Pets

Questions

1. Do you like pets?
2. How many pets have you had?
3. What animal do you think makes the best pet?
4. Do pets make good gifts?
5. Is a spider or a snake really a pet?
6. Do you think pet owners are often similar to their pets?
7. What do you think of restaurants and stores aimed at pets?
8. Do you know anyone with an unusual pet?

Videos

BBC
The ‘Inside the Animal Mind’ team rig a house with cameras for a week to test a theory: that dogs use their sense of smell to keep track of time.

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an animal? This series gives startling and revelatory answers. Combining jaw-dropping demonstrations of animals’ abilities with revealing photography, Chris Packham travels the world to uncover the secrets of the animal mind.

Chris explores the remarkable ways animals use their senses. Focusing on dogs, he discovers how their powerful sense of smell creates a bizarre alternative reality.

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Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Dogs | Pets | Time
As professional arborists, brothers-in-law Tom Otto and Shaun Sears are quite adept at climbing trees. The cats that they rescue are not. And with a plethora of trees—and cats—around Seattle, they decided to put their off

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hours to good use and return scared, stuck kitties to their worried owners. Working completely off donations, these two cat lovers are helping keep Seattle’s free-climbing felines grounded.

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Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Cats | Pets | Trees
In ancient times, wildcats were fierce carnivorous hunters. And unlike dogs, who have undergone centuries of selective breeding, modern cats are genetically very similar to ancient cats. How did these solitary, fierce

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predators become our sofa sidekicks? Eva-Maria Geigl traces the domestication of the modern house cat.

Lesson by Eva-Maria Geigl, directed by Chintis Lundgren.

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Keywords: Cats | History | Pets

Sometimes your cat looks at you like they’re just absolutely revolted. So, does your cat think you’re gross?

Category:  Nature & Environment
Keywords: Cats | Pets | Smells
Vox
Their life arc is our life arc— from city to suburb, from tragedy to bliss. Special thanks to all Vox staffers and family that sent over their dog videos.

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When Alvin lost his dog Rainbow, he felt as though a human has died.

Humans have a special — and somewhat an odd — relationship with dogs. 60% of Americans own a pet, and the most popular of them are dogs. Our relationship with them actually goes back pretty far. Some scholars believe that wolves and humans hunted and lived among each other — and the reason humans came out on top was because we partnered with wolves. Then, as we evolved so did our furry friends. Now, we treat these animals like family. We give them names, keep them safe, and share our lives with them. So when it’s time for them to go, it feels a lot like we’re losing a part of the family.

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Keywords: Death | Dogs | Family | Pets

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots