Another day, another random collection of stuff I find interesting or funny or cool or whatever.

First, a short video clip filled with suspense, intrigue, drama, and fur.

You can't sneak up on a ninja!

All cats are ninjas! Never forget it.

Quite the little movie, isn’t it? The first time I watched it, I was hooked. What is the dog doing? Will the cat sense him coming? What will happen when the two meet?

And to the dog’s credit, for a dog, he’s being amazingly stealthy. I have never seen a dog sneak up on something quietly before. In dog terms, he’s a commando.

But it avails him naught, because like I said, all cats are ninjas, and canine stealth will never be a match for the inborn mad kung fu skills and lightning like reflexes of Cat Fu.

I had a similar experience as our canine protagonist when I was a kid growing up in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. It was a simply glorious summer afternoon, and I discovered one of our cats, Trigger (I didn’t name him), sunning himself on our front lawn.

The Devil caught hold of my soul, and I decided to see if I could sneak up on a cat. So I slowly and silently sank down to hands and knees, and crawled over the grass towards him, expecting him to perk up and look at me at any second, because after all, he’s a ninja and I am a great big loud fumbling giant.

But the magic effect of warmth on cats must have had him in its grip, because I made it all the way across the lawn till I was right over him, and to complete my mission, I reached out and placed my hand on him.

He whirled around and landed me a solid smack on the forehead. I still remember the THOCK! sound it made. And that was fine… what else did I expect when I startled a cat? I wasn’t mad.

But immediately he looked so embarrassed and ashamed of himself that I felt awful about playing such a trick on him. Poor thing, it must have been quite a blow to his ego to have, of all things, a human being sneak up on him. And in public, no less!

I gave him lots of petting and praise to make sure he knew I wasn’t mad at him, but he slunk away anyway, probably just hoping, knowing that little Lothario, that no chicks had been watching.

Staying in the realm of the cute and fuzzy and wonderful, we have a tale of one lone depressed woman and her therapy kangaroo.

You read that right. She has a kangaroo that lives with her for therapeutic reasons. And it goes both ways. He needs her as much as she needs him.

Here’s the two of them together :

You taste good, Mama!

Her name is Christie Carr, and she was volunteering at a local animal sanctuary in her home city of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, when she met her future therapy roo, Irwin, named after the late Steve Irwin. Sadly, a week after they met, Irwin was in a terrible accident which left him partly paralyzed and brain damaged.

She took him home to nurse him back to health, and they developed a bond. She had been suffering from depression, and having a sweet baby kangaroo to care for and nurture did her a lot of good. And Irwin certainly needed a lot of care.

But inevitably, the neighbors noticed the kangaroo in the neighborhood (she takes him around in a child car seat, in a T-shirt, no less) and now this poor woman has to plead her case for being allowed to keep her beloved kangaroo despite her township’s worried that Irwin is “dangerous”.

Granted, he doesn’t seem very dangerous as a helpless 25-pound joey. But a full grown kangaroo can be over six and a half feet tall and weigh 200 pounds. At that size, they do not necessary make cuddly indoor pets.

So while I am loathe to sympathize with the busybodies and NIMBYs of the world, they do have a point in this case. Irwin will be man sized some day, and while his injuries will insure that he is never as robust or mobile as a health adult kangaroo, he might still pose a danger to her and to others.

Still, I hope they are able to work things out and she gets to keep him.

He’s just so cute!