Animal  Crackers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16467852

Can you imagine what the Oscar winning speech might be if the latest star won?!?!?  Animals have been stealing scenes since the time the movies began - but can Hollywood's current top dogs really act or is it all just down to skilled training?

The film 'The Artist' is currently being tipped to sweep the board at this year's Oscars - but sadly there will be no Academy Award for one of the silent film's biggest stars.  The sad truth is that in fact, he will be lucky if he even gets a pat on the head and a consoling bone to chew on.

If you had not heard of him, Uggie is a nine-year-old Jack Russell terrier; it is well known that the Academy is famously 'sniffy' when it comes to handing out prizes to animals.  In the past Lassie, Cheetah and Rin Tin Tin were among the biggest stars of their day but not one of them ever gripped the famous gold statuette in their paws.

The nearest a "non-human" performer who has ever come to Oscar night glory was in 1998, when Bart the Bear, a 1,480-pound Kodiak bear and star of films such as The Edge and Legends of the Fall, presented the Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound Effects Editing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16487128

A trip to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand ended up with three-year-old Sofia Walker getting a little too close for comfort with a lion.  Malik the lion either wanted to make friends or eat the little girl, have a look and decide for your self what his intentions may have been.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16474354

How about this two cats with too many toes – take a look at the above link for a photo.

The two kittens have been discovered in Hampshire with an extra 18 toes between them.

Ned and Fred as they are now called were handed in to the Gosport town, Hampshire branch of the Cats Protection.

Usually cats have five toes on each of their front paws and four on each their rear paws, but Ned has an amazing extra eight toes and his brother Fred has extra ten!!

Dr Andy Sparkes, from the Feline Advisory Bureau, said the four-month-old kittens were "very unusual" due to the large number of extra toes – this seems like an under statement to me.

Cats Protection field veterinary officer Karen Hiestand has said that Fred's extra toes on his back paws as well as his front paws were also an "extreme case".  She added that the extra toes did not affect their long term health or mobility etc.

The kittens had apparently come from a "multi-cat household" and sadly arrived at the charity branch in a very poor condition but are now well on the way to recovery and are due to be rehomed soon.

They are currently still at the centre, but are due to be rehomed with a new owner within the next two weeks.

It is apparently not uncommom for cats to be born with extra toes and cats with these extra digits are known as polydactyl, they usually have just one extra toe on each paw, but some can have two or three extra on each paw.