The Best Dogs to Own
A family dog not only is the family pet but becomes a member of your family before you even know it. It is very important to do thorough research about the best dogs to own. This is because each dog breed is different and all dogs have different temperaments. A pet dog becomes a lifetime commitment and therefore, it is very important that the animal and his needs suit your lifestyle. A small puppy that you bring home as a birthday gift for your kid, will soon become more or less like your baby. He will be around for a really long time. So, you should consider bringing home a dog with traits that match your family. In this article, we shall see which are the best dogs to own.
What Are the Best Dogs to Own?
There are many traits that you should look for when you are trying to answer the question what are the best dogs to own. You need to consider a dog breed according to the house or apartment you live in. If you live in a small apartment, you need to consider whether that dog is comfortable living in small spaces. While living in an apartment, you may have dog barking problems. To avoid neighbor complains, you need to choose dogs that are non-barkers or do not bark unnecessarily. Also, if you are a working person and will not have enough time to exercise your dog, then you need to consider getting home a dog with low exercise needs. High energy dogs, bred for hunting and guarding will have little options to vent out their energy in an apartment. The long hours of inactivity will frustrate the dog and he will destroy the things around him in the apartment. So, for your own and for your dogs safety, you need to choose dogs that do not get hyperactive and can manage living alone for long hours. Therefore, you need to consider bringing home the best dogs to own in an apartment.
The dog size and dog grooming requirements also a matter of consideration. If you live in a small apartment, it is not wise to bring home a large dog like German Shepherd or Great Dane, but get small dogs. Neither will you nor the dog will have enough space to stretch your legs. A dog with grooming requirements is not suitable for those who have very little time to spare. This will only cause the dog to have matted fur that will increase dog health problems and your expenses for grooming him. Hypoallergenic dogs are to be considered if you or someone in your family has dog allergies. These hypoallergenic dogs will help reduce the chances of an allergy attack and complete your desire to own a dog.
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Things You Didn’t Know About Cats
All felines, be them wild or domesticated, are part of the very same family, the one called Felidae. The domesticated cat comes from a species of small-sized wild cats, called Felis Silvestris. The only feline which lives in packs is the lion. All the other felines are solitary hunters, they rather live on their own than go for a community life. Another interesting and unusual fact about cats is that their heart can beat two times faster than the human heart. Thus, a cat’s heart can beat 240 times/ minute. Felines also have a faster metabolism, and therefore their heart needs more oxygen. It’s the very rhythm of the heart that requires this.
According to some experts, cats were initially domesticated 4000 years ago in Egypt, when people noticed how good cats were at catching mice that fed on their stored cereals. It’s a generally known fact that cats were worshiped in ancient Egypt, but few people know that cats also enjoyed a lot of attention in Rome, too. Romans believed that the cat was the god of freedom, and it was the only animal which was allowed to enter Roman temples. Cats were brought in 54 BC by Julius Caesar’s troopes to Britannia. When Britannia allied with Gallia, i.e. with nowadays France, to fight the Romans who had brought cats as mascots for their fight, cats spread all over the European continent.
The first cat cartoon was created in 1910 by George Herriman in his comic book entitled “Krazy Kat”, created for the New York Evening Journal. Cats are said to live for about 14-15 years. But still there are cases in which cats live a lot much longer. Such was the case of “Crème Puff”, the oldest female cat which lived in Austin, Texas, and died of old age in 2005, when she was no less than 38 years old. There is also a male example of long-living cat. Its name was “Puss” and it lived in Devon, England. Puss died in 1939, at the age of 36.
Another interesting cat-related thing is that whereas in most countries black cats crossing one’s path are believed to bring bad luck, in the UK it’s quite the opposite, meaning black cats are said to bring people good fortune.
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The Black Bird
When going in trips in nature, or even in the city, somewhere around tall trees and vegetation in general, one can often hear some heavenly chirps. I often wondered how the creature that produced such unearthly music looked like. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one wondering, since it had the habit of enchanting the years and souls of human listeners especially during summertime, but also in spring and sometimes even in some rarely warm winter days. Also, it has the habit of announcing the end of a storm or of a rainfall. This little creature seems eager to share the good news of the end of storm before anyone else has the chance, and does it by its heart-capturing pretty little songs.
Well, apparently, it is a 27 cm long mockingbird that can be met relatively often in most countries, especially in low hill forests but also in mountainous areas, and usually close to waters. It can be quite often encountered in the big city parks where it has managed to adjust perfectly. The male is completely black and the female has brownish nuances. The blackbird has an orange beak.
The blackbird generally feeds on animal food, usually made of insects and larvae, but also on vegetable food, which comprises certain fruits and seeds. The blackbird makes it’s nest close to the ground, in bushes where it starts laying about 4-5 eggs, starting from the month of April. The incubation period is of 15 days and it has about 2-3 series of baby birds every year.
There are some more legends on the origin of this bird. One story says that the blackbird was once a priest’s daughter. She went to wash some black wool and bathe into the river. There, she was seen by a fairy, that got jealous on the priest daughter’s great beauty and stole her clothes, so that the poor girl could no longer appear in front of her father. Because of that, the beautiful girl covered herself in the black wool and prayed to God to turn her into a bird. The song thrush wanted to marry her, but the blackbird would turn into a reed, then into a flower, a cross, into a vine, a maple tree or in a fountain in order to escape the song thrush’s proposals. Read the rest of this entry »