A middle-aged Russian man suffering from diabetes and poor blood clotting tragically lost his life after being scratched on the leg by his pet cat.

On November 22, Dmitry Ukhin, a 55-year-old man from the Kirishi district, in Russia’s Leningrad region, went looking for his pet cat Styopka around the neighborhood. The feline had an independent streak and liked nothing more than to walk around the neighborhood freely. Eyewitnesses later told police that Ukhin found his beloved pet and took it home with him, but couldn’t really explain why or how the cat scratched his leg so badly that he bled to death in a matter of minutes.

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A fluffy Pomeranian is lucky to be alive after miraculously serving a fall from the 12th floor of an apartment building in Cali, Colombia, onto the roof of an adjacent three-storey building.

On November 19, a Colombian family experienced moments of terror after realizing that their pet Pomeranian was nowhere to be found in their 12th-floor apartment in the city of Cali. They looked everywhere for him, and when it became clear that he was not in the house, they decided to check the windows, and that’s when they spotted a small hole in the roof of an adjacent building, three floors below. Using a pair of binoculars, the desperate dog’s owners could spot their beloved Paris through the small hole. The floor that Paris had been spotted on was locked, so his owners immediately called the local fire department to have the pooch rescued. Miraculously, he was found alive and well, with not so much as a scratch on him.

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The owners Ricco, a Bantam rooster from Bourgoin-Jallieu in France’s Isère department, are scheduled to show up in Court following a neighbor’s complaint regarding the bird’s loud crowing.

“Difficulty concentrating, sleep deprivation, hearing fatigue,” these are just some of the symptoms cited by the plaintiff who summoned Ricco’s owners to Court in January of next year. The person, who prefers to remain anonymous, is one of the owners’ neighbors and they claim that the rooster’s crowing is unbearable both at night and during the day. However, the owners of the 5-year-old bird have always disputed these claims, insisting that the door to Ricco’s chicken coup is operated by an automated system programmed to open the door only at 8:30 am during the winter and at 9:00 am in summer. They insist that the rooster crows about fifteen times in a quarter of an hour in the morning, and then a few more times during the day.

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A man flying a paramotor over the Giza Pyramid Complex on the outskirts of Cairo spotted a stray dog barking at birds from atop the 138.5-meter-tall Great Pyramid of Giza.

Marshall Mosher, a “pro adventure athlete” who travels around the world,  was flying his paramotor over the pyramids of Giza on October 14 when he came across a very peculiar sight – a lone canine chilling on top of the Great Pyramid, seemingly barking at the birds flying overhead. Not exactly the kind of thing you expect to see while flying over one of the Seven Wonders of the World, so it’s no wonder that the clip he posted on his Instagram went viral almost instantly. Some users of the popular social network joked that the pooch must have been the Egyptian God Anubis, while others were worried about its well-being.

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A Washington state woman ended up calling emergency services after having her property invaded by around 100 raccoons acting aggressively and expecting to be fed.

Police in Poulsbo, a small town in Washington State, get calls about animal-related incidents all the time, but last week was the first time a local phoned 911 to report dozens of aggressive raccoons converging on her property and preventing her from entering her own home. The woman, whose name has not been revealed, had been feeding a family of raccoons for about 35 years, but about six weeks ago, their number started growing until it surpassed 100 hungry rodents all waiting to be fed. The animals started becoming aggressive if they didn’t receive food, and things got so bad that the woman couldn’t leave her house or move around her property freely.

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A popular mountain scenic spot in China’s Sichuan Province allegedly allows visitors to chase after wild boars and even take them home for free if they can catch them with their bare hands.

Wild boars are some of the strongest and most dangerous animals one can find in the wild. They can weigh up to 300 kg (660 pounds), reach speeds of up to 70 km/h (43 mph) and can tear through almost anything with their sharp tusks. Boars are particularly vicious when cornered, so a tourist attraction where you can pay to risk your life trying to catch these animals using only your bare hands sounds nothing short of insane. However, it turns out that the Jiuhuang Mountain Scenic Area in Sichuan, China has been letting people chase after boars and keeping whatever they catch for at least a decade.

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Every year, Hilario Ascasubi, a town in the south of Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, is invaded by tens of thousands of noisy cliff parrots that cause millions of dollars in damage.

The people of Hilario Ascasubi have been “under siege” by a giant colony of parrots for several years now, but many are complaining that things are getting worse every year. The parrot population is growing, and so is the level of property damage they cause. The green-feathered birds love nothing more than biting on electrical and internet wires, driving providers crazy in a neverending race to keep networks in working order. Bird droppings on sidewalks and streets are also a big problem, as is the constant noise the birds make night and day. Many of the 5,000 inhabitants of Hilario Ascasubi are at their wits’ end, claiming that they can’t go on living alongside the birds, but there isn’t much local authorities can do.

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Diasemocera petrolei, aka the petroleum fly, is a fascinating insect that not only survives in petroleum, a highly toxic substance to other animals, but actually thrives in it.

For tens of thousands of years, the La Brea Tar Pits near Los Angeles, California, have been a death trap to millions of animals, some extinct, some still around today. Insects, birds, mammals, and even dinosaurs, all found their end in these gooey pits at some point in time, but one tiny insect species managed to adapt to this incredibly toxic environment and actually use it to its advantage. The petroleum fly, a flying insect about the size of a fruit fly, is the only known insect species that can not only survive in the natural asphalt of the La Brea Tar Pits but actually calls it home. Its larvae develop in the viscous petroleum while the mature flies spend most of their lives strolling on the surface of the tar pits in search of food.

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European countries like Germany, France, and Switzerland are trying to contain an invasion of Tapinoma magnum ants, a species that experts say is “virtually impossible to get rid of”.

Usually found throughout the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, and North Africa, Tapinoma magnum ants have recently begun an invasion of Europe. Over the last couple of years, the tiny critters – no more than 3 mm in size – have been rampaging through some of the world’s most developed countries, teaching their residents the meaning of fear. Tapinoma ants are famous for their ability to rapidly expand over large areas, as well as for their resilience. Experts say that the tiny ants have hundreds of queens and can create several smaller colonies that, instead of attacking each other, unite to create one super colony with millions of individuals. They are relentless in their search for resources, eating through walls, pavement, and even internet or electricity cables.

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A 64-year-old woman was attacked by a large python while doing the dishes at her house in Samut Prakan, Thailand, and survived for about two hours with the reptile trying to suffocate her to death.

Arrom Arunroj had just come home from her job as a maid at a children’s hospital in Bangkok and was doing the dishes at the back of the house when she felt a sharp pain on her right thigh. At first, she thought she had been bitten by one of the many insects that call the reed forest behind her house home, but when she looked down she saw a huge snake climbing up her leg. She instinctively grabbed the snake’s head and tried to pull it off of her, but it was too strong. The python eventually brought the woman down, coiled around her midsection, and started squeezing the life out of her.

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Kroshik, a 14-year-old ginger cat from the Russian city of Perm lost his ability to walk after ballooning to a whopping 17 kilograms (38 pounds) in weight due to overfeeding by his loving humans.

Photos of the obese Kroshik went viral last week after being shared on Russian social network VKontakte by volunteers at the Matroskin Animal Shelter in Perm. In them, a young woman is struggling to hold him in her arms, which makes sense, considering he weighs three times as much as he should. According to Matroskin staff, Kroshik was rescued from a local hospital whose staff contacted them after the 14-year-old feline lost his ability to walk due to his weight and advanced age. Kroshik had been living in the hospital basement for years, hunting rodents and enjoying the affection of humans, but in the last few years, he ballooned in seize due to overfeeding. When he got so fat that he literally couldn’t stand on his four legs, nurses at the hospital called the animal shelter.

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Animal lovers and animal rights activists the world over are asking for a boycott of the Bully Cat, a hairless breed becoming increasingly popular among people fascinated by extreme body shapes.

The bully cat is a relatively new feline breed that takes the characteristics of the hairless sphynx to a whole new level while adding other problematic features. This particular hairless breed has stubby short legs and heavily wrinkled skin that animal experts claim is prone to horrifying health problems. Believed to have originated in the United States only a few years ago, the bully cat quickly became popular overseas as well, particularly in the UK where animal welfare organizations recently began sounding the alarm about what they are calling a designer fad with painful consequences for the animals being exploited by unscrupulous breeders.

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A dramatic surveillance camera video released by the Tulsa Fire Department shows the moment an unsupervised dog started a house fire by chewing on a lithium battery pack.

Reportedly captured in May of this year, the shocking footage shows a dog casually chewing on a portable lithium-ion battery power bank left within reach by their owner. At one point, the pierced battery starts sparking and then bursts into flames, causing the canine perpetrator as well as another dog and a cat that were napping nearby to run for their lives. Luckily, all the pets escaped through a dog door and were not harmed, but the fire caused significant fire to the house. Firefighters are now using the video as a warning against leaving lithium batteries within reach of children and pets.

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Fat-tailed sheep are a type of domestic sheep mainly found in arid areas and known for accumulating fat, mainly in the rear part of their bodies, which not only gives them a unique look but also helps them stay cool in extreme heat.

Native to the Middle East and North Africa, fat-tailed sheep have been around for thousands of years, but some people are still oblivious to their existence, mainly because of their geographical distribution. In the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about fat-tailed sheep and how shepherds made small wheeled carts to keep their animals’ droopy tails from touching the ground. Although there are several fat-tailed sheep breeds, most of them have broad fat-tails where large amounts of fat are accumulated in buttock-like deposits in the hind parts of a sheep, on both sides. Some of them end up looking like they had a Brazilian butt lift, which makes them really popular with breeders.

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Italian fashion label Dolce & Gabbana is taking the canine perfume world by storm with Fefé, an “olfactory masterpiece” created by a master perfumer that will leave your pooch smelling like a million bucks.

Priced at an eye-watering €99 ($108) per 100 ml, Fefé comes in a “sleek green lacquered glass bottle, adorned with a vibrant red metal cap and a precious 24-carat gold-plated paw.” Smell-wise, it features “the cocooning and warm notes of Ylang, the clean and enveloping touch of Musk, and the woody creamy undertones of Sandalwood.” Inspired by D&G founder Domenico Dolce’s “unconditional love for his loyal dog Fefé,” the new designer perfume for canines is safe pet cosmetics certified, approved by vets, safety tested, and “enjoyed by dogs.”

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