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We havent had one of these in awhile even back on old FAF/PCO Id start but Im lazy to do it on mobile and pics dont show on my phone easilu

Recently had an interesting discussion in a skype group Fun fact, many wildlife researchers and rehabilitators do tend to wear animal costumes or otherwise imitate the visage of a certain animal species. This is typically to A) Work amongst the animal with them being comfortable and in a natural state or B) Allow the young animal to associate caring and interaction with their own species rather than with a human in order to be released into the wild http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141028-halloween-costumes-science-conservation-nation-animals/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336070/Why-Chinese-scientists-dressing-Panda-suits-fool-bear-cubs.html All interesting (also sometimes derpy as heck) ...naturally this idea was sparked by a certain someone (you know who you are) who considered what the psychological implications would be if a human baby was parented most its life by someone in a fursuit and never seeing outside the fursuit... A more interesting topic, perhaps Discuss

A few years ago I started working with an all-volunteer, no-kill animal rescue that focuses on placing homeless dogs and cats in my community with loving Forever Homes. So far this year we've placed over 88 cats and 9 dogs. In addition to the weekly work I put in at the shelter to care for the cats we have, I was also appointed as the chair of the IT Committee for the organization. In that role I've been able to gather a team of experienced folks who have used their job experience in the IT field to help the organization lower their costs (found them a new web hosting service with a WYSIWYG interface anybody can manage versus the old platform), brought them the ability to accept online donations via PayPal, set up a YouTube channel to promote their cause and also virtualized the shelter's phone line with a cloud PBX provider so they can have a 24x7 answering service that delivers voicemail messages to dog, cat and volunteer coordinators over email instead of paying the local phone company a ridiculous monthly fee to supply dial tone to an answering machine in a volunteer's house. Every year I also volunteer with their annual community garage sale, an event that generates thousands of dollars to support the cause in a single day by reselling donated items from the community. Since nobody in the organization draws even a penny in salary, that means all of the proceeds go to pay for the feeding, medical care and support of these abandoned animals. I'm pleased to say that my girlfriend and I have adopted all 4 of our cats from this organization (3 of them have special medical needs). In the last two months I have been taking footage of our homeless cats and learning Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects to create YouTube videos that promote some of our overlooked adoptable animals. I know I will never be an expert in this field but feel that I am gaining new skills and slowly becoming more proficient at the work. I'd love to share some of the videos here (after proper anonymization) and gain feedback from those of you with a lot more experience in this industry than myself. In all it feels really damn good to make a difference in my community by putting my industry knowledge to work and stretching to learn new skills with the ultimate goal of helping homeless cats and dogs find homes where they can be loved and cherished forever. This is probably the most rewarding and meaningful thing I have ever done with my life, and I hope that I will continue to grow my skills and help this organization do even better things with more visibility!

I figured we should get a photography thread going again. Ring-Tailed Lemur by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr Lynx by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr Meerkat by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr Emu by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr Red Panda by Mathias Appel, auf Flickr