This couple was pretty confused when they started finding dog toys in their baby’s playpen. However, when they finally discovered what was going on, it totally melted their hearts! It turns out that Beau the golden retriever is an even better big brother than anyone could have imagined. His owners were floored by this pooch’s kindness! In a sweet video, the bewildered parents caught some adorable footage of their dog bringing his own toys into the playpen for his baby brother to play with. Sometimes, he’d hop up onto the couch and drop a plushie from above. Other times, he’d gently deliver one of his toys right into the child’s hands. Watch this dog share his toys with his baby brother. @beaunosebones The real life Toy Story continues… ♬ Sparks – Coldplay It was pretty clear from the footage that this dog wasn’t dropping his things into the baby’s playpen by accident. Each time he did it, he’d spend a few moments afterward watching his two-legged sibling, almost as if to see if the boy liked the toy he’d brought. Isn’t that precious? Apparently, this dog has been waiting a long time to have a baby brother to share his playthings with. His owners included some truly adorable footage in their video of the pooch bringing his belongings into the nursery even before his little sibling was born. It almost seemed like he knew that there was a child on the way! “It’s heartwarming to think that this moment was just a sneak peek into the way they would play together today,” the proud parents wrote in their video. Screengrab from TikTok Commenters couldn’t get over this sweet pup wanting to share with his little brother. “We don’t deserve dogs,” wrote one user. Another added, “Golden retrievers are by far the most wholesome dog breed on the planet.” Just when you think you can’t possibly love dogs more than you already do, something like this happens. We’ll never stop being amazed at how generous and affectionate these animals can be! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Parents Keep Finding Dog Toys In Baby’s Pack N’ Play, Then Realize The Adorable Truth appeared first on InspireMore.

'Students are going to elect to take it'

'Football, in other words, could cost Harris and Walz the election'

The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million in damages

'A multibillion-dollar industry'

'I feel bad for his family right now'

'She has a problem with men'

Can organisms without a brain still show signs of intelligence? Researchers at Tohoku University had this question in mind when conducting a study to measure the decision-making processes in fungi. While it may sound like science fiction, this level of basal cognition is possible even in fungi, which created these shapes above. “You’d be surprised […] The post Scientist Shows Fungi Are ‘Mind-blowing’: They Have Memories, Learn Shapes, Can Make Decisions and Solve Problems appeared first on Good News Network.

The post How to Get Cat Pee Smells & Stains Out of Carpets: Easy Steps by Catster Editorial Team appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com. Click to Skip Ahead Reasons Your Cat May Be Peeing on Your Carpet Methods for Getting Rid of Urine Smells Dealing with the smell of cat pee in your house is off-putting for everyone who lives there, let alone any visitors who want to come by. Luckily, you do not have to live with the smell of cat pee or expose your friends and family to the smell either. There are a few quick and easy ways to get a cat pee smell out of your carpet. These tactics typically work on fabrics of most types and furniture too. Later, discuss why cats might urinate on the carpet and what we can do about that smell when they do. The 4 Methods to Get Cat Pee Smells and Stains Out of Carpets Once your cat pees on your carpet, you will be left trying to figure out how to get rid of the smell that is permeating throughout your home. Here are quick, easy, and surefire options to try. 1. The Quick & Easy Solution There are commercial products you can try that should help you get rid of the cat pee smell in your home’s carpets. Some are sprays and others are powders. Most are designed to be vacuumed up, just like the DIY options. Try them with or instead of homemade options until you are satisfied with the results. Our Favorite Enzyme Cleaner The Hepper Advanced Bio-Enzyme Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator Spray is our favorite enzyme cleaner out there. It permanently removes even the very worst kitty stains and smells, leaving your home fresh and clean! Click here to learn more about this amazing product and get yourself a bottle. Hepper Advanced Bio-Enzyme Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator Spray ADVANCED ENZYMATIC CLEANER - Penetrates the most stubborn smells and stains at the deepest molecular...FOR ANY MESS, ON ANY SURFACE - This pet odor eliminator cleans your carpets, floors, furniture,...FRESH, NATURAL ODOR - Our unique formulation doesn't rely on dangerous or unpleasant chemical... Check Price on Amazon At Catster, we’ve admired Hepper for many years, and decided to take a controlling ownership interest so that we could benefit from the outstanding products of this cool cat company! 2. Baking Soda Baking soda is cheap and easy to use as a cleaner and deodorizer. Just sprinkle a liberal amount of baking soda on the affected area of your rug, and wait 5-10 minutes for the soda to soak up the cat’s urine. Then, use a cat comb, a broom, or an old brush to lightly scrub the baking soda into your carpet. Sprinkle more baking soda on the affected carpet area, then massage it with the same tool. Wait about 5 minutes, then vacuum up the pee-soaked baking soda. Your carpets should be smelling fresh and clean within just a few minutes. Image Credit: NatureFriend, Pixabay 3. Apple Cider Vinegar Apple cider vinegar works wonders when it comes to getting rid of odors. Its antibacterial and antimicrobial properties will quickly kill the cat urine smell that has permeated your carpets. Pour raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar into a spray bottle, then spray the affected rug areas until the area looks damp. After about 10 minutes, soak the vinegar up with paper towels. Spray the affected areas again, wait another 10 minutes or so, then vacuum the area up. 4. Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrogen peroxide will sterilize the pee spots on your carpets and help neutralize the odor of the urine. Spray or rub the hydrogen peroxide on the affected carpet areas, and wait until the spaces dry before vacuuming. You may need to repeat the process one or two more times to get rid of the pee smell entirely. Image Credit: sulit.photos, Shutterstock   The 4 Possible Reasons Why Your Cat Might Be Urinating on Your Carpets When your cat first starts urinating out of the litter box and on your carpets, you may not notice at first. However, as your cat’s urine decomposes, you are sure to start smelling the acidic aroma of cat urine permeating throughout your home. There are a few different reasons that your cat might be peeing outside of their litter box. 1. A Dirty Litter Box You may think that weekly cleaning of your cat’s litter box is sufficient. But what if your cat does not? Chances are that they will pee on your carpet if they do not feel like their cat litter box is clean enough for them. Therefore, the first thing you should do when you notice that your cat is peeing on your carpets is to start cleaning their litter box more often. Also, the placement of the litter box might be a problem. If you have recently moved the litter box to a new location, your cat might be protesting by peeing on the carpet. Moving the box back to its original location or improving conditions in the new location may help keep your cat from peeing on the carpet. Image Credit by: SURKED, Shutterstock 2. Anxiety and Stress Unfortunately, cats suffer from anxiety and stress just as we humans do. If your cat gets too anxious or stressed out, they may choose to forego the cat litter box and opt for the carpet instead when they must pee. A change in residence can make your cat urinate on all the carpets in your new home. A new pet moving into the home can make your cat want to “mark” their territory, which typically equates to peeing on the carpet. Different schedules for the human family members, a change in season, and even the mood in the household can affect your cat’s anxiety and stress levels. Spending extra time with your cat during stressful changes and situations can help control their anxiety and stress. Also, providing your cat with a protected, quiet space to spend their time (like in a kennel in a closet) can help calm their insecurities and make them feel empowered to use their nearby litter box as opposed to your carpet. 3. Domination If your cat feels like they are being forced to live with an “adversary” in their eyes, they may pee on your carpets to create dominance and show that they are the king or queen of the castle. To avoid this behavior, you should introduce new pets to the household slowly. Make sure that your cat is comfortable with the new pet and that they have a secure place that they can call their own without worry of the new pet taking over. Supervising a few short introductions until the pets are well acquainted is advisable. Image Credit: Africa Studio, Shutterstock 4. Health Problems Certain health problems may be to blame for your cat peeing on your carpets. Gallbladder stones could cause your cat to urinate wherever they happen to be when the urge arises. Pancreatic problems could also be the cause of carpet peeing. Arthritis can make it tough for older cats to go in their litter box, so they might choose the carpet instead. Old age can bring about memory problems just like for humans, so senior cats may end up peeing on the carpet often. A veterinarian can help you resolve or at least address any health problems that are present in your cat so they are less likely to pee on your carpet. Final Thoughts There are many ways to combat your cat pee carpet problems. A little forethought and prevention can go a long way, of course. But if prevention is not possible, getting rid of the cat pee smell from your carpets can be. Which odor-elimination option do you plan to try first? Let us know in the comments section. The post How to Get Cat Pee Smells & Stains Out of Carpets: Easy Steps by Catster Editorial Team appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Books Front Lines and Frontiers Who’s A Good Boy? — A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny Snuff the dog narrates this clever, gripping tale—the perfect story for spooky season. By Alan Brown | Published on October 15, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement. I recently read Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October, which I missed when it was first published in 1993, and I’m glad I finally found it—it’s been a long time since I read a book that gave me so much enjoyment. It is a Halloween tale, a story of monsters, horror, and peril, but is sweet and funny at the same time. And the protagonist, Snuff (who happens to be a dog) is an absolute delight. When I went looking online for a copy of A Night in the Lonesome October, I found a nice reprint from 2014, a trade paperback from Chicago Review Press, an outfit I’d not previously encountered. When I opened it, I was delighted to see the book was illustrated by Gahan Wilson, who has been one of my favorite cartoonists ever since I encountered him in Playboy when I was in college (yes, among the articles with inappropriate advice on how to interact with women, and pictures that created unreasonable expectations of what they looked like unclothed, you could find some very good science fiction stories and cartoons). Upon finishing A Night in the Lonesome October, I found myself craving for some more from Gahan Wilson, and dug through my basement until I found Still Weird, a 1994 collection of Wilson’s cartoons published by Tom Doherty’s Forge Books (a volume I’d recommend to anyone wanting a good sampling of Wilson’s work). As a dog owner, I especially enjoyed finding a book that puts a dog at the center of the action. There are plenty of cats in science fiction and fantasy (one might say you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting one), but not enough characters of the canine variety. This is not the first time A Night in the Lonesome October has appeared on the Reactor website, with Rachel Ayers wrote about in an essay originally published in 2021. About the Author Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) was one of the most popular American writers of fantasy and science fiction in the latter half of the twentieth century. I previously reviewed the first book of Zelazny’s famous Amber series, and that column contains a fairly extensive biography of the author. And I reviewed his novel Damnation Alley here. About the Illustrator Gahan Wilson (1930-2019) was an American illustrator and author, most widely known for cartoons that featured dark and macabre humor. His work appeared in a variety of magazines, including The New Yorker, Playboy, Colliers, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and The National Lampoon. He also wrote fiction, and film and book reviews. He received a lifetime achievement award from the World Fantasy Convention in 2005. Cozy Fantasy When I was young, I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on (including the ingredients on the back of cereal boxes). I’d read some of the mystery books my mother enjoyed, which are today referred to as “cozy mysteries.” Later on, mom introduced me to M.C. Beaton’s character Hamish MacBeth, and he became a mutual favorite of ours. Wikipedia offers this definition: “Cozy mysteries (also referred to as cozies), are a sub-genre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.” Lately, I’ve been seeing the term “cozy fantasy” cropping up more and more. My first encounter with what seems on its way to becoming a thriving sub-genre was the book Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, a book I enjoyed so much, I picked up the prequel, Bookshops and Bonedust, as soon as it was published. I couldn’t find a definitive description of this new subgenre, but I did find this helpful list of cozy fantasies that Barnes & Noble recommends. The adjectives I found people using to describe cozy fantasies include romantic, wholesome, comfortable, warm, upbeat, and healing. There are some common elements these books share with the cozy mystery subgenre, but they remind me more of the romance stories I used to read in my mom’s magazines like Redbook, gentle tales of love and affection. A favorite romance author my mom and I enjoyed was Rosamunde Pilcher, whose short work was especially notable, getting you to care about characters you’d never encountered before in the space of a few hundred words. Like many subgenres, however, you can look around and see books fitting an apparently new category that in reality existed long before it was defined and popularized. I would suggest that A Night in the Lonesome October fits that bill. With its quirky characters, small community, sleuthing, gentle romance, and with most of the violence happening off screen, it could easily be seen as a “proto-cozy” fantasy. A Night in the Lonesome October This is a book that includes homages to a number of authors, and also to old movies (I recognized a few elements drawn from my favorite Universal monster movies). Zelazny dedicates the book to Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Albert Payson Terhune, and the makers of those old movies. While knowing the work of these authors will help the reader find many of the “Easter eggs” Zelazny includes along the way, the book stands on its own as an enjoyable tale even without such knowledge. The watchdog Snuff introduces the tale, explaining that he and his master Jack are tasked with protecting the world from a number of curses and monsters, some of which are trapped around their house in steamer trunks, wardrobes, mirrors, and within circles. He explains that Jack, whose most valuable tools are a wand and a knife, is under a curse, and goes out into the night to do bad things that keep worse things from happening (the strong suggestion being that Jack is the infamous Jack the Ripper). Snuff is a wonderful character, as intelligent than a human (if not more so), but with a uniquely doggish personality, who learns as much from sniffing as seeing, is dedicated to his tasks, and is loyal to his master. Snuff then organizes his tale into thirty-one chapters, one for each day in the month of October, with the book reaching its conclusion on Halloween. Many readers make it a tradition to read (or re-read) the book by covering a chapter a day during that month. One of the best features of the book is that it teases out information very slowly, and thus I will not provide a linear summary of the plot, as that would give away much of what makes the story so enjoyable. The book seems to be set in England during the late Victorian era, but there are very few clues to the specific time and place. Snuff spends a lot of time watching the neighborhood, and one of the characters he encounters most frequently is the cat Graymalk, who lives with a woman called Crazy Jill. Graymalk is engaged in the same behavior as him, but while Snuff classifies what he is doing as “watching,” he dismissively refers to the cat’s activities as spying. They warily trade information (in this tale animals can talk to each other, and under certain conditions, with humans), and it becomes clear that their neighborhood is full of strange characters, each of them with their own animal familiars. Soon there is reference to a Game, and it is Snuff’s job to find the players of that Game, determine their loyalties (are they “openers” or “closers”?), and also to figure out the exact spot where the Game will be played. Graymalk and Snuff begin to spend more time together, working to learn more about the upcoming Game, which seems to involve some sort of opening to the spirit world that occurs whenever a full moon falls on Halloween. Snuff is concerned because his master is spending time with Crazy Jill, whose loyalty has not yet been determined, though the dog remains oblivious to the fact that his own relationship with Graymalk could also be problematic. The growing bond between the initially suspicious cat and dog pair is one of the high points of the book. The neighborhood becomes populated with strange characters. There is a mysterious Russian monk, awash in depression and alcohol. A mad scientist who experiments with electricity shares his house with a gentle giant of a man who smells (to Snuff) like death. The local vicar, feigning concern over dark forces at work in the neighborhood, has deputized parishioners to hunt down the various familiars with crossbows, adding an element of danger to Snuff’s watchdog work. There is a vampire, known only as the Count, who has ties to a group of travelers that have taken residence in a nearby field. And there are various other strange people, some of whom seem to be working together, while others are at odds. Snuff interacts with include animal familiars including bats, snakes, rats, ravens, owls, squirrels, and others. There are murders, kidnappings, and thefts of arcane artifacts. A one point, a lost shadow must be recovered. There is a man named Larry, who seems involved in the game, but does not have an animal familiar, and who becomes a particular friend of Snuff. And through the simple but evocative drawings of Gahan Wilson, we see this world of quirky and strange characters come to life. All this mayhem attracts a man known as the Great Detective, looking to solve the murders and disappearances, but also to figure out what motivates all these strange goings-on. That detective is obviously Sherlock Holmes, and one of the things I found amusing in the book is how that master of disguise seems especially attached to appearing as a woman. While Snuff, observing the Detective wearing women’s clothes even when he’s at home, chalks this up to devotion to the craft of disguise, I wondered if the reason we never saw Holmes truly happy or at ease in Doyle’s original stories is because he was more comfortable inhabiting another persona entirely. Poor Snuff has to deal with disposal of dead bodies, physical attacks, metaphysical attacks, all while figuring who he can trust, and at the same time calculating the shape of a Game that is growing ever closer to a climax. He is a trusting soul, and thinks the best of all the animals he interacts with, if not the humans around them. By the end of the story, the location and purpose of the Game becomes clear, the players and their loyalties are apparent, and the story gallops to a thrilling conclusion with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. It ends in a rush, but a very satisfying rush, which left me with a big smile on my face. In the end, we find that not all heroes are handsome or chosen for that role, and that bravery, cleverness, and affection (and the loyalty of a good dog) are what matters the most. Final Thoughts I’m so glad I finally read A Night in the Lonesome October, because it truly ranks among the best of Roger Zelazny’s fine body of work. It is a breezy and enjoyable read, but it has a richness of detail and emotion that gives it weight and depth. And Gahan Wilson’s quirky illustrations are just icing on the cake. And now I look forward to hearing your thoughts, on A Night in the Lonesome October, or on Zelazny and his work in general. And if you have any other favorite Halloween tales, I’d love to hear about them, too.[end-mark] The post Who’s A Good Boy? — <i>A Night in the Lonesome October</i> by Roger Zelazny appeared first on Reactor.