? It's not as if guys aren't into them, but proportionately, females outnumber dudes. It's one of those mysteries I'd like to get a little more insight on. 

The Ultimate Horse Site, has a theory about it. It says that in the past horses were used as tools or servants for business and war, thus, males usually handled them. But as technology developed and the reliance on them for practical matters waned, their image changed and they became companion animals, and instead of "breaking them in," they were becoming trained in a way 

"similar to teaching a child. In many ways, the relationship between horse and rider is similar to the relationship between mother and child, which I believe is the main reason why so many girls are attracted to horses. ... Women and girls have the natural maternal instinct to want to take care of and raise children, and horses enable them to act on that instinct."

That was the least inane idea on the Webs when doing a simple search (i.e., "There is no answer to this. It's genetic I think.")

Anyone have a better theory on this? 

 (Photo by the Petophile.)

He is Doctor

 His name is Doctor.

 So why does the sight of him make one sick?

Ew!

It's a paradox.

But, luckily, an adorable paradox.

(Photos by Jyotiness.)

Small dog, big feat

 This pup reminds me of the dog in that Tom Hanks classic Turner and Hooch.

 Minus the excessive drool, luckily. (Sleepyface, ho!)

 

And this is a small dog.

 So they meet. And the small dog somehow thinks he can fit that tennis ball in his small-dog mouth. Good luck with that, little fella. Hooch doesn't look too optimistic about the prospect of the wee one successfully getting his ball.

Holy cow, he did it!

And now he will be crushed by the giant Hooch stunt double for stealing his ball! Oh no! 

(Please note: No pooches were hurt in the making of these photos. But some humans did get nauseated by their cuteness while photographing them.)

(Photos by the Jyotiness.)

Judging cats

 (Photos by the Petophile.)

Scenes from a cat show

Sharing one side of the building that the cat show was being held in, there was a gun show. The arrow on the sign directs straight ahead for the guns, and veer right for cats. The four males in this shot going for the guns mused, "There's a cat show?" And the neon-orange hatted fellow said, "Every gun show needs targets."

 As mentioned before, there was an excess of leopard- and other safari-animal-print decorating by the competitors.

 Cat lady grooming.

 My favorite cat lady of them all: a big, burly, bearded dude. Nice kitten!

Maine Coon won for her little cat lady. Congrats!

(Photos by the Petophile.)

Dog on a farm

Looks like life is good on the farm.

(Photos by the Petophile.)

Cat (show) ladies

Someone went to a cat show. 

Someone learned that a hefty percentage of the cat (show) ladies like to dress like cats themselves ... and in lots of leopard prints, from the young 'uns to the old timers.

Here's a few for now.

 An old timer ...

A young 'un and her Maine Coon.

.

And a mid-ranger. 

This cat, however, is huge, if you can't tell. Huge. Close to the size of six regular cats, maybe. And her cat lady on the end of the leash is wearing cat ears to match hers, if you can't tell.

More to come later.

(Photos by the Petophile.)

The chupacabra mystery finally solved. Almost.

The mystery of the chupacabra, the legendary hairless creature whose name means "goat sucker" in Spanish, has at last been solved.

Kind of.

The Huffy Post (via CNN) reported a recent sighting and the critter was identified as a raccoon. But where's it fur? Well, that's the unsolved part. Patience, people. One discovery at a time. Watch it:

Tennis, anyone?

Tennis: A game of skill, endurance, bursts of energy and utter cuteness.

 

 Meet your opponent.

You don't stand a chance.

 Look at the ball control.

 So agile.

 Are you ready for this? Bring it.

(Photos by Jyoti.)

Casey's hot

Casey was cold.

 She introduced herself to the warmth of flames. 

She's cute, but acting a little dumb, getting too close to the fire.

  Anyway, she heated up her little shark chin ...

... and contemplated the chimney as an escape route. (She did eventually scale the bricks—when there was no fire, of course—but her attempt at being Santa was kiboshed.)

 Sleepyface!

 Goodnight!

(Photos by the Petophile.)

Mysterious white insect

It looked to be just a piece of flora, or some natural debris at first. But lo and behold, it has a head! Legs, even! It's a mysterious, magical white-hued insect.

Having no idea what it is, an inquiry has been sent to What's That Bug?, as featured in a Petophile post a few months ago in September.

Cross your fingers that WTB? identifies the critter. Will share results, of course.

(Photos by the Petophile.)

Cat on a farm

 This kitten is about 4 months old, lives on a farm and, if you couldn't tell, is crazygross.

 She has a bit of an exotic look ... that makes me sick.

How do you like that close up?

And finally, paws that could launch a thousand pukes. You're welcome.

(Photos by the Petophile.)