Honey Badger (^x^)

I'm an avid admirer of Cracked.com . Whenever I have the slightest bit of time, this is my first and foremost reading material.

It overtook Wikipedia as my No.1 trivia website when I discovered it was overtly less academic and definitely more pop culture. It helps that it's hilariously vulgar too!!!

It's fun to read about history, science and other "academic" stuff in our current vernacular and you never know what you'd find in Cracked.

I remember the first article I read there - Deadliest Insects


I dare you to watch the Japanese Hornets video! I DARE you ... lol

Recently, I read : 6 Animals That Just Don't Give A F#@k

Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce the one creature in this world who deserves my ardent admiration, my deepest devotion and my fervent fangirl-dom...the Honey Badger!

Yo! Just lookin for grub, 'dat all!....Hey hey, you wanna be it?

He's not a looker, to be sure, but what it lacks in handsome-ness, it more than makes up in sheer cahones! I'll share some quips from Wikipedia (still my 2nd fave reference point) about this amazing organism.

"...has few natural predators due to its thick skin and ferocious defensive abilities..."

"Honey badgers are notoriously fearless and tough animals, having been known to savagely attack their enemies when escape is impossible. They are tireless in combat, and can wear out much larger animals in physical confrontations. The aversion of most predators toward hunting honey badgers has led to the theory that the countershaded coats of cheetah kittens evolved in imitation of the honey badger's colouration in order to ward off predators."

"Because of the toughness and looseness of their skin, honey badgers are very difficult to kill.... The skin is also tough enough to resist several machete blows. The only sure way of killing them quickly is through a blow to the skull with a club or a shot to the head with a powerful rifle, as their skin is almost immune to arrows and spears."

If you have time, watch the video on the honey badger



I love how it resurrects after being bitten to go back to its meal :D

All pics from Wikipedia!

It's been a doggone day.

Got woken up by Tora barking his head off this morning. It was at an ungodly hour (for school hols anyway) of 8.30am. The housing developer's contractor came over for some maintenance work bla bla bla.

Even if you're not familiar with the name Tora, my use of the word "barking" should tell you that he's a dog.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Tora, defender of my home, equal opportunity chewer, echidna impersonator, skin disease extraordinaire and social pariah.

Cutie pie at approx 3 months

He came home with us from Uncle Augustine's in May 2010. Just a tiny thing then. Soft black fur and a cute lil face. My family has another dog in Kajang; Jojo. I named Jojo after a comic character - Joseph Joestar. When I got this puppy, I decided to pick a comic-chara name too.

KG and I mulled on several we liked, but we narrowed it to two:

ACE - for Portgas D Ace from One Piece

and
TORA - for Tora from Ushio & Tora

One look at this boy and we decided on Tora - which also means Tiger :D

Yes, yes performing his yawning charm on everyone!

He was so small I used to pick him up with one hand!

He was quite easy to care for. I remember that on the loooong trip home to JB from KL, he did not wet himself once. In fact, he slept a lot and when he needed to go, he would jump into KG's lap. That's how we knew he needed to go.

However, that didn't mean he was potty-trained. It just meant he was a big fuss pot when it came to "doing his business". He has to be on absolutely still, solid ground to "perform". Like I said, "ma q fan".

There is much to tell about his upbringing so far. Some of it good, some bad but mostly adorable. I love dogs, but this lil boy is especially lovable. But then again, everyone says that about their pups!

He loves walks and playing fetch. He loves food and though we feed him twice a day, he always appears starved! He pounces on everything; insects, bits of paper, stones AND consumes them like vacuum cleaner. He loves playing with water but hates baths *rolls eyes.

Oh, he just looooooves water! (4 months)

He loves chewing on stuff, but luckily he's stopped chewing our shoes! He's got several chew toys to satisfy that need now!

"Nomnomnom!"

"I don't discriminate! Everything deserves a good chew!"

"Of course, this bone seems especially yummo!"

He loves cuddling up to us! Even when he was just a wee lad, he was very attached to us. We couldn't get him to sleep in a separate room or his crate (and his barks and whines really annoyed our housemates) so he slept on the floor near us. But then he would also periodically....

1. Curi-curi snuggle into KG's arm :p

2. Jump onto the mattress while we were not looking.

3. Proceed to make himself comfortable. (skin flaking at muzzle makes him look funny)

Nowadays he stays outside. Doesn't stop him from jumping into our laps or rubbing himself against our legs! But as with any other rebellious teen, he refuses our advances nowadays, preferring to show affection on his own terms instead - ie when we have food in our hands :p

At about 4-5 months

At 8 months - chewing away

"No more food...lemme go!"

Ehhhh?

"Looky here cameraman, gimme the chip or else!"

He's always been quite trainable. He's been fetching reliably since he was 4 months old.

Look mommy!

Getting him to let go was a different story.

He sits very prettily. And looks at you with those mournful eyes! He'll shake hands with you if there's something innit for him. Plus he lies down like an echidna :p

"I'm handsome!"

Dominic: "Paw!"
Tora: (==!)

KG: "Paw!"
Tora: "Ahhh, that's more like it. Here ya go."

"I can also lie down."

"And do a pretty good frog/echidna impersonation."

But Tora's not all rainbow sprinkles. He's pretty difficult when it comes to sociability. He has none. That partially due to the fact that he moved to our new house when he was pretty young. There weren't many neighbours then and he had no one to interact with except us.

He's dead loyal to us and those with our "smell" - like our parents, siblings and some friends (even tho he'd only seen them once when he was 3 months old). I have no doubt he'd recognize the entire Benedict clan :D.

But he HATES other people - preferring instead to bark at them till they go away. And there's no barking-till-he's-tired-crap. He DOESN'T get tired! It annoys me and I've tried every trick in the book except electrocution but nothing works. Not even food! If he's in one of his barking sprees, he'll not even stop for a treat.

And I guess it's pretty scary for the outsider since he really lunges and rattles our flimsy- looking gate. I've not taken a picture of him at it. And he usually faces away from me when this happens. But I've been told (repeatedly) that he looks freaky. So, I'm looking at socializing opps before he turns into a crazed canine.

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But for all his faults, he has many more virtues. Lol - and my favourite one is this:

"Mommy, you're home! Why are you holding that flashy thing but not coming in? Come come! I want to sniff you! I ruff ruff youuuuuuuu!!!"

There is really nothing better in the world than to come back to a dog who loves you.