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Friday, March 25, 2016
Photo by the City Of LaGrange Animal Shelter

The City of LaGrange Animal Shelter in Georgia took in two motherless, homeless puppies with a big problem: they were too young to eat solid food.

Enter two mama cats. Both of the friendly felines were nursing their own litters of kittens and it seemed they have no problem adopting another mouth to feed. Despite the fact that those mouths belong to their natural "enemies".

I guess their mama's instincts overcame any canine-feline differences. The cats will continue to nurse the pups as part of their family until they're healthy and ready for adoption.

Your "Things That Make You Go 'Awwwww...'" Gift Guru,
Linda

Posted by: Linda | 8:00 AM | permalink
Friday, March 18, 2016
Do you believe in fairies?  These barren circles in the dry grasslands in the Namib Desert in Namibia, Africa have long been called "fairy circles" because no one could explain how they got there. Locals believed they were created by fairies dancing in circles during the night.

For a long time, it was thought that this was the only place these circles existed. But two years ago, researchers discovered similar circles in another dry landscape — the remote outback of Australia. Locals there thought the circular gaps were made by dragon's fire and some believed they were UFO landing spots.

But scientists are a tenacious lot when they get curious. So researchers started looking into these fairy-dragon-UFO spots. They came up with three plausible explanations:
  1. Carbon monoxide gas was rising upward from underground, killing all the vegetation.
  2. Insects were feeding on the roots of the grasses.
  3. The grasses organized themselves in the mysterious patterns to obtain water, which is scarce in the region.
After finding similar patterns in other dry and remote areas, such as trees that organize themselves into stripes on mountainsides, they were able to settle on theory #3. Which is all very interesting, but sort of takes the fun out of it, right? Me? I like to think the circles might still turn out to be something mystical and magical — like fairy dances at night.

Your "I Believe In Magic" Gift Guru,
Linda

Posted by: Linda | 8:00 AM | permalink
Friday, March 11, 2016
Did you know that the "wearing of the green" on St. Patrick's Day is a symbol of Irish rebellion? Do you celebrate by cooking up a lamb stew instead of corned beef and cabbage? Do you serve your stew with a room temperature Guiness instead of a cold green beer? If you answered "yes" to just one question, you're either a history buff or you're "true Irish."

Lots of Americans become Irish on March 17th. We go to parades, sing Irish folk songs, wear the green and drink Irish spirits. My family celebrates along with the rest of the country, but for the last few years it's been different. I'd always suspected it, but about 5 years ago we found out for sure: our family tree has roots in the Emerald Isle! My uncle stumbled upon an Irish ancestor when he started researching our family history and turned up a whole branch of the family we knew nothing about.

Now when we gather on St. Patrick's Day, my uncle shares all the new new information he's uncovered during the year. We've learned so much about our family from his efforts. But there are still so many questions. Was our family Celtic? Did they speak Gaelic? Whose sides did they take in Ireland's many occupations and revolutions? What was their religion? And what brought them to America? I can't wait for our very special St. Patrick's Day celebration this year. We still have so many questions!

Your "Irish I Knew" Gift Guru
Linda

Posted by: Linda | 8:00 AM | permalink
Friday, March 4, 2016
We all know Doge, right? The super-viral Internet meme that sprang to life in 2013 is one of the most shared and shareable pieces of content on the web. Well, this little dog might just displace Doge as the world's most shareable dog.

In a video created by Google's robotics company, Boston Dynamics, little Fido takes on their giant (by comparison) robot dog, Spot. Seems the life-like movements of the robot dog caught the attention of the real canine, who refused to be intimidated by the mechanical beast. Watch as this little guy takes on the sort-of-scary robot:


Someone says, "Come on, take him big dog!" But Spot is no match for little Fido, who doesn't let the strange headless, mechanical dog get away. Even when Spot displays submissive behavior, Fido keeps after him. And (spoiler alert), Spot finally concedes dominance to Fido.

Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson posted the video to YouTube on Feb. 27 and it's already received over 1.5 million views. Something tells me Fido is going to give Doge a run for his money!

Your "To The Dogs" Gift Guru,
Linda
Posted by: Linda | 8:00 AM | permalink
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