Brandy the Chihuahua the Smallest Dog

Brandy the Chihuahua is 6 inches long and weighs less that two pounds. She's not allowed on the furniture because if she jumped off, she'd break. She's also, according the Guinness, officially the Smallest Dog in the World.

Brandy's owner, Paulette Keller, carries her around in a sheepskin-lined purse. For fun, she dresses her in a pink Hawaiian dress. You don't pet Brandy so much as rub her with a thumb and forefinger.

Brandy made the transformation from Keller's lap ornament to the Smallest Dog in the World over a year ago. The breeder told Keller she thought Brandy was smaller than the smallest dog in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Keller took Brandy to the vet, who signed papers listing her vital statistics.

So in the 2006 Guinness book, there is bug-eyed Brandy, on the same page with the dog who can fit five tennis balls in its mouth.

The perks so far have been few. Last year, the Pedigree dog food company paid to fly Ron and Paulette Keller to Reno, where Brandy was paired with one of the largest dogs in the world for a three-day exhibit at a casino.

Keller says she doesn't care about the attention.

"I just love her," she told the St. Petersburg Times. "It wouldn't matter if she's the smallest. She's just a really sweet dog."

3 Million Bees Removed From Kitchen Of Couple's Apartment

Molina said the bees were there for at least two and a half years. The couple finally had enough and called in the professionals."So we're trying to, like, get rid of most of them, but without professional help we can't. So now we almost … They're biting me!'" Molina screamed, running from the home during an interview with reporters.Beekeepers removed more than 3 million bees from the apartment. They also extracted nearly 60 pounds of honey.Beekeepers said the insects got in through a small hole and built a home in the kitchen cabinet.

Wisconsin Hunter Bags Deer With 7 Legs

Rick Lisko hunts deer with a bow but got his most unusual one driving his truck down his mile-long driveway. The young buck had nub antlers _ and seven legs. Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs. "It was definitely a freak of nature," Lisko said. "I guess it's a real rarity."

He said he slowed down as the buck and two does ran across the driveway Nov. 22, but the buck ran under the truck and got hit.

When he looked at the animal, he noticed three- to four-inch appendages growing from the rear legs. Later, he found a smaller appendage growing from one of the front legs.

"It's a pretty weird deer," he said, describing the extra legs as resembling "crab pinchers."

"It kind of gives you the creeps when you look at it," he said, but he thought he saw the appendages moving, as if they were functional, before the deer was hit.

Warden Doug Bilgo of the state Department of Natural Resources came to Lisko's property near Mud Lake in the town of Osceola to tag the deer.

"I have never seen anything like that in all the years that I've been working as a game warden and being a hunter myself," Bilgo said. "It wasn't anything grotesque or ugly or anything. It was just unusual that it would have those little appendages growing out like that."

Bilgo took photos and sent information on the animal to DNR wildlife managers.

John Hoffman of Eden Meat Market skinned the deer for Lisko, who wasn't going to waste the venison from the animal.

"And by the way, I did eat it," Lisko said. "It was tasty."

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Information from: The Reporter, http://www.fdlreporter.com

Incredible photos of a baby hippo that was stranded by the tsunami and the tortoise that adopted him

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him. "It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

(I think this is one of the cutest, sweetest and most endearing things I’ve come across in quite some time – Emily)

Those Wacky Kids

Look carefully.

(Hint: front row, all the way to the left.)

Mozilla Japan’s New Mascot

He’s cute. He’s cuddly. And apparently he has a knack for lighting his farts on fire. He is the new mascot for web browser Mozilla/Firefox in Japan, who has just been named Foxkeh after a contest was held on their official website.

Need A Day Off From Work?

If you’re thinking about taking a sick day without being sick, try to avoid the following excuses, which are all true and have been compiled by Career Builder via hiring managers:

1. Employee was poisoned by his mother-in-law.

2. A buffalo escaped from the game reserve and kept charging the employee every time she tried to go to her car from her house.

3. Employee was feeling all the symptoms of his expecting wife.

4. Employee called from his cell phone, saying that he was accidentally locked in a restroom stall and that no one was around to let him out.

5. Employee broke his leg snowboarding off his roof while drunk.

6. Employee’s wife said he couldn’t come into work because he had a lot of chores to do around the house.

7. One of the walls in the employee’s home fell off the night before.

8. Employee’s mother was in jail.

9. A skunk got into the employee’s house and sprayed all of his uniforms.

10. Employee had a bad case of hiccups.

11. Employee blew his nose so hard, his back went out.

12. Employee’s horses got loose and were running down the highway.

13. Employee was hit by a bus while walking.

14. Employee’s dog swallowed her bus pass.

15. Employee was sad.

Remember, managers are crafty folk, who can smell bullshit through the phone. Take your time thinking of your alibi and excuse before making that call!