Kaati, not eating a bird

the office cat kills a bird in the courtyard and eats it next to your chair. No thanks Kaati, I’m not that hungry. You go ahead and finish it yourself.

In the spirit of the “Daily Puppy” website that some of you may be familiar with, I present the Markasaurus “Tuesday Pet Pal” feature, that may or may not ever be repeated. I took this photo in Venice, CA on my recent trip. This dog s sitting on the shoes that are displayed in the bottom of the store window while someone puts up a new display.

I should mention that the most popular post I’ve ever written was about the Black and White Tegu, a large semi-aggressive lizard that some of you might remember from last August. It makes up over 3% of the pageviews for the entire site, and is the top landing page behind the index. If anyone knows anything about why these animals are so popular I would love to hear an explanation.

I’m not sure what to make of this one. I suppose it could have been domesticated, but that squirrel I saw on the sidewalk looked and behaved sort of “domesticated” too and I couldn’t catch it either.

A while back, I wrote a post with some advice on how to feed medicine to your cat. I now have realized that if your cat is determined not to take the pill, it isn’t going to happen. Javier is on steroids (long story) and he’s decided that he is not going to let us feed him medicine any more. No amount of water or rubbing his throat is going to change that.

Now, on the cell phone saga. My Samsung phone from T-Mobile is on its last legs. The screen was damaged a while back and there is this black nothingness spreading across it. I can barely read the phone number I am about to dial, and I get the feeling that one of these days it isn’t going to work at all. It lost its charge today, so I panicked and decided that I had to get a new phone. The problem is that I don’t want to renew my contract, so I don’t want to get my phone at the T-Mobile store. T-Mobile blows (to put it mildly), and there is no way in Hell I am signing another contract with them.

I went on Craigslist, my favorite place to shop for things, and found a place in the Mission District of San Francisco that claimed to be selling inexpensive used cell phones. It is on Mission St., which is the sort of busy city thoroughfare where you can buy Ecstasy or crack at two in the afternoon, shop at a dollar store, catch a bus, buy cheap socks, get really good tacos, enjoy a drink, and purchase a neon Last Supper themed wall clock. It is also really filthy and there are tons of pigeons. Oh, and I used to live there. Anyway, I called the cell phone guy and he said he had some used phones. He also said that when I get there I should either call and let him know I’m there (duh, no cell phone!) or “knock on the window.”

I took the BART train over to the neighborhood and walked two blocks to the store. Actually, I walked past the store and then turned around and realized that it looked like it had gone out of business. There is plywood over the door and the metal security gate was closed. I knocked (hard) on the window three or four times a face appeared as the curtain at the back of the display window parted. The owner let me in to a small, dark space with leather jackets (all for sale) hanging up the height of the left wall and glass cases under the counter filled with cell phones in the middle of the store. There was also a work bench covered in electronic gear and a number of computers.

All of the phones were heavily used and most had minimal features and sold for $40-$60. I asked why I wouldn’t just go on ebay or craigslist or buy a phone there that was newer and probably cost less. He said I should buy from him because it was a reputable store. Plus, he doesn’t charge sales tax.

I told him I’d have to think about it.

I can imagine the little princess canopy would last about two minutes around most cats (or dogs for that matter). I like how the seller indicates it is “pure fantasy.” I am not so sure that all pets dream of being princesses.

Princess Bride Pet Tent Dog Bed Cat Bed - $40

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We are selling our lightly used pet tent for $40 or best offer. Below is the description and details from the manufacturer.With clouds of billowing white nylon mesh, mauve or denim blue accent bows and a matching pillow filled with buckwheat hulls, this tent is pure fantasy. Great for tropical climes or hot summer nights anywhere, this Pet Tent will do wonders for your pet’s dream life!Details:
Dimensions: 23″ diameter; 32″ height; 18″ floor pillow; 2″ legs
Weight: 10 lbs (approximate)
Cleaning Instructions: Vacuum / dust; Do not wash because the fabric will shrink if wet. The pillow cover is machine washable.
Retail Price $174.95

Javier was feeling sick yesterday, so we thought we would perform a vet-advised procedure known as “teabagging.” I’m sure you have heard this term before, but for those who haven’t, it’s when you put a moist teabag on your cat’s eye.

As you may have noticed, it stained his fur.

Cats. Friend to many, allergen to some. Natasha and I were discussing what sort of horror movie we could make with her cat, Javier (pictured above). All we could think of was him repeating in his head “I want to defecate in your mouth” as the main storyline to the movie. Thus, the idea for this t-shirt image was born. If you have a better “Cat Horror Movie” idea, please feel free to contribute.

Mountain Lion/Rattlesnake warning at Mt. Tamalpais State Park

When venturing into the outdoors, there is always a certain amount of risk involved. I think people used to take that for granted. The State of California (probably because they don’t want to be held liable) recognized that people probably aren’t as savy as they used to be, and therefore has posted signs about every dangerous animal you could possible encounter on your adventures into the wilderness.

Mountain lions and rattlesnakes are, to some small degree, avoidable while hiking. Especially rattlesnakes- at least if you are aware of them you can watch where you step and take precautionary measures. The sign about mountain lions at least tells you to wave your arms over your head and try to scare it away. I really don’t understand this sign:

Shark warning at Stinson Beach

“A shark attack occurred here in six feet of water.” Oh great. Something tells me waving your arms in the air isn’t going to do the trick if an 18 foot long great white thinks you are a seal.

Finally, my favorite sign from the Montreal Bioshpere:

Don’t touch the otters!

It has been a long time since I ran a “Craigslist Pet of the Day” feature. In fact, the last time I did it was when I wrote about the Black and White Tegu, and that has turned out to be one of the biggest draws to Markasaurus… people everywhere want to learn about the Tegu.

I have a newfound interest in horses, since I went horseback riding last weekend. I don’t have the pictures of it on my computer yet, so you’ll have to wait. To make a long story short, I rode a horse (very slowly) for the first time ever last weekend. Natasha and I went to a ranch in Marin County and took an hour ride on Saturday morning through the woods at Pt. Reyes National Seashore. My fear of horses has been throughly eradicated.

Now that I no longer fear horses, I was fascinated by this horse ad on Craigslist. Would you believe that there are a number of different miniature horses up for adoption in the San Francisco Bay Area? This was my favorite:

miniature horse - $1500 (gilroy)

Reply to: sale-576438545@craigslist.org

Date: 2008-02-16, 3:51PM PST

this is a cute live horse for your pleasure or kids. four year old pinto gelding. others available
408-309-0209

Um, maybe I’m reading too much into this, but isn’t the first line a bit weird? To be honest, it completely creeps me out.  I especially like how the seller included the word “live”. I have a feeling “this is a cute dead horse for your pleasure or kids” wouldn’t have been a very convincing sell.

I finally saw the otter exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday. Natasha and I went there for the afternoon, and I also had the pleasure of seeing the giant, filthy stuffed otter in the picture displayed above. It was in a store down the street, and it looks like it’s been getting a lot of lovin’ from the kids. The aquarium was fun, but pricey. At $24.95 for admission, I almost think they should let you take an otter home with you for a week or two. The penguin exhibit was closed too, which I could see being a big disappointment for some people (not that I wasn’t disappointed, but I was really there to see the otters).

They also had a baby White Shark on display for the third time. They have a White Shark research program that has been taking young sharks accidentally caught in fishing nets and keeping them in captivity before releasing them back into the ocean. It was a little unclear whether or not the shark was going to be on display because a staff member was overheard saying that the shark “didn’t get along” with one of the turtles, which I took to mean “ate the turtle,” since disagreements with Great White Sharks don’t using end with verbal altercations.

While on the subject of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, how about a shameless plug for an academic paper I wrote a few years ago on the subject of Aquariums? Available for the first time on the internet, my paper The Public Aquarium: Fish as the Other “Other” looks into the birth of the aquarium during the age of the great exhibitions, and how it has evolved to its present form (using Monterey Bay as a key example). Sorry if the formatting of the paper isn’t the greatest, I think I exported out of Word to an HTML file and never really cleaned it up enough. I did make sure all the images were working, if you manage to make it to the end.

Before going to a Superbowl party at my friend Matt’s house, I went to a laundromat in the Castro called “Sit and Spin” where everyone was engrossed in a dog show televised on Animal Planet. This was followed up by the “Puppy Bowl,” which is a contest between two teams of puppies on a miniature football field (You can watch the highlights on the Animal Planet website). They also had slutty kitten cheerleaders for the halftime show. These talented young cats certainly had more energy than Tom Petty did at the real halftime show…