ANIMALS

Longest Resident At Shelter Falls Asleep Smiling When He Finds A Family

Despite the challenges he has encountered, Petey the rescue dog has always been a cheerful boy. The adorable puppy was already the longest resident at his county shelter in North Carolina at just one year old.

Petey’s stay had already been prolonged beyond customary lengths due to the small shelter’s capacity issue. In the absence of any prospective adopters, the shelter contacted the SPCA of Wake County to ask if they might aid in giving Petey more time to find his family.

Petey was immediately accepted by the SPCA. Despite the dire circumstances, Petey didn’t seem at bit depressed. Rather, he was overjoyed to meet his new pals.

“As soon as he got here, he was yanking on the leash trying to get through the door,” Samantha Ranlet, spokesperson for the SPCA of Wake County, told The Dodo. “He bounded into the building.”

The dog’s outgoing nature initially astounded SPCA officials, especially when they thought about how frequently he had been missed at his prior shelter.

“He was super friendly from day one and very playful,” Ranlet said. “We couldn’t believe that nobody wanted him.”

As soon as he arrived, Petey’s SPCA pals immediately submitted a photo of him to their website, but they were concerned that he would be disregarded once more.

“We, unfortunately, expected that he might be overlooked for smaller dogs, like before,” Ranlet said. “But it only took about a few weeks for someone to fall in love with him.”

Ranlet claims that when Petey’s forever family saw the adorable dog’s picture, they knew right once that he belonged with them. After a month of staying at the SPCA, Petey was picked up by his new family, putting an end to his protracted stay in the shelter.

Petey quickly adapted to his new surroundings as he enjoyed spending time with his beloved human siblings and puppy brother. He already enjoys giving his family countless hugs and kisses and playing fetch in his backyard.

And at the end of the day, Petey, the once-forgotten shelter dog, cuddles up in his cozy bed and drifts off to sleep with a big grin on his face.

“That is the smile of a dog who knows he’s home,” the shelter wrote on Facebook.

One of the dogs in shelters who receive extended neglect is Petey. Between 8 and 10 puppies have been waiting for their forever homes at SCPA of Wake County alone for almost a year.

Ranlet and the SPCA staff, however, are optimistic that the stories of their other long-term residents will conclude nicely, just as Petey’s did.

“We’re rooting for them to find their people,” Ranlet said. “That’s what they deserve.”

ANIMALS

Amazing Video of Unseen Ocean Creatures in the Ningaloo Canyons

The Schmidt Ocean Institute recently explored the Ningaloo Canyons on the western coast of Australia using a robotic underwater vehicle called the ROV Sebastian. Check out the amazing video of what they discovered in the deep parts of the Indian Ocean.

More info: Youtube

ANIMALS

These Pics Are Art and the Artists Are Insects

Flying insects move so quickly that they are hard to follow, but new technology and some smart ideas have helped Spanish photographer Xavi Bou do just that. After spending 10 years focusing on birds in flight for his Ornithographies project, he turned his attention to insects.

For Entomographies, he uses high-speed video footage taken by Adrian Smith, an insect expert at North Carolina State University, to study and record how insects move. Bou then picks multiple frames and combines them into single images that show the fast movements of one or more insects through space and time.

With Smith’s help, Bou has captured the aerial tricks of wasps, the jumps of leafhoppers, and the fluttering of butterflies in amazing detail. He hopes that by doing this, he can make people more aware of the decline in important insect populations around the world.

1. Zebra longwing

This butterfly, which is common in many areas of the Americas, really fits its name. It can fly very high with just a few flaps of its large wings.