#morph ball acquired

[radwolf76]

ORB

[radwolf76]

This Footstool Was Out For Doll Photography Earlier, Now We Can't Put It Back

[radwolf76]

ROUMND

With bonus foot.

[radwolf76]

Look At This Ball of Catnap

Just look at it.

[radwolf76]

ZZZZZ

[radwolf76]

🅡🅞🅤🅜🅝🅓

[radwolf76]

Top Bunk Boy

We have a large pet carrier that we can put both cats in if we need to. But since we leave it out with a blanket on top, the boys have turned it into a cat bunk bed. Here is Lucky on top having a coze.

[loreleywrites]

Peril of the Pangolin

Today I’m going to set aside the snark and talk about a serious issue: pangolins. Don’t know what a pangolin is? Here’s a helpful website that can get you all the information you need (Ok, there will be some snark.) Now, there are a lot of reasons to like pangolins:

They’re adorable

They’re weird (if you’re the kind of person who likes things because of their weirdness)

They’re cute

They have morph ball capabilities

They’re goofy to watch (You can see them here!)

They seem like pretty decent folks

They eat termites (nobody likes termites)

Something about ecological roles and biodiversity

And, most importantly, they’re cute

Pangolins have a problem though. Despite their Chozo battle armor, many species in Asia are being hunted to extinction. If you know anything about pangolins, then you’re either a nerd, have nerdly friends, or have read a news story similar to this one. Pangolins are hunted for a variety of reasons, but the most notable are that they are considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine and their scales are used in a variety of folk medicines. Now, science hasn’t done much in terms of actual studies of folk medicines (in general), but it’s pretty fair to say that a lot of them don’t work. After all, pangolin scales are made of keratin, the same protein that makes up your fingernails. If it was so good for you, how come nail biters still get sick? Ok, that’s not science either, but it still gets my point across: there’s no benefit to killing pangolins.

Just how bad is the problem? The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List labels two species as endangered and four more as near threatened. All eight species have declining populations. If you follow reports of seized contraband, the numbers of illegally traded pangolin corpses aren’t numbered in the dozens. They’re in the hundreds or thousands. Poaching is such a problem that it’s illegal to commercially transport them at all. The biggest problem is lack of information. Pangolins are reclusive, solitary creatures that are difficult to study. Poaching is a clandestine crime that’s difficult to combat.

The good news is that there are people that think pangolins are pretty ok. The even better news is that these people are working for conservation efforts to help nature’s little bowling balls (NOTE: I do not recommend using them for this purpose. Their scales give them awful spin control.) If you want to find out more about conservation efforts (or pangolins in general), http://savepangolins.org/ is a fantastic hub of information. They have many useful and brief summaries about pangolin conservation and offer a number of useful links to conservation websites. The IUCN has also launched a site for their pangolin conservation efforts. They provide a lot of more in depth information as well as more news and links. And, as always, I’m sure you can find myriad websites just by searching on Google (or Bing, if you’re into that sort of thing).

What can you do as a reader of this post? Well, if you have Tony Stark’s number, you could call him, because he would probably be a big help here. If not, you don’t have to go all eco-protector or sell your hair to give to conservation groups. Awareness is the most basic way to help. The more people that know about the plight of the pangolins the better. All I ask is that you spread the word to your friends and try to convince them to sell their hair.