sleeping animals.
Ella Mullins, Flickr By Dr. Patty Khuly, via Vetstreet It's no secret that cats are impressive sleepers. In fact, they typically get between 10 to 16 hours of shut-eye each day. That's more than most mammals--except for bats and opossums, who are known to slumber up to 20 hours per day. Biologists pin this feline affinity for sleep on two things: Their typically protein-rich diet, which requires long periods of rest to aid in proper digestion, and their naturally crepuscular (dawn and dusk) predatory pattern, which means cats tend to hunt twice daily and then rest in between. Although there's a lot of individual variation among domesticated felines, indoor cats are more likely to snooze ...
We were sure it was sleep apnea, so we took him in for a sleep study, but the seal docs said nope, no CPAP machine necessary, nor surgery. "This old fella doesn't have sleep apnea," the doc told us. "He just got one mother of a sinus infection. Just on the one side. See how he's only getting air through one nostril while the other one stays shut up tight? There's your problem." So what do we do, Doc? "It's a bacterial infection, so I'll put him on a course of antibiotics that should knock it out flat. He'll be right as rain in a week or so." OK, fine, but before you fix him up... just let me grab a few seconds of video for posterity. ...
You might remember that a couple of weeks ago, we ran a retrospective on sleeping cats, which required little justification given how self-evidently cute sleeping cats are. But we do feel the need to reiterate that a large part of what makes things cute is size, i.e. small equals cute. This is why our retrospective mainly featured kittens and small cats. Now, far be it from us to suggest that Shanta the lioness here isn't cute. We would never say that, mainly because we don't want to risk offending her and catching a clawed pat to the face or a fanged maw to the jugular. But then, that's just it. If cute and terrifying can coexist, than that's what's happening right here. Because as cuddly ...
Our friends at Daily Squee continue to unearth the most adorable animal pics you've ever seen. Here's one of our faves from last week. Animal lovers know that rats get a bad rap (stupid bubonic plague!). Everyone coos and clucks over hamsters and gerbils and others of the rat's rodent cousins, but just have a gander at this precious little guy enjoying an afternoon nap with his woobie and you'll be convinced he's even cuter. "What's he dreaming about?" they ask over at the Squee. Our best guess? A state fair after hours. (It's a veritable smörgåsbord, örgåsbord, örgåsbord.) ...