Lori's Musings

A Red Phoenix Turkey puts on a display for a hen at Heirloom Heritage Farms in Spanaway, Wash., on Monday, Nov. 23, 2009. The ‘major caruncle’ hanging under his beak can change color to fiery red to attract a mate. He also puffs himself up and creates a fan with his tail feathers to get attention. This Thanksgiving season he is safe on at the eight-acre farm, owned by Dawn Turbyfill, a retired Air Force radar technician from Wisconsin. It is dedicated to heritage breed conservation of Turkeys, Chickens, Geese, Ducks and Sheep.

(AP Photo/The News Tribune, Dean J. Koepf

Peanuts - Yahoo! News

- Yahoo! News

The K9 above is Brutus, a military K9 at McChord.  He’s huge - part Boxer and part British Bull Mastiff and tops the scales at 200 lbs. His handler took the picture. Brutus is running toward me because he knows I have some Milk Bone treats, so he’s slobbering away! I had to duck around a tree just before he got to me in case he couldn’t stop, but he did. Brutus won the Congressional Medal of Honor last year from his tour in Iraq . His handler and four other soldiers were taken hostage by insurgents. Brutus and his handler communicate by sign language and he gave Brutus the signal that meant ‘go away but come back and find me’. The Iraqis paid no attention to Brutus. He came back later and quietly tore the throat out of one guard at one door and another guard at another door. He then jumped against one of the doors repeatedly (the guys were being held in an old warehouse) until it opened. He went in and untied his handler and they all escaped. He’s the first K9 to receive this honor. If he knows you’re ok, he’s a big old lug and wants to sit in your lap. Enjoys the company of cats.  K-9 Congressional Medal of Honor Winner.

HOMESTEAD, FL - NOVEMBER 22: Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, poses with all four of his championship trophies after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 22, 2009 in Homestead, Florida. Johnson becomes the first driver in the history of NASCAR to win four consecutive championships since the sports inception in 1949. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

allcreatures:

debbipete:

Indigo Bunting (via Hard-Rain)

quote-book:

(by pixel-refill)

Is 70 years old.

Today, if Dorothy were to encounter Men with no brains, no hearts, and no courage - She wouldn’t be in Oz - She’d be in Congress.

allcreatures:

Cockermouth washout: Severe flooding leaves High Street in Cockermouth, England, unfit for man or beast. Well, most beasts anyway. Some 200 people were forced to evacuate the ancient town.

Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images (via SFGate: Day in Pictures)

An eagle-owl, which rose in captivity, in seen in the Russian Falcon center at the Research Institute for Nature protection in Moscow.

A Siamese crocodile peers out from the water at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center in Phnom Tamao village, Takoe province, 28 miles south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Conservationists searching for one of the world’s most endangered crocodiles have found dozens in an unlikely place: this wildlife rescue center.

(via allcreatures)