Beagle Freedom Australia won our September Community Donation Vote! And guess what? We were able to donate $30 USD because we had another member sign up for Premium! How spectacular is that?! Join me in sending **lots of love **to the Beagles who deserve the chance to live out their lives in wonderful forever homes, surrounded by people who love and care for them. Because they were created to know love, freedom, sunshine, soft beds, and the joy of simply being Beagles.❤️🐾 Thank you to everyone who voted and to our Premium members who help Empowering Animals do a little more for the animals we love!

Some good feels today. Enjoy this video.

After years of making beds with cats, I have learned some great tips that you may find helpful for saving time and making the bed more efficiently when you are a cat mama. Step 1: Prepare to change sheets. Step 2: Remove cats to the floor. Step 3: Remove sheets. Step 4: Remove cats from exposed mattress and place on the floor. Step 5: Install fitted sheet while cats attacks it. Step 6: Remove one cat and place in the hallway and return for the second cat. Step 7: Discover the second cat underneath fitted sheet. Step 8: Remove second cat and place in hallway. Step 9: Discover first cat is now underneath fitted sheet. Step 10: Give up and make the cat into the bed. Step 11: Add top sheet. Step 12: Remove cat. Step 13: Reposition top sheet. Step 14: Remove cat that has now statically balled up the sheet. Step 15: Remove cat and sheet. Step 16: Add top sheet again, but this time using the flowy tent pattern. Step 17: Remove cat before the sheet hits the bed. Step 18: Throw favorite catnip toy down the hall and hurry to complete the top sheet. Step 19: Add blankets and comforter. Step 20: Discover first cat still underneath blankets. Step 21: Carefully lift the edge and show cat the light to freedom. Step 22: If cat declines freedom because blanket cave is fantastic, continue to Step 23. Step 23: Shake treat bag. Step 24: Cat emerges and so does the second cat you thought was still playing in the hallway. Step 25: Question every decision that brought you here. Step 26: Admire freshly made bed. Step 27: Watch both cats immediately jump back onto bed wondering why the fun stopped. Do you have any helpful tips to add for making a bed with cats? Please share them with your fellow cat mamas in comments. ❤️🐾

The Harris’s hawk taught me a thing or two about manners and staring too long. In my defense, I was admiring his beauty. However, he took offense and was going to show me who was king of the roost by trying to take my disrespectful eye. Luckily, he had to aim with a barrier between us and only got an eyebrow. I was so impressed with his speed and accuracy that the blood really played no part in my attention. You can imagine my excitement when I saw the video I am about to share with you, but first let me share some of their better-known talents. Harris’s hawks are unusual in the raptor world because they are incredibly social. They live and hunt cooperatively in family groups, working together to flush and chase prey. In desert areas where good lookout spots can be limited, Harris’s hawks will actually perch on top of one another to get a better view. Imagine looking across the desert and seeing a little Jenga tower of hawks. Now watch the precision of the Harris’s hawk in this video and tell me what your first impression was in the comments. Here’s a little more raptor badassery. ❤️

Okay, I know they did not win the vote, but they are far too cute not to share them with the community. So allow me to have a voting fail and enjoy learning about the binturong. Despite their nickname of bearcat, this cutie is not closely related to a bear or a cat. Binturongs live in the forests of South and Southeast Asia. They spend much of their time in trees and have a strong prehensile tail that can wrap around branches and help them climb. They are generally solitary, although a mother may remain with her young long after they are capable of getting around on their own. When a female is ready to mate, she calls to attract a male. Female binturongs can also delay implantation, which means a fertilized egg can wait before attaching to the uterus until conditions are better for raising babies. I've always found this quite interesting when a female can do this. After a pregnancy of about three months, she usually gives birth to two babies. And yes, baby binturongs are sometimes called binlets, which may be one of the cutest baby-animal names ever created. ❤️ Now for the fact you will probably never forget. Binturongs smell like buttered popcorn. Yes, you read that right. A chemical in their urine is also responsible for part of the smell we associate with freshly popped popcorn. They use that scent to mark branches and communicate with other binturongs. Binturongs are currently considered vulnerable. Their numbers are declining because of forest loss, hunting and the illegal wildlife trade. They are not only absolutely adorable, popcorn-scented bearcats, they also help their forests. Seeds from some fruits can germinate better after passing through a binturong’s digestive system. Eat fruit. Plant trees. Smell like popcorn. That is a pretty solid contribution to the planet. ❤️