Wednesday, 1 April 2015

This Adorable Rottweiler Has Defied The Odds And Walks With Four Prosthetic Limbs

After his former owner tried to amputate all four of his paws, Brutus has a new lease on life by becoming the second dog to have four prosthetic limbs.

This is Brutus, a Rottweiler who's had a hell of a life.

When he was just a puppy, Brutus's breeder left him outside in freezing temperatures, causing him to get frostbite on all four paws.

In an attempt to save them, his owner attempted an amateur amputation at home, according to Colorado State University.

Facebook: betterpawsforbrutus

The procedure left him with stumps, unable to walk normally, and in constant pain. Laura Aquilina, a pet rescuer from Canyon City, Colorado, decided to foster Brutus and help him find some new paws.

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She started a GoFundMe Page to raise money so that Brutus could get prosthetic limbs to walk pain-free.

The page overfunded her goal, raising $12,500 to cover the costs of further surgeries, prosthetics, and physical therapy.

His surgery took place at James L. Voss Teaching Hospital at Colorado State University, where Dr. Trent Gall removed bone fragments, dew claws, and two toes left from his previous amputations.

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The surgery was a success, and with physical therapy Brutus is learning how to adjust to life with his new paws.

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Can You Guess Which Animals Made These Weird-Sounding Noises?

Do you know what the fox says? Do you know what the fox doesn’t say?

Get ready to hear some noise!

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How to Feed Guppies

Guppies are active and often colorful, making them popular aquarium pets. Feeding them is an uncomplicated task, but it's good to learn about your guppies' needs to avoid overfeeding. Guppy young require a special diet, although one easily available at a fish store, and even adults will be healthier if you supplement their fish flakes with more nutritious food.

Steps

Feeding Adult Guppies

Purchase flake food made for tropical fish. You can purchase flake food at a pet store or fish shop to use as a basic, daily food supply. While guppies will eat any type of flake food, high quality brands that contain both protein and vegetable matter are best. Flake food intended for tropical fish often include natural color enhancers that will make your guppies appear brighter and more colorful.^[1] Do not purchase fish food in pellet form, as this will be difficult or impossible for guppies to eat with their small mouths.
- If you purchase more flake food than you will use in a month, freeze the excess to preserve nutrients. Thaw another month's supply a couple days before you need a refill.

Feed the guppies a pinch of flake food once or twice a day. Drop a tiny pinch of flakes into the water and watch the guppies eat. They should be finished with the meal in about 30–60 seconds, and certainly no longer than a few minutes.^[2]^[3] You may decide to feed them once or twice a day, as long as you do so in appropriate amounts. It is easy to feed guppies too much food, and difficult to feed them too little.
- Guppies will continue to eat or search for food even when they do not need it. Do not feed your fish an additional meal because the fish appear hungry. In fact, guppies that actively seek food will prevent food debris from building up and dirtying your water.

Replace the occasional flake food meal with more nutritious treats. While guppies will survive on flake food alone, live or frozen plants and animals contain extra nutrients that are ideal for supplementing a flake food diet. Replace one flake food meal every 2–7 days with no more treats than the guppies will finish within 60 seconds. Any of the following are appropriate treats, and most can be found at fish shops:
- Baby brine shrimp contain mostly protein, and are ideal supplements if your flake food is high in vegetable content and low in protein (40% or less).^[4] They are available in live, frozen, or flake form.
- Blood worms or mosquito larvae are good treats that you can catch yourself by running a net through standing water. Acquire small quantities of larvae at a time to prevent them hatching into mosquitos. Earthworms are also appropriate, but must be shredded and rinsed before feeding to the guppies.^[5]
- Feed your guppies shucked peas, shredded lettuce, or finely chopped cucumber, especially if their flake food is high in protein but low in vegetable content.

Avoid tubifex worms and live daphnia. Many other types of fish food exist, and fish store employees or other guppy owners may recommend other types of treat. However, you should try to avoid tubifex worms and daphnia, even if recommended to you. While guppies will eat them enthusiastically, tubifex worms sometimes contain lethal bacteria. Live daphnia will only cause harm in large quantities by removing oxygen from the tank, but they are typically more expensive and difficult to raise than other live foods.^[6]

Watch for signs of overfeeding. Because guppies have such small stomachs but still eat large quantities of food if available, overfeeding is common. If you notice any of the following signs, reduce the number of meals you feed them or the frequency of their treats. Some guppy owners only feed their fish 6 days a week, letting them go hungry on the seventh for their health.
- Tubes of waste dangling behind the fish are a sign of a blocked intestine from overeating.^[7]
- Adult male guppies develop a "potbelly" or bulging chest if they have too much fat in their diet. Reduce the amount of food and replace fatty treats such as blood worms or beef heart with crumbs of fat-free ham.
- If your tank water gets cloudy and dirty frequently, excess food or waste may be the cause. As a general rule, you should change 20–30% of the water in your tank about once every 1–2 weeks, or more frequently for crowded tanks.

Consider feeding methods for vacations longer than one week. Healthy, adult guppies can last a week without food before experiencing any lasting effects, so if you are only going to be gone a few days, consider simply not feeding them. For a longer trip, one of the following methods is recommended:^[8]
- Use an automatic feed dispenser to dispense food at regular intervals. Make sure you supply enough food for the whole time you'll be away, and set the dispenser to release food once or twice a day.
- Test a feeder block or gel feeder before leaving. These blocks of dry or gel-covered food are left in the tank and eaten slowly. However, the dry blocks may cause dangerous chemical changes, while the gel variety sometimes go ignored. Test either variety for a few days before leaving so you can be sure there are no problems.
- Have a friend or neighbor feed them their usual flake food once every two or three days. Because inexperienced feeders often give too much food, it's best to place each pinch of food in a pill box or other container with the day of the week carefully marked on it. Make it clear to the caretaker that overfeeding could kill your guppies.

Caring for and Feeding Young Guppies

Prepare a separate breeding tank. Young guppies, also known as "fry", require special feeding separate from the adults, and should be separated for their safety as well.^[9] Prepare a 5 gallon (20 L) tank with care, making sure it has everything necessary for the guppies' survival. As with any aquarium, running a fishless cycle is an excellent way to prepare the tank before you introduce any fish.

Divide your breeding tank into two sections using a breeding net. Purchase a breeding net or mesh from a fish store that divides the tank into two sections. The newly hatched guppies will be able to swim through the holes of the net and escape the mother fish, which may try to eat them.
- If you don't want to purchase a net or are not sure if the net you have has the right sized holes, you may protect the fry by planting several aquarium plants for them to hide in.

Move pregnant females to the breeding tank until they give birth. Females have a dark spot on their abdomen, also called a gravid spot, which becomes much darker once her internal eggs have been fertilized. The eggs will grow inside her for 21–30 days, and her abdomen will become larger and darker as this happens.^[10] Transfer the female back to the main tank as soon as you notice she has given birth, so she does not compete with the fry for food or attempt to eat her young.
- If you are breeding guppies to sell or to produce specific traits, move the male and female you wish to breed into the tank before the female is pregnant. Return the male to the main tank once you notice the darker gravid spot. Note that female guppies can store sperm for months, so a fish you purchased as an adult may be fertilizing her eggs with a male not present in your tank for the first several litters.

Prepare special food for your fry. Guppy fry have tiny mouths and high protein requirements, so they must be fed separately from the adults. Have their special food ready to go before the fry are born, and include both protein sources and vegetable matter. High quality protein can be supplied in the form of baby brine shrimp (not adult), microworms, finely chopped beef heart, and/or a mash of egg yolk and water.^[11] Vegetable matter can be used in smaller quantities, and can take the form of infusoria (microscopic organisms that color pond water green), fresh and finely chopped dark green lettuce, or small pieces of boiled spinach.^[12]^[13]
- Do not to feed them adult brine shrimp until they have grown into juveniles; if the shrimp remains untouched it is too big for the fry to eat.

Feed the fry several times a day. Growing fry have greater energy needs than adult guppies as well as smaller stomachs, so feed them tiny amounts of food about 6 times daily.^[14] If the water grows dirty or cloudy despite frequent water changes, reduce the amount of food and make sure it is small enough for them to eat.

Change small amounts of water frequently. Once your fry have been born, you may wish to change 10% or less of the water every couple days, instead of doing a larger and more stressful water change every week or two.^[15] Young fish are especially vulnerable to water changes, and the high frequency of feeding can cause waste to build up in the tank quickly.

Reduce the frequency of their feedings gradually. After about 2 months, the fry should be considerably larger and will only need to be fed 3–4 times a day.^[16] After about 4–5 months, they can be switched to an adult diet and fed 1–2 times a day. You may choose to alter the diet slowly to increase the odds of the fry accepting flakes, gradually replacing other parts of the diet with flake food. Different varieties and individuals will grow at different rates, however, and you should not move the fry into a tank with adult fish until they are close to the same size.
- You may be able to switch to larger food such as adult brine shrimp earlier if your guppies are growing at a good rate. Keep feeding the juveniles high quality food, however, and watch them to make sure they eat the new food.

Tips

Male fish are most easily identified by the presence of a pointed fin at the base of the fish, near the anus. Female fish have a more rounded fin here, and will show a dark spot on their abdomen when carrying eggs, especially fertilized ones.^[17]

Try not to make your guppy fry grope around for food! Drop the food directly above them. This is not necessary for adult guppies, which should actively swim around to search for food.

Warnings

Before you feed your guppy any live animal treats not mentioned on this page, research that species online to see if there is any possibility of bacterial contamination that could harm or kill your guppies.

Related wikiHows

Breed Guppies

Care for Guppies

Do a Water Change in a Freshwater-Aquarium

Feed a Fish

Set up a Tropical Freshwater Aquarium

Test the Water in an Aquarium

Sources and Citations

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23 Cats That Just Can't Even Deal With Vladimir Putin Today

I mean, Vlad, really, can you just not? With special thanks to Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show.

"[T]he demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" — Vladimir Putin, 2005

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"[Sometimes I think] our bear should probably just sit quietly and just eat honey instead of hunting animals, maybe then they will leave the bear in peace, but, no, they will not." — Vladimir Putin, 2014

"[Sometimes I think] our bear should probably just sit quietly and just eat honey instead of hunting animals, maybe then they will leave the bear in peace, but, no, they will not." — Vladimir Putin, 2014

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"Not all G8 members take the view that chemical weapons were in fact used by the Syrian Army. Some actually agree with us that there is no proof." — Vladimir Putin, 2013

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“There is no such thing as a former KGB man.” — Vladimir Putin, 2005

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Which Tiny Little Animal Are You?

Get ready to be adorable.

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This Is What Happens When A Toddler Is In Charge Of Breakfast

Basically, no one wins. But everyone learns a valuable lesson.

Someone here tried very hard. And someone (named Zoey) does not care.

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For every orange who means well...

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...there is a cat who honestly just wanted a little bit of kibble today instead of this nonsense.

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How to Celebrate April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day comes but once a year so don't miss the opportunity to play a few pranks on family, friends and coworkers. Just expect to have a few played back on you!

Steps

Getting ready

Be alert. April Fool's Day is the day for pranks of all kinds, whether they come from friends and family or they're online, TV or radio prank. There will definitely be some merriment and foolishness about, so put your sense of humor into gear and be prepared!

Know how long it's okay to joke around for. This depends on where you live; in some places, the pranks are only permissible till noon, while in others, all day is fair game. Here are a few examples:
- Pranks and jokes can only go until noon in: Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Australia, Cyprus, and South Africa.
- Pranks and jokes can happen all day in: France, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Ireland, and the U.S. and so on.
- If you prank or joke for April Fool's Day beyond the appropriate time, you are considered the fool, with this chant a possible retort: "April Fool's Day's past and gone, You're the fool for making one."^[1]

Play pranks. There are numerous different types of pranks that you can play on this day. First, some basics, and then the following sections will outline suggestions for pranks to try out:
- The type of prank depends on your resources and what's tolerable for the victim. For example, a prank that totally messes up a friend's clothing might be fine because you're friends but it wouldn't be fine for the school principal or boss to have their clothes messed up by your prank. Use your common sense and definitely don't blow the budget.
- The prank doesn't have to be elaborate. It can simply be a prank phone call to an understanding mate, or an elaborate switch of their caffeine level of coffee.
- Planning is everything. You need to know the prank victim's patterns and figure out the best way to disrupt them.
- The best pranks happen when the victim is caught off guard. Early morning is the best time to play them, because many people do do not realize that it is April 1st yet.
- The classic ending to a prank is someone popping out to say "April fools!" But the more creative you get, the more fun it will be. Put signs up in places that they will eventually see (for example, hide the victim's keys and place a post on their steering wheel).
- For more details on perfecting a prank, see How to play a prank.

Laugh your head off at the effect of the prank. Laugh with the person, not at the person and be sure to never use condescending or nasty language to imply that they are a real fool. Keep in mind that you may just be the next target...

Pranking your friends

The most understanding of your victims, the friend is probably more likely to forgive you when the joke's on them.

Try some pranks with your friend's gear. Watch their surprise (or horror) as you mess around with their beloved belongings:
- Ask to borrow their iPod, then snip off the cord. Of course, you'll be able to magically restore it.
- Borrow their favorite hardcover and make it appear that you're ripping the cover.
- Stick their favorite pen or pencil to the ceiling.

Sew your beloved's underpants together. Use quick, easily undone stitches and gently arrange them back in the drawer. When he or she goes to take them out, they'll all come out at once. This could be done with any other clothes, such as socks or t-shirts. Or, you can do it with things they'd normally use, like towels or face washers.

Crazy pranks

Freak people out with crazy pranks. If you're known for being a little nuts, make the most of it on this riotously fun day.

Make edible glass and eat it or crash through it.

Get your arm caught in a door––ouch! Be sure to include accompanying noises of sufficient agony. A car door can be effective if you plan it properly.

Cause everyone to start sneezing. Use sneezing powder and sprinkle it where you think it'll have the best effect.

Food pranks

Try some food pranks. There are lots of possibilities, from ghastly food that you're happily tucking into, to food that disappears, pops or makes strange movements when someone else eats it, to food that won't be eaten because the prankster can see straight away that it's mutated or weird food. There are limitless possibilities, try one or more of the suggestions from this section.

Start with breakfast, the first meal of a fun day.
- Before breakfast, thread any circle shaped cereal together. When anyone goes to pour it out of the box, it'll just keep on coming and coming and coming...
- Or, you could try taking two cereal boxes and switching the bags full of cereal. Your victim will get the cereal they don't want into their bowl!
- Another breakfast idea is to turn an empty eggshell upside down to make it look like a ready-to-eat boiled egg. Get the camera ready for this one.
- Slice a banana before it has been peeled. Offer it at breakfast or lunch and wait for the surprise!

Mess up the baked goods. Baked goods taste great but wait, these ones have elements to them that are a bit on the freaky side:
- Eat fake dirt and gross out your friends.
- Make April Fools Day brown E's. Get some cardboard or brown colored paper. Cut into E shapes, as many as you'd like. Put them in a serving container or on a Brownie tray and cover with tinfoil. Watch the disappointment and amusement when your friends find out there favorite treat is actually paper!
- Make a kitty litter cake. Deliciously gross!

Turn main course into something riotous. If dinner is usually too dull, add some April Fool's entertainment.
- Clog up the salt shaker so that no salt comes out when your victim tries to use it. Another salt trick is to swap the sugar and salt around.
- Replace beer with apple juice.
- Just look really daft by making silly glasses out of some pretzels. Tell people that yes, they really do enhance your vision, helping you to find more pretzels up to a mile away.

Make dessert and sweets something to laugh about.
- Suspend a needed item inside jello. If you're at home, choose something needed on the breakfast table. If you're at work, put the communally used stapler into the jello.
- If it's almost Easter, why not make a bouncy egg and amuse people at the agility of the egg you were intending to eat for lunch...
- Invite someone to share your candy... wait a moment, it's smoking!
- Give your friends mashed potato on the end of a cone. Drizzle over some syrup or add sprinkles and invite them to "enjoy" the vanilla delight. If they look puzzled pre-biting, tell them it's homemade.
- Leave some toothpaste inside the Oreos. This one creeps up by surprise and seizes the taste buds most unpleasantly!

Everyday object pranks

Fiddle with everyday objects. Try to find ways to make small, unnoticeable changes to items that people use around the house, work or wherever you are, so that these things don't quite respond as they normally do. Some examples are given in this section.

Using a rubber band, tie the band around the kitchen sprayer nozzle so that when somebody turns on the sink the sprayer will soak them. See How to get someone wet on April Fool's Day for precise instructions.

Put a sign on a front door on which is written "WET PAINT - please use the back door". It depends on the door, so maybe instead of a "front-back door" you may use "left/right", or whatever makes sense at your place. The victim will walk around to the other door where there is the same sign saying "WET PAINT - please use the front door". Watch your victim's face and don't forget to say "April Fool"! If you really want to stretch it out, stick your head out the window and say something like "Oh dear! I didn't realize Joe had painted both doors this morning. You'll have to come through the window!"

Glue a coin to the ground. Let passers by think they've found a great free coin, only to end up feeling silly trying to pull it.

Do the toothbrush prank, whereby you freeze their toothbrush solid into a cup before they're likely to use it.

Sneak in and remove all the towels from the bathroom while they're showering. Leave only an item that normally they'd not be seen dead wearing, forcing them to dry themselves with it––and wear it––just to get out of the bathroom again. This is best done with your lover or someone who won't mind if you accidentally get an eyeful of them naked. Don't do it otherwise!

Computer pranks

Play some computer pranks. If you're a computer geek amid a bunch of people who couldn't care less what programming is unless it doesn't work for them, have some fun at their non-technical expense:
- Switch their Internet Explorer outcome to the shutdown mode; when they try to open the internet, it'll shut down the computer instead. Or set up a prank virus that causes the computer to shut down every time it is turned on.
- Set things up to give them a fake blue screen of death.
- Switch keyboard cords and keep typing onto their screen. When they begin to type, type all sorts of inanities like "I've been waiting for you to return; I have something very important to tell you" or "This is your computer speaking. I am having a nervous breakdown and will be short circuiting in 5 seconds." If you have more sophisticated skills, install a VNC client on their computer to control everything.
- Stop their mouse from working.
- Make a sticky mouse. Stick some double-sided tape onto someone's computer mouse. Watch the person's face when they try to pick it up!
- Turn their screen upside down.
- Mess with your friend's auto-correct. Choose a common word and replace it with something funny, cranky or downright weird. Every time they type this word, watch the amusement ensue.

Check for online pranks. Pranks will abound on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Get caught up in the fun and share some of your own funny online pranks too. And don't forget to check out video pranks on sites such as YouTube.

Jokes and stories

Tell April Fool's Day jokes or stories. If you're not really the prankster type but you do love a good laugh, today is a good day for sharing your favorite jokes. If you can't think of any, look online for inspiration. Or, you could retell some of the most famous or amusing April Fool's Day pranks that you've discovered.
- Pass forward fun stories and videos of April Fool's Day pranks that you've seen or received. Share the amusement via email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Party time

Have an April Fool's Day party. Have all your friends around for some pranks, food and fun. Be sure to have a few fun pranks for them, such as the bucket of water over the bathroom door or answering the front door dressed as someone else entirely and pretending to be the long lost once-removed cousin of yourself, and act zany to convince your friends that you're in charge of the party now...

Use some of the food prank ideas above to prepare your April Fool's Day feast. See also How to make April Fool's Food.

Ask guests to contribute at least one April Fool's prank that won't harm any person, pet or carpet.

Add spice by asking guests to dress up as fools, jesters or their favorite comedians. Award prizes for the best costumes or the best interpretations/impersonations of a comedian.

Tips

If you really want to get someone totally pranked, it can take about two whole weeks of planning. For example, if you want to play the sour coffee trick on your parents or a loved one, you can't just make them coffee on that one day. To make it look normal, start making it a week in advance. Make sure the coffee is perfect. On April 1st though, instead of putting sugar in their coffee, put salt.

Caught out as the victim? Simply tell the prankster that it isn't April Fools' Day until tomorrow and that today is actually March 32nd, a most unique once-in-a-century Leap Year Additional Leap Day cyclical readjustment!

Another good time to try pranks is at the very end of the day, because they will begin to let their guard down and think April Fool's Day is "over".

Do not be afraid to call off the prank if something goes wrong and could hurt someone; better to be safe than sorry.

Be creative. There is nothing worse than an over-used prank.

If you can, let your "victims" share in the laugh. The best pranks are the ones where the recipient laughs at himself or herself, or preferably, at the situation.

Warnings

When planning a prank, make sure you do not hit a sensitive spot (for example, making jokes about death is not a good idea if the person lost someone recently).

Be aware that friendships can be lost due to April Fool's pranks. Know the limits of your friend's patience and sense of humor and stay within them.

Be careful of the degree of the prank. Pranks should remain lighthearted and fun. Pranks that cause harm to people, either physically or mentally, are never funny and could land you into trouble, especially if you hurt someone or damage property.

Some things are not a prank, like revealing a nasty secret without any sensitivity for the victim's feelings. Remember that April Fool's Day isn't an excuse for being an insensitive, thoughtless or mean-spirited troublemaker.