Taz vs. Cat Tree

Taz vs. Kitchen Sink

playtime for taz

I've never promised you a daily dose of kitteh, O Gentle Reader(s), but I do think this is a little overdue. Plus this humble blog has been a bit heavy with vacation photos and incomprehensible modern art of late, so I figured I ought to change things up a bit. Also, the audience for cat photos is much wider than the audience for photos of the latest stainless steel whatzit on the bus mall. (I'm not actually convinced the latter audience is nonzero, but that's never stopped me before.)

And of course there's the fact that Taz is the world's awesomest cat ever, an inarguable fact agreed upon by all right-thinking people, and sharing photos of him is my way of improving the Internet and generally making the world a better place and whatnot.

A cat and his laser

Kitten Attack!

OMG Sea Otters

I haven't done a "cute animal" post for quite a while, because I haven't had any cute animal photos worth sharing in quite a while. It's time to remedy that, big time. Here are a few photos of sea otters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Awwwwww....

Now, it just wouldn't be right to post cute photos without any serious content attached. I'm not sure why, but I know I'd feel guilty, like I was failing in my duties as a responsible and occasionally civic-minded blogger, or something. So here are a few interesting otter-related items:

• The Monterey-based "Friends of the Sea Otter" has an informative website including legislative and other news.
  
• ScienceDaily: "Is That Sea Otter Stealing Your Lunch -- Or Making It?"
  
• Info on efforts to bring sea otters back to Oregon.
  
• More about otter reintroduction from the Oregon Zoo.
  
• "Sea Otter Classic" cycling festival, also in Monterey. FWIW. The main reason we went to Monterey in February was to catch part of the 2008 Tour of California, so it's interesting to see the two topics come together, in a way.
  
• And I couldn't let this go without noting there are tons of otter photos on Flickr and Google Images.
  

In any case, here are the rest of the photos:

"these are for you..."

Baby Animal Photos... Awwwwww....

A baby seal on the beach in Lincoln City. I wasn't really very close to the seal, I should point out. That would be highly illegal, and also wouldn't be very nice to the seal. So this is just the camera on maximum digital zoom.

I'm no expert on baby seals, but I think this is probably a harbor seal and not one of the coast's omnipresent California sea lions. Sea lions are like giant rats with flippers, basically, although they're still federally protected.





Goslings on the Eastbank Esplanade, in downtown Portland, earlier today. Maximum zoom again, because getting attacked by large, protective Canada geese is not my idea of a good time. Also, they're legally protected migratory waterfowl, and pestering them isn't nice to the goslings.

Although they're protected and all that, Canada geese are basically rats with wings and long necks and really bad attitudes. But they're cute at this age. Actually baby rats can be cute too, come to think of it, but I don't have any pics of those.



A sea otter at the aquarium in Newport. For the purpose of this post I'm declaring it an honorary baby animal, because I wanted to use the photo. Actual sea otter pups are even cuter.



Ah, and a juvenile tufted puffin, also at the aquarium.

---

Updated 12/20/10: Here's the original text from the top of this post. On further reflection, I think it's better to just lead with the baby seal.

It's come to my attention that this blog's readership numbers are in the tank, and so I'm forced to resort to drastic measures: Yes, not just cute animal photos, but cute (mostly) baby animal photos. Just try not to visit now. Just try.

Updated 1/8/08: In recent months, this page has gotten about the most hits of any post I've ever done here, primarily Google Image hits for the next photo. Ironic, dontcha think?