This gorgeous yellow-faced whipsnake (Demansia psammophis) found his was into a bedroom in Anstead. While only mildly venomous to people, a bite from a large individual might cause complications. Cats & dogs are much more susceptible and if you suspect a bite, call your vet immediately for advice, signs to look for include tremors/paralysis of the back legs, excessive/no saliva, abnormal sized pupils which don’t respond to torch light, sudden collapse, nausea, and of course bleeding or bite marks (hard to find among deep fur). Thinking it might be something more troublesome, homeowners simply closed the door & made sure the exits were blocked, keeping pets & people away until we arrived. This gorgeous little guy found a new home in some woodlands nearby 🙂
The jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) or eyra cat is a small wild cat native to southern North America and South America. The jaguarundi has short legs, an elongated body, and a long tail. It has a total length of 21 to 30 inches with the tail taking 12-to-24 inches of that length, and weighs 7.7 to 20.1 pounds. The coat can be either blackish to brownish-grey (grey phase) or foxy red to chestnut (red phase); individuals of both phases can be born in the same litter. The two color phases were once thought to represent two distinct species: the grey one called jaguarundi, and the red one called eyra. The jaguarundi is closely related to the much larger and heavier cougar, having a similar genetic structure and chromosome count.
Having a hard day? Turn up the sound and let Max lull you.
In case anyone else was worried about why this cat is looking so domestic, here’s the video description:
Max Lynx, the educational animal ambassador takes a moment to get some good scratchin’ before he sits down for his meal. He was born at a zoo in May 2011. He’s not completely domesticated but not wild either. He educates the public on the endangered Canada Lynx in hopes that people will be driven to conserve our environment and protect our wildlife.
WHAT A WONDERFUL SOUND. WHAT AN EXCELLENT CAT.
(And wow, just commentary on body language, whoever this human is, Max trusts them ENTIRELY. Not only is he nuzzling and purring, he’s showing his belly and giving them his throat for pets and scritchies. That is a HUGE “I Love You” in cat language. Also the paws directing where the scratchies need to go is just adorable.)
First off, he’s big. And by that, I mean he’s close to TFP Megatron’s height and somewhere between Bulkhead and Ratchet in build, more towards the heavy side. His plating is all rounded and smooth and nice to touch, and his helmet has this low point between his optics that makes him look a little bit like a pangolin. He has little horns a small distance above his optics, and they’re sensitive to touch and stroking. Big, wide, honest optics, constantly calm, sweet expression. A bit shy sometimes, but generally open, earnest, and very nice to be around.
He met Tempo just before the war, at a bar where someone had been yelling at Tempo for his lack of desire to have a too-large spike shoved into his valve. Bracer objected, shooed away the yelling mech, gently put himself between the aft and Tempo, and started casual conversation.
Eventually asked “so, if you don’t mind… if you don’t like being spiked, and you don’t like spiking, what do you like in berth?”
Which caused Tempo, in probably his bravest act up to date, to squeak out “do you want to come and find out?” up at him.
An excellent time was had. Because, guess what? Bracer has several kinks, and one of said kinks is thigh fucking. Which just happens to be Tempo’s favorite alternative to being spiked- having someone gently squeeze his thighs shut around their spike and grind against him, rub against his valve. Bonus points for being large enough to hold him in their servos and support him. And he liked at the time that Bracer was too large to try that whole “oh, just try the tip of my spike” nonsense, because Bracer’s spike is way too big to fit anywhere on Tempo without a massive amount of prep work.
Thing is, Bracer never ended up COMMing Tempo after that. Tempo sulked for awhile, assuming he’d been rejected, but got over it.
Turned out Bracer had been ‘drafted’ into a project to help protect some of the smaller, less well-armored nobles.
His alt mode is a rounded tank, almost spherical, that walks on four short, jointed legs instead of moving on treads. Those lil horns on his helm end up at the perfect height to poke people ahead of him if they’re too slow, and he’s very well-armored, so he was perfect for the program.
Namely, being modded to add a cockpit in his alt that a small mech could ride in, and a set of controls in the cockpit to override some of his autonomy and force him to go in specific directions. Also an obnoxious horn.
He eventually got out of that program (read: the people in charge of it and the utterly awful mech in his cockpit had been exploded), but he kept most of the mods. He immediately got a medic to shut down all the controls, but he kept the cockpit because it was good for protecting his small, lightly-armored friends, and he kept the horn because he kinda liked being able to startle afts with a tank-sized airhorn.
He can fling people away if they land on him, either in alt mode or root mode, as much of his plating is supported on springs that let him toss offenders away. He also has two cannons somewhere in his frame, but he refuses to use those- he’s as close to a pacifist as he can manage in any given situation.
He eventually finds Tempo again after the war, apologizes, explains, and proceeds to charm him all over again.
Cuties! Saw these guys right next to the road at a local park, took some pics from in the car. There were about five mice in the immediate area, coming in and out of a large shrub to forage, seemingly unaware that it was daytime. It was in a rural area, so maybe there just aren’t many predators? @why-animals-do-the-thing any clue what mice would be doing foraging in broad daylight?
Also, anyone know what the bigger one is? I know the mouse is a deer mouse, but I’m not sure what to make of the other one. It had a short tail, maybe 2″ long, and I couldn’t tell if the tail had any fur. The mice were approaching it with no reservations, so it must not be territorial, but it doesn’t look like any rat I’ve ever seen, and it’s way too big to be a mouse. Maybe something like a vole?
Update:
Did some Googling. That’s probably a meadow vole. Larger than a mouse, fat body, short muzzle, short tail, feeding on plant matter in an area of short grass, not aggressive towards mice. It probably lives in a burrow under that bush with the mice.
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