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animals (Page 46)

Japan loves its cats. When feline fans here aren’t going online to swap trivia about their favorite members of the animal kingdom, they’re playing with cute kitties between sips of coffee at one of the nation’s many cat cafes.

At times, it even seems like “love” doesn’t properly convey the depths of their emption, and that it would be more appropriate to say some people worship the creatures, which is exactly what you can do at these nine shrines and temples dedicated to cats.

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Japan seems just a little more terrifying with discovery of local leech’s superpower

Japan is rightfully billed as being an extremely safe country, and for the most part this extends to its natural environment. Lacking the wolves of Europe and North America, the lions and hippopotami of Africa, and the poisonous everything of Australia, there really isn’t a whole lot lurking in the Japanese animal kingdom that frightens us.

Or at least there wasn’t, until we heard the news that Japan is home to a species of super leeches that can even survive being frozen.

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Fishermen (illegally) save endangered Japanese fish species

In a somewhat complicated story we’re not sure is heartwarming or kind of devastating, three middle-aged Tokyo fishermen have accomplished what experts thought was impossible by single (triple?)-handedly bringing an area fish species back from the brink of extinction by illegally catching them.

The three men, according to their accounts, caught the fish and, upon learning that they were on the endangered species list, contacted experts and aquariums for advice on breeding them – either for the sake of fishkind or for the sake of tons of delicious illicit fish meat.

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If you give a mouse a cookie… you might get some chocolate in return

Twitter user @sazaki0 recently got an unpleasant surprise when she discovered a mouse had taken up residence in her house, but this particular mouse had far better manners than your average rodent, offering a gift of chocolate to the lady of the house. Her full story after the jump.

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How glam is your pussy? Cat wigs hot in 2014

Meet Shiro and Mimi, just two of the stars of Kago Neko, a blog all about one Japanese cat fan’s pets. Sadly, the pair were not, in fact, born with such luscious barnets, but their owner, perhaps sensing their inner glam rock star, provided them with a couple of rather fetching blonde wigs. We think you’ll agree that they look pretty rockin’.

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Nullify your New Year’s weight loss resolution with Year of the Horse roll cake

In Japan, 2014 will be another “Horse Year” on the Japanese zodiac calendar. Last year, Japan celebrated the snake, which is said to bring wisdom and good monetary fortune to businesses. The horse, however, brings leadership, good business partnerships, and instant failure to all weight loss resolutions in the form of this adorable customized roll cake from Tokyo’s renowned Rihga Royal Hotel.

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Turkish cold snap literally freezes animals where they stand

It appears that Turkey is one of the few parts of the world that gets so cold it’s not an exaggeration to say, “It’s freezing out here.”

The video below depicts some donkeys found in a small village that have cartoonishly frozen in place due to the extreme cold weather and snow – a phenomena we thought only possible in Christmas-time claymation films, and the closest thing we know of to the exact opposite of China’s hellish summer heatwave that caused cars to explode.

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Cowardly dogs unable to face their greatest enemy: Cats【Video】

In the important world of Internet hierarchy, the battle between cats and dogs for the title of cutest animal is a fierce one. But someone must have told the dogs that they are losing because there are some canines out there with some inferiority issues so severe that they become frozen with fear at the mere sight of a cat. Japanese netizens are feeling nothing but pity after seeing a video of dogs, many of whom are much larger than their feline foe, timidly trying to tip-toe past a scowling cat.

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“Damn it human, help me!” One cat’s epic battle with an empty plastic bag

Perhaps we were wrong about cats being secret geniuses plotting to overthrow the world. This video, which is receiving a lot of attention in Japan today, suggests that there is at least one member of the feline federation that is perhaps a few strands short of a cat’s cradle.

When two-year-old Chai here spots a plastic bag on the floor of her owner’s apartment, she is naturally keen to investigate. Little does she know, though, that once she climbs inside it, the bag will simply refuse to let go…

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Stray dog helps street musician, musician returns the favor

There’s been a lot of unsettling news coming out of the Ukraine this week, so we are pleased to offer you a much happier story from the city of Dnipropetrovsk, southeast of Kiev, about a singing dog and a street musician.

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Cute cat stands sacrifice themselves to hold up your smartphone

It’s about time cats did something for us. We’ve pampered them on the Internet and in convenience stores for years, and all they ever did in return was learn how to poop in the litter box.

Cats are finally giving back now with these cute but somewhat disturbing smartphone stands that depict various cat breeds heroically holding up your smartphone so it won’t topple over.

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Shiro the Cat: The cutest cure for insomnia 【Video】

Japan has a number of sleeping arrangements that can be jarring if you didn’t grow up here. Sleeping in a futon on the floor, often in a space that doubles as your living room and/or kitchen, can take some getting used to. A surprisingly large number of pillows sometimes come filled with, by Western standards, unusual things such as buckwheat husks.

But you know what? Maybe we’re being too picky. As Shiro the Cat shows us, all you really need for a good night’s sleep is a cooking pot, and, if you’re looking to get really luxurious, a sweet potato.

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Dancing bear cubs straight out of Disney movie capture Japanese hearts

The Japanese Internet is going crazy over recent Finnish photos of a group of bear cubs who appear to be dancing around in a circle, reminiscent of the age-old nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie”.

Valtteri Mulkahainen, a 52-year-old Finnish photography hobbyist, says he thought he was imagining the bears dancing around, even going so far as to say the scene was so magical he wouldn’t have been surprised if they had begun singing. Given the man’s situation as he took the now-madly circulating photos, we can’t blame him for momentarily believing he was living inside of a Disney movie.

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Real-life Winnie the Pooh caught stealing honey, on run from the law

When wildlife researchers in Kochi Prefecture set up an unmanned camera in a local forest to find the cheeky wilderness creature stealing honey from an animal trap they’d set up, they probably expected to find a clever squirrel or some other creature too small or quick to set off the trap door.

Instead, what they found in video footage was what can only be described as real-life Winnie the Pooh turned to petty crime to fund his hopeless honey addiction.

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Butterfly visits penguin enclosure at Japanese zoo, whimsical chase ensues 【Video】

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t like penguins. Between their flightless wings and pudgy physique, there’s something inherently funny about them, which is juxtaposed and amplified by the way they look like they’re constantly dressed in formal tuxedos.

But perhaps the most comical thing of all about the monochrome birds is the stubborn dignity they show by standing at silent attention, even when surrounded by onlookers at a zoo.

Unless, that is, there’s a butterfly to chase.

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Finally, your dog can safely leap through flaming hoops with this adorable doggy fire gear

Every dog owner has experienced it: you want your dog to sit, speak, roll over and maybe shake, but your pooch has other ambitions. Bigger dreams. He wants to join the fire brigade (you know this because you taught him to speak), but you’re worried about your little buddy’s safety.

Finally, though, you can let your doggy chase both his tail and his dreams with this adorable doggy flame-retardant suit. Join us after the jump for more adorable photos!

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Beijing man and tiny bird team up to make money

A video uploaded to YouTube earlier this week has been causing quite a stir amongst web users in Japan today. In it, we see what appears to be a homeless man in China’s capital city asking for money from passersby on the street.

Rather than simply holding a cardboard sign asking for spare change or sitting on the ground with a paper cup like, sadly, so many are forced to, this man has a rather neat trick for generating a little extra cash: he has trained a small bird to fly into the hand of those donating their yuan and bring the coins back to him one by one!

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Man cautioned for keeping endangered leopard cat at home for 15 years, then asked for his advice

There are few things quite like the bond between a human and their pet, and most of the staff here at RocketNews24 can’t even begin to imagine life without their respective pups and feline overlords, but there are some animals that we definitely wouldn’t recommend keeping at home–particularly those on the endangered species list.

According to a recent NHK news report, a man living on the Japanese island of Tsushima narrowly avoided prosecution after it became clear that he had secretly kept a wild Japanese leopard cat in his home for 15 years before he was forced to seek assistance. As angered as the authorities were, however, they ultimately decided that they might learn from the man’s experiences and are due to talk to him about how he managed to keep the animal alive for such a length of time.

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Anime fan and pet owner recreates Attack on Titan’s epic opening shot by shot – with cats! 【Video】

This year’s breakout anime hit Attack on Titan snuck up on a lot of people. Sure, previews for the TV series made it look like a fun adventure, but is wasn’t until sometime after it premiered that the franchise became the international success it is today, despite the comic it’s based on having been around since 2009.

Why didn’t more people, from the very beginning, realize just how much entertainment Attack on Titan has to offer? Maybe the story’s antagonists, naked giants who look like anatomy textbook illustrations, were just too repugnantly grotesque. Maybe, being creator Hajime Isayama’s first serial, the artwork on its heroes was a little too rough around the edges. How much more immediately accessible would Attack on Titan have been if they had all been replaced with a more traditionally pleasing aesthetic, like a bunch of cute cats?

Thanks to this feline-infused recreation of the show’s opening animation, now we know.

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Symmetry is creepy! 26 photos of animals “evolving” with the help of mirror images

Thankfully the following images, which popped up on Japanese textboard site 2Channel earlier this week, were all produced using image sites such as PicHacks in order to create a symmetrical image from an existing photo, and are not of real-world creatures genetically engineered by nefarious scientists. Some of them will, however, most definitely be coming after you in your dreams tonight.

So come with us now as we step into the world of creepy evolutions and nightmarish creatures. And they said facial symmetry is a mark of beauty…

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