Video: Amazing Dog With Two Broken Legs

When life throws you challenges, learn how to adapt.  After taking a plunge off of a six-foot deck, this versatile pup is learning how to get around without the use of his front paws.  Who wants to write an encouraging message on one of his casts?

http://tinyurl.com/le5htkg

Lazarus, the Cleft Palate Cat is a Vine Superstar

You don't need to be classically beautiful to be a star.  Rescue cat Lazarus was born with a cleft palate. The physical deformity leaves him without the appearance of a nose and overexposes his lower teeth, but he still manages to charm thousands of fans on Vine.  According to Lazarus' official Facebook page, he was found at only 10 weeks old by a student at East Tennessee State University. Although the sickly kitten suffered an infection in his mouth, caretakers soon nursed him back to health.

http://tinyurl.com/p5obdft

New Deep Sea Species Found Off Australian Coast

Scientists say two new animal species discovered off the Australian coast in 1986 have the potential to "reshape the tree of life."  A study in scientific journal PLOS ONE describes the mushroom-shaped organisms for the first time since their discovery. Although the organisms, known as Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides, resemble extinct forms from more than 600 million years ago, scientists have not classified them into an existing animal group.

http://tinyurl.com/nkrr8e3

21 Cats Better at Photobombing Than You

The photobomb is more than a quick and easy prank — it's a work of art.  They've also become the norm in the Insta-era. It's hard to watch someone snapping a photo in your general vicinity without attempting to ruin it with your awkward face — even cats are getting in on gag.Cats are often considered serious creatures, but these perfectly timed photobombs reveal the funny side of their sneakiness.

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Five Incredible Ways Animals Recycle

From running a search engine to game strategies, we all know that humans can take some notes from the animal kingdom. Here’s another lesson that wildlife can teach us: recycling. While we’re still figuring out how to recycle right, some animals have already mastered the eco-friendly practice. Click through for five of the planet’s most amazing recyclers. 
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Rare Malayan Tiger Nearly Extinct

Malaysia's tigers have all but disappeared, and poachers from nearby countries have pushed them to the brink of extinction, according to a new report.   A four-year study of the country's big cats—the first scientific count ever conducted—discovered far fewer tigers than previously estimated, reporting as few as 250 left in the wild. Previous estimates had the country's tiger population between 500 and 1,500.

http://tinyurl.com/mb5pldp

Video: Ad for Cat Treats Looks Like a Nike Commercial

Want to buy Temptations' newest cat treats and throw them at your cat?  Better stretch out first, man.  The Mars Petcare brand just rolled out new Temptations Tumblers—treats that are apparently more perfectly spherical that regular old Temptations treats. ("Now you can roll, toss or bounce delicious treats for your cats," the brand says.)  And so, in the 60-second spot below, cats "play ball" with them, Nike style, in pretty hilarious fashion. The ad will, of course, get billions of views. But really, how is there not a Tumblers Tumblr?

http://tinyurl.com/q3aebhp

Video: Blind Cat Is Queen of the Wild Frontier

Honey Bee is a sweet, blind cat who traverses the wild like a feline Davey Crockett. She was discovered in Fiji, where local veterinarians at Animals Fiji nursed her back to health.  Now, Honey Bee spends her days wandering along hiking trails with her owners. Sometimes she perches atop their backpacks for a quick break; other times, she stops for a snack and some water. Above, watch her head up for a hike along Mason Lake in the mountains near Seattle, Washington.

http://tinyurl.com/l463nlc

Baby Elephant Rescued From Bottom of Well

An adorable baby elephant narrowly escaped death when it was rescued from the bottom of a well in Africa.  The heartwarming survival tale began when a heroic herder discovered the poor exhausted creature — malnourished and covered in bruises — in Kenya, Caters News reported.  The quick-thinking local called Kenya Wildlife Service staffers, who rushed to the stranded creature’s aid before flying it in a small plane to a wildlife rescue center in Nairobi.  “The little elephant was exhausted and after feeding, promptly collapsed and slept,” said Rob Brandford, director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

http://tinyurl.com/lr9amzf

Photographer Teaches 1,500 Puppies How To Swim

New York Times best-selling author Seth Casteel is back with a second photography book full of our doggy paddling pals, but this time the stars are miniature.  Underwater Puppies, a successor to his 2012 book Underwater Dogs, is the product of swimming lessons Casteel says he gave to more than 1,500 pups. Although dogs are instinctive swimmers, he writes on his website that since swimming pools are not natural bodies of water, it's important that the dogs are taught taught how to get safely out of pools.  Many of the little ones had never swum before, and the pictures showing their excitement are making a serious splash.  

http://tinyurl.com/lcn9wk5

World’s Rarest Bat Found in Miami

If you were one of the world’s rarest and most endangered bats, where would you choose to live? Perhaps in a remote forest or woodland?  Nah, if you’re a Florida bonneted bat, you’re going to Miami. And just like thousands of snowbirds that flock to the city on Biscayne Bay, you like to hang out at the golf course.  Only an estimated 500 of the bonneted bats are left—no one knows for sure how many—and they are scattered around six South Florida counties. The small and high-flying bats have long eluded biologists' attempts to capture them or even discover where they roost.

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12 Selfie Tips You Can Learn From Animals

Taking a perfect selfie is difficult.  Between the angle, filters, lighting and endless facial expressions you can make, it can be tough to hone each variable for the ideal photograph. Before throwing your phone in frustration, take a tip from the animal kingdom. You don't need opposable thumbs to take a selfie, and these creatures are here to prove it.

http://tinyurl.com/qdgoakd

Largest Predatory Dinosaur Was 'Half-duck, Half-crocodile'

The largest predatory dinosaur to walk this earth wasn’t the T. rex. It was Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a 50-foot long creature with powerful jaws and a solid, spiny sail on its back that dwelled in Northern Africa 95 million years ago. But even though paleontologists have known about this particular dinosaur for almost a century, its true form has only just been revealed.

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What Birds Can Teach Us About Aging Gracefully

Most animals don’t live long enough to experience the debilitating effects of old age. But some critters survive for decades, and one in particular, the thick-billed murre, manages to grow old without losing its physical prowess, scientists have found.  The research could shed new light on the aging process in other wildlife—and perhaps in primates such as humans.  The murre inhabits the far northern reaches of the globe and spends as much time in Arctic waters as it does in the air, diving to depths of 300 feet or more and swim through the sea to hunt fish and other prey. Murres can live 25 years or more, and while scientists from Canada and France discovered that the birds do slow down with age, they don’t lose their diving ability.

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Poachers Killed 100,000 Elephants in Just Three Years

For years we’ve been hearing reports of elephant poaching in Africa, but a new study has put a number on the problem. Between 2010 and 2012, poachers slaughtered 100,000 pachyderms across the continent.The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to scientifically measure the number of elephants killed across Africa. Researchers counted killings in a Kenyan park and used other data to estimate deaths in other regions. They found that the percentage of elephants killed illegally has increased from 25 percent of all pachyderm deaths 10 years ago to about 65 percent today.

http://tinyurl.com/k4t49ua

Video: Rescued Baby Elephant Discovers New Toy

A baby elephant put on quite a show for visitors at a rescue facility in Chiang Mai, Thailand, recently, but she has more to celebrate than playtime.  The five-year-old pachyderm, named Faa Mai, was filmed swinging and twirling a blue ribbon.“You can almost hear giggles emanating from the gigantic grin on her face, safe and without a care in the world,” wrote The Huffington Post.

http://tinyurl.com/oeaxqq6

20 Signs Your Cat Is Turning Into a Human

Stop your precious pet before they become something terrifying: a human.  The Internet has had a long love affair with cats. Perhaps we human beings see something of ourselves in these furry felines. 

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Five Animals That Are a Lot Smarter Than You Think

The Oregon Supreme Court this month issued two landmark rulings that gave animals protections previously reserved for humans. Now police can intervene without a warrant to save an abused or neglected animal from its owner. Animal abusers are also subject to harsher punishments.  “As we continue to learn more about the interrelated nature of all life, the day may come when humans perceive less separation between themselves and other living beings than the law now reflects,” wrote Oregon Justice Martha Lee Walters in one of the decisions. “However, we do not need a mirror to the past or a telescope to the future to recognize that the legal status of animals has changed and is changing still.”

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Orphaned Hippo Says Good Bye to Unlikely Friends

Two-week old Douglas was in bad shape when he arrived at the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre in Mfuwe, Zambia. More than a year later, thanks to his two canine companions, he’s ready to go back to the wild.  Rescuers found the abandoned baby hippo near the Zambezi River in May 2013. He was then helicoptered to the center, where he was nursed back to health.

http://tinyurl.com/mqhguyq

Video: Heart-Stopping Rescue of Two Sea Turtles

The sight of two suffocating turtles, on their backs with fins tied up, horrified tourists on Little Corn Island, Nicaragua. Thanks to their quick thinking, the animals were returned safely to sea.  A video posted on YouTube Monday shows tourists rescuing two loggerhead turtles, each weighing about 250 pounds. Chris Skone-Roberts, a professional rescue diver and former paramedic, first spotted the reptiles. When he tried to douse them with water, a woman angrily pulled him off—claiming they were hers. It’s presumed that once the turtles suffocated to death, she would have sold their meat on the black market.

http://tinyurl.com/lj8p7qx