Metatalktail Hour: Everybody needs a Pug June 25, 2022 2:00 AM   Subscribe

I don't think anyone feels lighthearted at the moment, but we could all use a little comfort right now ... so maybe this is a good time to share our cute pet pix or favorite animal shots, stories, or videos.

As usual, let's avoid politics here — even the "elephant in the womb" — for the sake of those seeking a few minutes reprieve from all that, but if anyone wants to make a separate post for mutual support, that would be totally fine.

❤️ Love to everyone; let's get through this together.
posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 2:00 AM (48 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite



When in Bristol, and visiting my usual place of caffeination, I sometimes walk down the long road that leads to it if I'm coming from the east of the city.

There are several cats I pass on the way, but one has recently stood out more than most. Sunbathing Cone Cat, or Succ for short. Succ has been wearing the cone on and off for a while now, but it doesn't seem to bother them at all. Or, if it does, it doesn't let the cone affect their lifestyle.

Because Succ is a sunbather. Any patch of sun and Succ will be there. Sitting. Soaking it up.

It doesn't matter what else is going on in the street - and, in that area of Bristol, there is always something going on. There could be graffiti artists both good and spectacular, or someone skateboarding down the hill, or neighbours gossiping or arguing, or people selling or smoking or discussing weed (if you've been to Bristol you'll know that sometimes it's almost like a perpetual cloud of weed smoke hangs over the city), or painting their house in a totally different colou to the neighbours (it's a Bristol tradition), or local hipsters trying to out-hipster each other, or going to and from the flea market underneath the motorway, or...

Succ doesn't care.

Succ just sits there, and takes the sun whenever it comes out. Coned or unconed.

Succ is my role model. Take the sun whenever and wherever you can.
posted by Wordshore at 2:37 AM on June 25, 2022 [19 favorites]


Here's my latest fave twitter animal post. Corgi gang goes hard.
posted by taz (staff) at 2:56 AM on June 25, 2022 [18 favorites]


I call this one "Mistakes Were Made."
posted by saladin at 3:36 AM on June 25, 2022 [13 favorites]


Teddy the Jackshund
posted by COD at 5:09 AM on June 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


r/aww sorted by "top" and "day" is always good for a daily pickmeup
posted by lalochezia at 5:14 AM on June 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


Almost every morning in the park near my house, I run into a tiny Boston Terrier who shows her excitement at meeting people by spinning at the end of her leash. She knows to hold the leash between her teeth to avoid wrapping it around her head.

Sadly I haven't taken a picture but please enjoy this video of Boston Terriers on scooters and skateboards.
posted by BibiRose at 6:37 AM on June 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


It's Gonna Be OK.
posted by SPrintF at 6:45 AM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I like in a pretty populated suburb. Though I live across from a lake and there's some woods around, there's a lot of pavement here as well. For where I live we get a surprising amount of wildlife. Wild turkeys are a constant presence, as are rabbits, hawks, and skunks. We've seen bald eagles circling around overhead, an occasional turtle wanders up to lay eggs, we hear owls and foxes sometimes, and coyotes are out and about most nights. Growing up in the same town there was almost none of this.

My wife had a birthday recently and she asked for, and received, a trail camera. She put it out on a tree a few nights ago and has been disappointed so far because it's only turned up a few turkeys and some squirrels. I told her to keep trying and eventually it would turn up something interesting.

I said this same thing to her two nights ago while we were sitting in the porch at dusk. No sooner had I said it when she told me to look up and into the front yard. Not 20 feet from where we were sitting there was a deer just casually wandering through the yard. I've only seen deer here once maybe 15 years ago.

I know for a lot of people, deer are common sights and pests as well, but it was a pretty special, magical moment as we just sat around and watched this beautiful animal wandering through. It eventually crossed the street and disappeared into the woods.
posted by bondcliff at 7:46 AM on June 25, 2022 [8 favorites]


Floofy dogs. One floofy dog and one floofy monster, before and after haircuts. Toki. Dexter.
posted by Glinn at 8:01 AM on June 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


Shaggy dog story warning.

So about a year or so ago I got new apartment living neighbors who have this sweet-ish dog. She's a husky/german shepherd mix with hetero-chromatic eyes. She's a total pack animal that rarely strays more than six feed from mom or dad. She'll run up to you once, then ignore you. I once got her to let me give her scritches for a moment. It's been a running joke for the past year with mom and dad that I'm always trying to get her to let me scritch her and she's snubbing me. Evidently she was a shelter dog and had some abandonment issues. When her parents are away she's prone to going off at loud noises and barking fiercely, they had to basically board up a louvered window that she tore through.

Once upon a time she caught me climbing on her picket fence while I was breaking into the apartment above (long story, 4yr old locked the door and went to sleep and dad was locked out). She came out and looked at me, pretty much just ignored me until I scrambled onto the balcony with a thud, then she started barking.

Over the months, when she's all triggered and such at the window she can't get through I'll go out and stare her down a bit telling her that it's OK (she doesn't really have any sort of verbal command conditioning as far as I can tell, it's just familiarity and tone of voice that's comforting).

A few months ago she was all barky and I just looked at her and she was quiet and then backed up back into her home and sat down and then laid down.

A few weeks ago I was out while dad was cleaning out the car or something and she comes up and let's me give her head scritches and butt scritches then she lays down, rolls over and gives the most awesome dog smile, want tummy scritches.

It was short lived, as soon as dad closed trunk she was up and back on pack point and I'm ignored. I don't even think dad noticed

I think I've finally seduced my neighbor's dog, she likes me now.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:31 AM on June 25, 2022 [7 favorites]


This columbo scene is self care. Give your loved ones some cookies.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:44 AM on June 25, 2022 [7 favorites]


Glinn, I love the floof and post-floof transformations! Here's mine (from above) with her hairs cut! From (not even) Max to Mini. How I miss my v serious baby.
posted by taz (staff) at 8:50 AM on June 25, 2022 [3 favorites]


Also, you can't see there, but her tail was still floofy. Styled, but floofy. My husband always had very explicit instructions to the groomer, re floofy tail. Tail Must Floof! (He was always terrified they would do some poodle cut tail thing)
posted by taz (staff) at 8:56 AM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


Yes, the tails stay floofed!
posted by Glinn at 9:29 AM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


I don't seem to have a great shot, but some tail floofiness observable here. Also, see those concrete globes? See how they extend off into the distance? (now double that for the ones we had already passed.) Whenever we walked this little pedestrian lane, she had to stop at every. single. one. And sniff. And sniff. At length. Because PeeMail. That was always a very long short walk.

And here is Jiji, the current claimer of fuzzy bed throws and poofy pillows and lavish affection.
posted by taz (staff) at 9:37 AM on June 25, 2022 [4 favorites]


Here are my two pups: Taco, who does everything with 110% effort, including cuddling as seen here ; and Figlet, who has taught me a lot in the 16.5 years we've been together. Currently his curriculum is How to Live with Elderly Dogs, which involves lots of throw rugs for footing, soft beds, medications and vet visits, and pacing and restlessness between 11 pm - 2 am.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 9:52 AM on June 25, 2022 [12 favorites]


I love dog makeover photos! There's no feeling quite like picking your dog up from the groomer and seeing their fresh haircut.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 9:54 AM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


Just adopted 2 days ago this sweet girl we've been fostering since April. She was listed as a stray on her paperwork which we finally got following the adoption though she clearly was well-loved at one point, she is so friendly not at all aggressive. She had to have 17 of her teeth out when we first started fostering her (which involved repeated vet visits, and repeated administrations of gabapentin, which she hates) before we realized that, contrary to what the foster org told us, she doesn't need any sedation to go to the vet, she is as friendly and cuddly with the vet as she is with everyone. We had to rebuild her trust a little after that but she is coming around. She spends most of her days either watching birds through the window or sleeping "in her office" (ie under the art desk I hardly use). Nice to be doing a tiny bit of good in times like these.
posted by matcha action at 11:00 AM on June 25, 2022 [9 favorites]


Probably my favorite picture of my old childhood dog is this adorably whale-eyed photo of her getting a bath in the sink. Recently, I got access to an AI generation system that, among other things, can take any uploaded picture and create endless variations on it. So now I've got infinite parallel universe versions of this poor pitiful pooch. It's a little eerie, but it also made me laugh more than just about anything else this year.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:03 PM on June 25, 2022 [9 favorites]


End of March Mimi moved in with us. She is the best!
The listing in the rescue orgs website described her as a friendly, healthy 2-year old cat, used to living indoors. Just what we were looking for. I used to have two cats who died at 15 and 16 respectively. Many years later i finally felt ready again for a Cat.
So i took Mimi home and we immediately became close. She settled down in my flat and it was as if she had always lived with me, sharing my bed, or my son's bed. She was exactly as friendly and playful as described by the foster lady, clean and using her litterbox. She is not at all shy, and actually excited by visitors, wants them to play with her. The only surprise was that she immediately took posession of our garden, really small, maybe 40 square metres, which i found surprising given i was told she was an indoor cat. And also surprising how little she ate - my old cats were voracious eaters, always in the brink of too heavy.
After a couple of weeks i took her to my old vet, who checked her out and told me that she needed surgery as not only were basically all her teeth rotten, there were also broken off stumps and that she was actually certainly in constant pain. This explained why she was rather skinny and eating very little. They also ex-rayed her while in anesthesia and found she had a bullet lodged between her ribs, encapsulated in tissue, a broken eye socket bone half mended and a mended but not treated at the time broken rib, unrelated to the bullet. Plus arthritis in her hind limbs. All said, the vet concluded that she is likely 7 to 8 years old and, given the bullet, must have lived outside for quite some time... which explained why she loves my tiny urban garden and prefers to use the flower beds for a litter box even when it rains.
Anyway, long story short, i am so happy to have her and so honored this tough, resilient survivor is now a part of our family. She demands play (and gets it of course), and now also enjoys her food. She is the best!
posted by 15L06 at 3:06 PM on June 25, 2022 [25 favorites]


PS in case you think the garden dangerous. This is in downtown Vienna, no predators or getting lost beyond the garden possible. It is more of a walled room without a ceiling.
posted by 15L06 at 3:17 PM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


So these days it's kind of the done thing that when a celebrity is promoting their latest movie/TV show/project, in addition to the usual round of interviews on a press tour, they also do a round of some silly "games" that Youtube content makers have come up with (the WIRED magazine "Autocomplete" interview, a HOT ONES interview, etc.). One such game is from Buzzfeed - the "Puppy Interview", where they sit a celebrity in a room and throw a bunch of puppies in there with them, and then try to get the celebrity to answer questions while they're distracted by playing with all the puppies. The puppies are all ones which are currently up for adoption at various animal shelters, and the interviews give a shout-out to that fact at the end.

Tom Holland has done two of these, which are cute as fuck because he's a big dog lover - but before his second one, he tweeted out something about how he was going to do it and tagged Chris Evans, saying "hey, you should do one of these sometime too." And the Internet went BUGNUTS over the idea of Chris Evans doing a puppy interview. Chris Evans was at first baffled - his initial reaction was "I don't know what a puppy interview is, but that sounds awesome" or something like that. And then recently...the Chris Evans puppy interview actually happened. And even better - he insisted they also add on a few minutes where he do an interview while interacting with older dogs, because older dogs also are in shelters and deserve to be adopted as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:45 PM on June 25, 2022 [11 favorites]


Right now Boo Radley is napping in loaf position but when I tried to sneak up and take a picture, he opened his eyes and glared at me for disturbing him. So here’s a shot of him from a couple months ago, trying to blend in with the shrubbery.
posted by kbar1 at 5:11 PM on June 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


Right now Boo Radley is napping in loaf position but when I tried to sneak up and take a picture

anyone else thunk of...

I wish I could bring a newly minted old photo of my dad's cat, cat. but I bring a Nerf bat. For that cat was a grumpy cat and to assauge frump, I see before a raccoon in a bowler cap with a waistcoat doing a crane shot of a cardinal in a Glen calling near dusk it's echo pristine. the grumpy cat's not so grumpy when the raccoon with his coat not so lumpy decides to pan left, the wood appears as a Christmas light and then gently rests into the shadow. the penguin near The inkwell wonders if Catiline had secret medallions. penguin writes into the Glen a blanket and three short towers of amber. and the raccoon with the bowler hat and fine waistcoat pans left to two men in glorified garb installing handrails to
the Gemonian stairs as all the Lictors carried Nerf bats. soon, as a lowered sun cast it's cool shadow on three chipmunks hopping along pavement, penguin confers with the raccoon in the bowler cap and fine waistcoat deciding that the mist should be rather even in the last parting shot, Finis.
posted by clavdivs at 8:12 PM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


My kid was telling me today that when his friend Natalie got a kitten everyone tried to convince her to name it Catalie. But she didn't.
posted by Redstart at 9:11 PM on June 25, 2022 [7 favorites]


taz, I remember your sweet pup! You had this absolutely terrific picture on your profile page, and I remember thinking how in all of your doggy's floofy apricot glory she looked so much like my own Annie, shown here being exuberant. They weren't the same breed, it turned out, but they were spiritually related, I am positive.

EVERYONE'S BABIES! FLOOFS FOREVER.
posted by mochapickle at 9:44 PM on June 25, 2022 [10 favorites]


Here's my girl Mica as a little pup and now at 9 months.
posted by Redstart at 10:07 PM on June 25, 2022 [6 favorites]


omg, mochapickle, they could be siblings! oh, my heart!
posted by taz (staff) at 10:51 PM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]


My dog had nineteen teeth pulled recently, so now his tongue does this occasionally. It always reminds me of those little slips you get at the deli counter.
posted by cakelite at 8:13 AM on June 26, 2022 [10 favorites]


Pugs are the best. That's all I have to add.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:16 AM on June 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


This is Bramble, she lives in England with my parents and is the best!
posted by ellieBOA at 9:17 AM on June 26, 2022 [10 favorites]


I've been watching this seal video [TikTok] a lot recently. 😘
posted by invokeuse at 12:41 PM on June 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


Our boys. Not cuddly. A little floofy. They are good boys.
posted by evilmomlady at 1:04 PM on June 26, 2022 [12 favorites]


Speedball. Speedball has achieved a small amount of twitter fame through my stepchild's account @cat_yawns, where they currently also post dolls and japanese harsh vocal idols if that particular combo is your thing. Though there aren't pictures with people in them, Speedball is the most shoulder-loving, cuddly cat ever, and greatly enjoys climbing up people (including, recently, plumbers) when they least expect it, either for nuzzles or just a better vantage point.
posted by Sparx at 2:12 PM on June 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


I have a disgusting cat story to share. Only read if being disgusted about something that's not a Current Event would make for a nice change.

I had to wash ALL my workwear, and a lot of other clothes, today because one of the cats apparently caught a mouse outside, brought it inside and lost it in the bedroom, or more likely just lost interest... and it died there and got stinky, and any+all clothes stored nearby smelled of mouse! Three machine loads' worth of dead mouse stink!

CATS. THINK OF THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THAT STINKY MOUSE. Shame on you!

We had to put Vicks Vaporub below our noses in order to be able to clean things up, it was so bad. The bedroom has been airing out all afternoon and evening, and the scent seems to be gone now.
posted by Too-Ticky at 3:14 PM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


We get to have a squirrel around here for a while, and a frisky and young one at that. Seems tame, and I have a lot of walnuts, like I have been waiting for a squirrel to show up.
posted by Oyéah at 3:19 PM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


What! You get reindeer?
posted by Oyéah at 3:20 PM on June 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


Oscar is very floofy and deeply offended by the heat. Luckily I live in a place with a fully fenced in backyard now, so he can have some supervised time out to lay in the shade.
posted by ActionPopulated at 4:41 PM on June 26, 2022 [8 favorites]


omg oscar’s belly nom nom nom
posted by mochapickle at 6:05 PM on June 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


re-watching, Star Trek Continues, working on the danger in horns bit.

"dunt dun-na dunt' (repeat)
posted by clavdivs at 7:48 PM on June 26, 2022


Ugh so,
At the end of last year, my dad died, and I moved back to my childhood home to keep mom company. I got a driver's license finally after a life of resisting it, and driving isn't the worst thing, but it isn't the best thing, either.
For a few years there, I shared a house with, among others, a pair of cats, one of whom was Nicky, named for and approximately as old as, the Adam Sandler movie "Little Nicky."
Last week I got a text from my former housemate/landlord that Little Nicky had crossed the road, but his original human had been there with him in his final days, so he wasn't alone.
Nicky was an old farm cat who had spent his last five or so years defending his stake on the back of the couch, in a condition I liked to refer to as "retired."
His all-black fur (graying a little in his anciency) was the softest. Absolutely the softest kitty fur I ever encountered. His fur was practically a fluid.
I spent a lot of time isolated in my own part of the house, but Nicky was by far my favorite housemate, and I spent a lot of time chillin with Nicky.

My dad hated cats, or at least he professed to, and I picked that up for nebulous reasons during a chunk of my own life. Nicky kinda set me straight on cats, and if there is any other side to get to, for humans or for cats, I hope Nicky is annoying my dad some, over there.

RIP in peace, Dad, and RIP in peace Nicky, my beautiful delicious boy.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 8:41 PM on June 26, 2022 [8 favorites]


Hi Metafilter folks! Long time, no see. It's been a rough few years, eh? Yes. Oh yes it has.

My baby-est cat still nurses her panda for comfort at bedtime, and then all through the night. The now-scuzzy panda lives on the pillow next to mine. It's hard to explain to people why I as an adult have a grungy panda on my pillow, but when you don't have people in your house for 2.5 years, it doesn't actually need explaining. Woot woot.

My other kitten, one of the floofiest cats ever, had 9 teeth pulled last January and needs to have the rest of them taken out soon, to the tune of $4,000.

I broke my ankle last November, had surgery, and now have six screws and a metal plate holding it all together. The screws are currently in an active state of rebellion and will likely need to be extracted soon. Pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to see them from the outside. But hey, if you want to, you can.

I've been away from here for so long, first off because my feelings got hurt, and then because it seemed so hard to be here while the world was also hard. Seeing this MetaTalk thread from Taz softened me in a way I needed to be softened, so I'm waving hello and virtually hugging those of you I knew, with an extra little nuzzle to Taz.

*nods at everyone else*
posted by mudpuppie at 10:27 PM on June 26, 2022 [16 favorites]


❤️ Love to you, mudpuppie, it's wonderful to see you again! And I now realize I need a panda for Jiji, who nurses her blankie.

(also, I think you need to add permissions to those two google drive images? I'm getting a "You need access" message, at any rate)
posted by taz (staff) at 4:28 AM on June 27, 2022


We've had our very good boy Rango for about 27 months now, which breaks down to around 1,600 times we have fed him.

And that makes for around 1,600 times he has come up to us after his meal smiling and wagging his tail, just to make sure we know he appreciated it. I never get tired of it and it's never less than completely adorable.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:06 AM on June 27, 2022 [9 favorites]




awwwww!
posted by taz (staff) at 7:06 AM on June 28, 2022


Hi, mudpuppie, nice to see you again!

I don't have any pictures of this, but my Norwegian Puffin Dog loves cats. We've got a cat ourselves, but to the dog's eternal sorrow no kitties we encounter on walks want to say hello to her. But the other day we encountered a blue-gray short-haired handsome little fellow, and he didn't run away when we got nearer to him, so I squatted down and tried to call him over. And after a little hesitation he came all the way over and greeted both me and the dog. The dog could barely contain her excitement, and I think that walk might have been one of the high points of her life!
posted by Harald74 at 12:55 AM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


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