I don’t have any regrets about going vegan but there are times I’m really happy.

For example, if I were ever tempted to join this group of diners. “Hmm, what do I feel like tonight?”, I asked, perusing the menu. “The fish testicles look awfully tempting, but they’re not vegan. Oh well.”

Seriously, fish testicles? I never want to hear about how disgusting tofu is again.

As many of you have no doubt noticed, Vicks Vaporub is the new threat to America’s youth. Makes me wonder how I ever survived childhood with my mother slathering that stuff all over me. Also makes me wonder, just how was this arrived at?

Visions of row of children in cages, smothered in salve, filled my mind. But, as I read further, no such scenes existed. Instead, substitute ferrets for the children.

Ferrets? Yes, ferrets. It seems that shoving a tube down the rodents throat and forcing them to breath the fumes is a good stand-in for what happens when a child breathes the same. Leaving aside the whole issue of abusing the animals that way, I’m finding this rather hard to believe. Couldn’t a tissue culture, from like, people, be used?

Anyway, if you have a ferret, consider cleaning out your medicine cabinet.

I was pointed to an Indonesian web site run by an organization that, among other projects, is fighting the export of wild-caught parrots. This isn’t a large problem in the US, most all parrots you see in shops are hatched and raised right here. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in much of the world. Parrots, and other animals, can be trapped in the wild and then sold as pets and display animals.

As much as 40 percent of the birds taken this way die before they reach their sales point and you can well imagine the level of care they receive past that. A number of the birds taken from this area are lories. I considered getting a, captive-bred!, lory once. They have a couple of interesting quirks that make them, shall we say, challenging pets. They require a liquid diet and as you much guess, it pretty much stays liquid all the way through, if you see what I mean. Really neat birds though.

In this day and age, there’s no excuse for getting a wild-caught parrot. Iggy for one, stands ready to replenish America’s cockatiel supply if I would just get her a male cockatiel!

I always figured she was a bit twisted but this is really over the top. It’s pretty well known that onions are poisonous to dogs so when she posted a ‘pet-friendly’ recipe that includes onions, well, you can draw your own conclusions. And then I see this promo for her new pet food line:

I know I’m not changing what I feed my guys.