Kids are wonderful! They have so many amazing qualities and that makes spending time with them an utterly joy. Kids are a blessing. 

A man observed that his neighbor’s cat was confused, Frank, when he found a fake raven……and Frank couldn’t bear it.

“What is this? Is this a fake bird because I have been watching it for about an hour?”
“Didn’t you see this?…why? If this bird is fake….what other thing is fake?”
“George? Are you the one there? George?…..hope you are not fake?”
“Did you contribute to this George? Are you working for the ministry or doing something? Could this be a matrix? George?? Please give me an answer for the love of Mufasa!”
“I think nothing is real and if this is so, I am free? Am free to do whatever I desire….and there won’t be any consequences! Am free to claw the drapes and the couch without upsetting any human! Am also free to eat as many fish treats as I want! No more fear! And No more fear! I am totally free.”
Everything went in the wrong direction when Frank went home to do things he aimed at doing because of the new state of mind.

He did dance on the counters and claws the drapes and couches, he also eats the entire fishy treats and his owner had no other option other than to take him to a vet to help him with the tommy disorder he had.

Now he sat in his cat tree and questions the meaning of life while putting on his head a tinfoil hat.

The lesson of the day is that: don’t tease your cat with a fake bird or any fake living object.

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With faces straight out of Dr. Seuss, the cheeky beaks of Burmese roofed turtle hatchlings are characterized by what’s been described as a nonstop grin. These days, the turtles have plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

Tulika Agrawal
Not long ago, however, the existence of species, native to Myanmar’s Irrawaddy river region, was in serious doubt.

Over-hunting for food, medicinal use, and the pet trade, as well as reckless egg harvesting, improper electro-fishing techniques, and destruction of natural turtle habitat had all but wiped the once-flourishing reptiles from the face of the planet.

In fact, by the 1990s, the species was thought to be extinct. It wasn’t until 2001, when a likely smuggled specimen turned up in a Hong Kong pet shop, that conservationists began to hope at least some small portion of their population had survived.

Heartened by the news, biologist Gerald Kuchling, who’s now with the University of Western Australia, along with the Myanmar Forest Department launched a joint survey expedition of the upper Chindwin River, a site Burmese roofed turtles were once known to inhabit.

Sadly, the project was sidelined by a summer monsoon.

On one of his days off, Dr. Kuchling happened to visit a turtle pond at a Buddhist temple in Mandalay. To his infinite surprise, he found three of the elusive critters smiling up at him from the murky water. “I was very excited and definitely flabbergasted,” he said.

With the blessing of the temple board, Dr. Kuchling and his Burmese colleagues moved one male and two female turtles to the Mandalay Zoo.

Later, while exploring the Dokhtawady, a tributary of the Irrawaddy, Dr. Kuchling discovered even more specimens which were also transported to the zoo. This was in the nick of time too, as a damnable damming project destroyed their habitat soon after.

While there were thought to be less than 10 Burmese roofed turtles—five or six adult females and perhaps two adult males—living in the wild, not all of them made the trip.

When fishermen on the upper Chindwin River reported a handful of females still nested there during the dry season, Dr. Kuchling, along with the Forest Department and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), organized and implemented a conservation stewardship program for the site.

Each year since, the beach has been fenced off by seasonally hired villagers who then track nesting females and carefully harvest their eggs. “We came so close to losing them,” WCS herpetologist Steven G. Platt, told The New York Times. “If we didn’t intervene when we did, this turtle would have just been gone.”

Thanks to subsequent WCS efforts and the Turtle Survival Alliance, approximately 1,000 of the turtles have been successfully raised in captivity and are soon to be released into the wild. The WCS reports the species faces “little danger of biological extinction” at this point.

On hearing rumors of his alleged demise, humorist Mark Twain famously quipped, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” No doubt his public was tickled at the time, but we think bringing these cheerful turtles back from the brink of extinction will give everyone a reason to smile—including the turtles.

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We often think that photography is all about capturing the weight of a serious moment. The fateful second a cheetah springs toward its prey or the shivering arctic fox curling up to stay alive. Well, sometimes we just need photography that makes us laugh.

That’s where the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards come in. Founded by professional photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, the competition seeks to promote wildlife conservation in a fun, engaging way and show animals in anthropomorphic comedic moments, from a turtle flipping off the camera to a parakeet seemingly saying, “Talk to the hand.”

Winners of the contest will be announced on October 22 at an online awards ceremony. Until then, here are 11 of the 44 selected finalists to tide you over.

“Tough Negotiations,” Israel, by Ayala
“Terry the Turtle flipping the bird,” Australia, by Mark Fitzpatrick
“Social Distance Please,” Sri Lanka, by Petr Sochman
“It’s a Mocking Bird,” UK, by Sally Lloyd-Jones
“So Hot,” Japan, by Wei Ping Peng
“O Sole Mio,” Hungary, by Roland Kranitz
“Surprise Smiles,” Kenya, by Asaf Sereth
“Wait up Mommy, look what I got for you!” India, by Kunal Gupta
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