The Lighter Side of the News

[gwillybj]

Just an idea of a thread to post Happy stuff. Funny stuff. Fluff.
Yes? No?

[Buster's Uncle]

 

[gwillybj]

Bamboo-Munching Giant Panda Also Has a Sweet Tooth
Reuters
by Will Dunham
21 hours ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Giant pandas eat plenty of veggies, but apparently they like dessert, too.

Scientists studying the endangered black-and-white bears said on Thursday that while pandas almost exclusively eat bamboo, which contains only tiny amounts of sugars, they showed a strong preference for natural sweeteners in an experiment.

The researchers also examined panda DNA and found a match to the same "sweet receptor" gene that humans possess that underpins their ability to taste sugars.

Sweeter foods like fruit may have been part of the natural diet of pandas before human activities helped drive the animals into their current mountainous habitat where those foods are scarce, the researchers said.

"Giant pandas love sweets," said behavioral geneticist author Danielle Reed of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who led the study published in the journal PLOS ONE.


Giant pandas Tian Tian (L) and Mei Xiang snack on bamboo at the Washington National Zoo in this January 16, 2002 file photo. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/Files

"We are a bit surprised. However, given the anecdotal evidence that they like apples, sweet potato and so on in captivity, we are not completely surprised," added Monell molecular biologist Peihua Jiang, another of the researchers.

Pandas, the rarest species of bear, reside primarily in bamboo forests high in the mountains of western China. Understanding what type of food pandas prefer may help determine what nutrients can be used to supplement bamboo in their diet as part of efforts to conserve them, Jiang said.

The study was conducted as part of long-term research aimed at understanding how taste preferences and diet selection are affected by taste receptor genes.

The researchers wondered if pandas were able to taste sweet stuff because while pandas are plant eaters, their ancestors were meat-eaters. Many strict carnivores have lost their sweet-tasting receptor gene, called Tas1r2, and show no preferences for sweet-tasting compounds.

For instance, their previous research showed that any type of cat, from house cats to tigers, cannot taste sweets and, thus, do not like them.

Their experiments involved eight giant pandas at the Shaanxi Wild Animal Rescue and Research Center in China. The youngest was 3 years old and the oldest was 22.

The bears were given two bowls of liquid and permitted to drink for five minutes. One was filled with plain water. The other contained water mixed with one of six natural sugars: fructose, galactose, glucose, lactose, maltose and sucrose.

The pandas liked all the sugar solutions better than plain water, especially fructose and sucrose. "They often emptied the bowl containing sugary solution," Jiang said.

The researchers then did the same tests with five artificial sweeteners, but the pandas were far less interested in those.

Pandas previously lived in lowland areas, but human activities like agriculture, forest destruction and development exiled them to their current mountain terrain.

"We cannot travel back in time to understand what animals ate before their habitats were disturbed by mankind. But we can look at their DNA and their taste preferences and make inferences about their ancient diet," Reed said.

"Giant pandas' ancient diet may have included more foods than just bamboo - perhaps fruits, hence the sweet tooth. It may be that bamboo is an every-day food for giant pandas, but when sweeter foods are available they go for them," Reed added.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by David Gregorio)

http://news.yahoo.com/bamboo-munching-giant-panda-sweet-tooth-211938840.html

That's true about cats. I've never had a cat that like sweets, even fruits (bananas ), but most liked salty things like butter, peanut butter, and Chex mix crumbs. My current cat will run away from mayonnaise.

[gwillybj]

Your Font is Showing: Student Comes Up with Plan to Save U.S. Big Bucks
Change type style on government documents and use less ink
By Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News
10 hours ago
The Sideshow

Politicians on both sides of the aisle like to talk about cutting costs in Washington. But few, if any, have ever come up with an idea as simple as the one recently proposed by 14-year-old student Suvir Mirchandani.

Change the font.

Suvir's story was recently reported on CNN.com. The Pittsburgh-area student began his quest by trying to think of ways to save his school district a few bucks. After examining different handouts provided by teachers in different classes, he noticed that the fonts varied and some seemed to require a lot more ink than others.

Suvir, whom we hope got extra credit for his impressive work, discovered that the most commonly used letters on handouts seemed to be r, a, e, o and t. Armed with that information, he set to work looking at how different fonts treated each letter, CNN reports. Suvir found that of the fonts he tested, Garamond (named after Claude Garamond, the original designer of the typeface) would require the least amount of ink and could save his school district as much as $21,000 per year.

Helvetica who?

But that isn't all. Suvir reached out to the Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI), "an open-access journal that publishes original research in the biological and physical sciences that is written by middle and high school students."

Workers at the journal were reportedly impressed by Suvir's work and asked him to apply his findings to the entire United States government. Now we really hope he got extra credit.

After tracking down what the government is estimated to spend on ink per year ($467 million),  Suvir found that that Uncle Sam could save around $136 million per year by switching to Garamond exclusively. In addition, he found state governments that made the change could pull in $234 million in savings, according to CNN's report.

So is the government going to make the switch? Gary Somerset, PR manager for the U.S. Government Printing Office, praised Suvir's works as "remarkable," according to CNN, but he also said the government is focusing its reduction efforts on getting things on the Web.

Suvir's entire article can be found here.

Pro tip: If you do need to print it out, do yourself a favor and check font settings first.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/your-font-is-showing--student-comes-up-with-plan-to-save-u-s--big-bucks-192231144.html

[gwillybj]

The New York Times
Tamer Breed of Backyard Rodeo Finds Itself Endangered
By JOHN ELIGON
MARCH 28, 2014


VIDEO|3:13 Credit KC McGinnis
A Backyard Rodeo: Informal rodeos held by farmers were once standard entertainment in Iowa. Now they are a rarity, but the Sandburr ranch hopes it can grow the tradition.

DEEP RIVER, Iowa — The tiny cube of a room with walls made of pine is where Sharon Widmer spreads chocolate frosting over brownies, and where the scent of her spicy chili warms the air. It is where one woman talks about finding someone to clean her garage for $21 and another discusses soda can fund-raising drives.

But peek outside the large window of this cozy cubicle, and the scene is rowdy. Horses gallop on an arena of dirt, cowboys and cowgirls flip goats on their backs and tie their hooves, and riders twirl ropes overhead before trying to lasso runaway calves. Spectators yell things like, “Push her! Push her!” and “Bring it home!”

Widmer’s Rock ’N Roll Arena, nestled here in the rolling plains of central Iowa, represents a dying breed of rodeo in this state and beyond — one held in a family’s backyard.

There are many small rodeo events on rural patches throughout the country, but backyard rodeos like the one on the Widmers’ ranch separate themselves with a blend of competition and camaraderie. Here, the charm of sipping hot chocolate while exchanging friendly banter is as important as how fast someone can rope a calf.


Credit KC McGinnis
View Slide Show | 10 photos: The Last Family Rodeos

“It’s somebody’s home,” said Mitzi Fleming, who brought her 12-year-old daughter, Grace, and 8-year-old son, Chance, here from Bloomington, Iowa, to compete on a frigid morning late last year. “They’re welcoming in their home. That’s what’s unique.”

She pointed to the fresh, homemade concession-stand offerings as one example of the difference between an event like this and a larger rodeo.

“It’s not like you’re buying a Little Debbie,” she said.

Rodeo enthusiasts in Iowa say they remember a time when they did not have to drive far to find a neighbor hosting a rodeo. But as the cost of livestock and feed has increased, and as liability concerns have made insurance a necessity for home rodeo organizers, many people folded their backyard operations because of the expense.

After more than two decades of hosting rodeos on his farm in east-central Iowa, Wayne Fisher closed his operation about three years ago. The number of entrants started dwindling — in the 1990s, about 50 bull riders would enter each event; that number plummeted to about 15 in his rodeo’s final years. His life got busier, Mr. Fisher, 44, said, his parents grew too old to help with the events and the risk of lawsuits grew too great for him to continue.

“It’s a sad thing,” he said. “It teaches kids a lot of stuff. Not just rodeo, either — camaraderie. Everybody competes themselves, individually. They build a lot of friendships.”

The 20,000-square-foot indoor arena that Ms. Widmer and her husband, Neil, spent $200,000 to build hosts mostly grade-school age competitors. Many of them need a boost to get into the saddles. Backyard rodeos, which have smaller entry fees and cash prizes than more formal competitions, are often a child’s introduction to the sport. They are low pressure, yet still allow participants to experience the suspense of competition.

“It allows little kids to learn and sharpen their skills,” said Clay Snakenberg, 15, a high school freshman from Ottumwa, Iowa, who competes in calf roping (trying to lasso a calf with a rope while riding a horse) and other events. “If they participated in a circuit event, they would more than likely be discouraged and quit.”

Just over an hour to the east of the Widmers’ ranch is the Sandburr Arena, in Lisbon, Iowa, where Tim Moore and his family have hosted open-air rodeos on their land since 2010. The Widmers and the Moores are among the last known Iowa families to host rodeos at their homes. They are often called jackpots, because the entry fees are placed into a pot that is awarded to the winners.

Ms. Widmer, 58, fell in love with rodeo nearly three decades ago when she attended a competition, and she still competes regularly in the summer. She worked for a traveling rodeo show and then started her own event-production company that included putting on rodeo competitions.

The Widmers built the enclosed arena in 2006 to give people a place to keep their rodeo skills sharp during the winter — their last competition of the season is scheduled for next month. It also is a place for the family to spend quality time. Their daughter, Camarie, 22, who was just 5 days old when she was taken on a horse for the first time, is an elite rodeo rider and teaches young people how to ride.

“It still makes me just smile when I get out there,” Sharon Widmer said from the toasty cubicle that her husband built in the corner of the arena that serves as concession stand, warming room and announcer’s booth during competitions.

Out on the dirt, where it is so cold that steam rises from the scattered manure, Grace, the 12-year-old from Bloomington, rocks into the saddle of her brown-and-orange spotted appaloosa, Applejack. She bites down on one end of a curled rope while threading the other end through a loop on her jeans. She leans over and eyes the white goat tethered at the other end of the barn. She is ready for action.

Grace may be giggly and red-faced, but she rides with a professional’s aplomb.

Applejack gallops toward the goat and as he closes in, Grace whips her right leg over the horse’s torso. She springs down to the dirt, landing next to the goat. Then, seemingly in a single motion, she flips the bleating animal onto its back, squeezes its four hooves together and binds them with the rope.

The announcer broadcasts her time over the loudspeakers: 14.59 seconds, easily one of the fastest. Grace knows this competition is more about practice than winning, yet she shrugs.

“I’m just a little frozen,” she said. “I’m a little slow today.”

A version of this article appears in print on March 29, 2014, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Tamer Breed of Backyard Rodeo Finds Itself Endangered.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/us/tamer-breed-of-backyard-rodeo-finds-itself-endangered.html

[gwillybj]

Million Jars of Peanut Butter Dumped in New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. March 28, 2014 (AP)
By JERI CLAUSING Associated Press

Nearly a million jars of peanut butter are being dumped at a New Mexico landfill to expedite the sale of a bankrupt peanut-processing plant that was at the heart of a 2012 salmonella outbreak and nationwide recall.

Bankruptcy trustee Clarke Coll said he had no other choice after Costco Wholesale refused to take shipment of the Sunland Inc. product and declined requests to let it be donated to food banks or repackaged or sold to brokers who provide food to institutions like prisons.

"We considered all options," Coll said. "They didn't agree."

Costco officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment. But court filings indicate the product was made with $2.8 million worth of Valencia peanuts owned by Costco and had been sitting in the warehouse since the company shut down and filed for bankruptcy last fall.

After extensive testing, Costco agreed to a court order authorizing the trustee to sell it the peanut butter. But after getting eight loads, Costco rejected it as "not merchantable" because of leaky peanut oil.

Coll said "all parties agreed there's nothing wrong with the peanut butter from a health and safety issue," but court records show that on a March 19 conference call Costco said "it would not agree to any disposition ... other than destruction."

So instead of selling or donating the peanut butter, with a value estimated at $2.6 million, the estate is paying about $60,000 to haul the 950,000 jars of nut butter — or about 25 tons — to the Curry County landfill in Clovis, where public works director Clint Bunch says it "will go in with our regular waste and covered with dirt."

The last of 58 truckloads was expected Friday, the same day Golden Boy Foods of Canada was to close on its $26 million purchase of the plant.

Sunland made peanut butter under a number of different labels for retailers like Costco, Kroger and Trader Joe's, along with products under its own name. But the plant was shut down in September 2012 after its products were linked to 41 salmonella cases in 20 states.

It later reopened for about five months, but shut down last October after the company's Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.

Sunland processed Valencia peanuts, a sweet variety of peanut unique to the region and preferred for natural butters because it is flavorful without additives.

Sonya Warwick, spokeswoman for New Mexico's largest food bank, declined to comment directly on the situation, but she noted that rescued food accounted for 74 percent of what Roadrunner Food Bank distributed across New Mexico last year.

"Our fleet picks up rescued food from hundreds of locations weekly and brings it back to the food bank," she said. "Before distributing it, volunteers help label, sort or repack it for distribution to partner agencies across the state.

"Access to rescued food allows us to provide a more well-rounded and balanced meal to New Mexicans experiencing hunger."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/million-jars-peanut-butter-dumped-mexico-23094422

[gwillybj]

Mother Spends a Week Baking My Little Pony Cake the Size of a Shetland Complete with 26kg of Icing, 86 Eggs and 32 Boxes of Rice Krispies...and it Fed 900 People!

- Maria Young, 29, constructed 4ft 3in My Little Pony cake for daughter
- Spent £160 on ingredients and it contained 250,000 calories
- Weighed 50kg, measured 13 hands high and 4ft 7in from edible nose to tail
- Maria learned all her baking skills from TV shows

By BIANCA LONDON
PUBLISHED: 06:35 EST, 25 March 2014
UPDATED: 09:44 EST, 25 March 2014

A very dedicated mother granted her daughter's wish for a 'birthday cake big enough to ride' by spending a week making her a life-size My Little Pony birthday cake - standing 4ft 3in tall.

Maria Young, 29, constructed the mammoth pink pony from 26kg of icing, 86 eggs and 32 boxes of Rice Krispies.

It was presented at daughter Emily's eighth birthday party - and ended up feeding 900 people after she took the leftovers to school.


My BIG pony! Emily 8, Logan 9 and Brooke 3, were treated to a life-size pony cake by mother Maria Young
(NOTE: This is one of many large pictures shown. See the article for the rest.)

Maria spent £160 on ingredients and the colossal cake contained 16 roasting tins of sponge and 250,000 calories.

The mother-of-three has only been baking for a year after her son Logan, nine, demanded a dinosaur cake for his birthday.

She said: 'I'm not a baker, I'm just a mad mother. Last year my son asked me to make a standing-up dinosaur cake and it ended up at 2ft 3in.

'I told Emily she could have one this year and she asked for a My Little Pony one and she said she wanted it as tall as her. It actually ended up taller.'

The cake is constructed around a wooden frame which was then packed with sticky Rice Krispies moulded to form the legs, neck and head.

The body was then built up with several layers of sponge cake with blueberry flavoured cream filling and the whole model was then smothered in pink icing.

Maria's finished masterpiece weighed 50kg, measured 13 hands high and 4ft 7in from edible nose to tail.

Delighted Emily nicknamed the cake 'Pinkie Pie' but the handful of friends at her birthday part barely made a dent in the sweet treat.

So she shared it with her neighbours and took the leftovers to school - and in total 900 people enjoyed a slice.

Delighted Emily, of Dorking, Surrey, said: 'I love it. It's even bigger than I imagined it would be.'

Maria lives with husband Wayne and their three children, Emily, Logan and three-year-old Brooke.

She has no formal baking or sculpture training and instead uses techniques she's seen on television to craft her mammoth cakes.

However, she has no plans to take on such a huge project again.

She said: 'I told her she could have whatever cake she wanted. Serves me right I suppose. She asked for a 'pony cake big enough for me to ride'.

'I saw all these American TV shows where people bake massive cakes and I just thought "it can't be that hard".

'I just make it up as I go along. But I'm pleased it's all over. Now I can get to sleep before midnight.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2588768/Mother-spends-week-baking-My-Little-Pony-cake-size-Shetland-complete-26kg-icing-86-eggs-32-boxes-Rice-Krispies-fed-900-people.html

[gwillybj]

Hideo Tsurumaki was there in 2011 when a tsunami devastated his hometown in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan. With this disaster as his inspiration, the designer, who started his career at Suzuki Motor, set about creating a car that could carry its occupants to safety in the event of sudden flooding. The fruit of his labour, the Fomm Concept One, is a four-seat electric car that floats. A personal watercraft-style handlebar controls acceleration, braking and steering, and when afloat, a “water-jet generator” provides propulsion. Despite its seaworthiness, the Concept One is not a true amphibious vehicle. Tsurumaki insists that the car is good for “one disaster event” before requiring maintenance. The company expects to commence production of the Concept One in Thailand by September 2015, priced at about $9,000. (Photo: Fomm Corporation)

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140329-a-car-that-defies-tsunamis

[gwillybj]

If You Dumped Every Human Into The Grand Canyon, This Is What It Would Look Like (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post  | by  Macrina Cooper-White
Posted: 05/05/2014 8:12 am EDT Updated: 05/05/2014 8:59 am EDT

There are a lot of people on Earth--7.2 billion, in fact. Ever wondered what it would look like if you took all of us and piled us up on the floor of the Grand Canyon?

OK, maybe that's not something you've wondered about. But the folks at the YouTube series Vsauce haven't just wondered about that theoretical pile of humanity. With the help of Canadian designer Eesmyal Santos-Brault, they've managed to show us--and the result is equal parts creepy and amazing. Just check out the video below.



"That's it, that's all of us," Vsauce's Michael Stevens says in the video. "It kind of puts humanity in perspective. And you."

The video goes on to explore "how many things there are," from 10⁸⁰ elementary particles in the observable universe to 1.458 x 10²²⁷ things that could ever be thought or imagined.

Now that's something that's hard to imagine...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/05/humans-fit-into-grand-canyon_n_5255076.html

[vv221]

Your Font is Showing: Student Comes Up with Plan to Save U.S. Big Bucks

I think they would have made a better move by chosing EB Garamond, which is roughly the same with a free license (free as in "free speech").

[Valka]

That's true about cats. I've never had a cat that like sweets, even fruits (bananas ), but most liked salty things like butter, peanut butter, and Chex mix crumbs. My current cat will run away from mayonnaise.

These researchers never met my cats. I had a couple of them who loved Swiss rolls. Another cat loved canteloupe.

[gwillybj]

Yahoo! News  |  Odd News
Bird Attack Knocks Tooth Out of Man’s Mouth (with video)
By Will Lerner

On May 1, we told you about a California woman who was dealing with hundreds of birds flying into her house . Strange goings-on with birds continue this week, with multiple bird attacks in the town of Channelview, Texas. As KHOU 11 News reports, one of the bird attacks was so severe that Benny Hines, a trucker, fell down, lost a tooth, and was knocked unconscious.

Benny Hines was outside the Chrome Shop, a business that provides accessories for 18-wheelers, when a bird swooped down and started to attack him. Mr. Hines told KHOU, “I took off my cap and started waving them away. All of a sudden it was more than one bird. The more I tried to fight them off, the worse it got. It was like why were they after me, you know?"

Lonny Siegler, the Chrome Shop’s owner, told KHOU, “We got some kamikaze birds…He was running, I mean running…All of a sudden that bird hits him, and he went flying.” In security video provided by Mr. Siegler, you can see Mr. Hines desperately trying to get away from the birds. One bird hit Mr. Hines, and he went tumbling down to the ground. A witness, Jennifer Zavala, said that he had, “open gash wounds, bloody. It’s awful.” Mr. Hines would lose a tooth from the incident and was knocked unconscious.

It was not reported as to what kind of bird they are, and nobody is completely sure why Mr. Hines would be attacked by them, but KHOU does present a possible reason. For the past few days there has been a baby bird in the business’s parking lot. It cannot fly yet, so perhaps the adult birds are trying to protect it. Mr. Siegler says that one day later, he had one bird come after him. As for Mr. Hines, he’s out of the hospital and back on the road, saying, “They had to put some stitches on my face.”



http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/bird-attack-knocks-tooth-out-of-man%E2%80%99s-mouth--with-video--163630712.html

[gwillybj]

Elderly Driver Hits 11 Parked Cars While Trying to Exit a Parking Structure
By Charlene Sakoda
May 12, 2014 6:15 PM
Odd News

An unidentified woman in her mid 80’s apparently had extreme difficulty exiting a parking structure in Erfurt, Germany last week. Thüringer Allgemeine reports that fortunately, there were no people injured in the catastrophe.

As reported by BBC News, the driver, with her husband in the passenger seat, was reversing out of her parking spot on Thursday afternoon, when she ran into two parked cars. The Local reports that she then drove the car forward, only to hit the two cars in front of her, an Audi A4 and a Mercedes B-Class. The destruction continued as the woman reversed again right into a concrete pillar and a Mercedes-Vito.

Some of the cars were so wrecked that they needed to be towed out of the structure. However, the tow trucks couldn’t get into the parking garage because of their height, so those vehicles had to be pushed out on special rollers.

The Local notes that the woman’s driver’s license was confiscated.

Videos and more info: Thüringer Allgemeine (German), BBC News, The Local
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/elderly-driver-hits-11-parked-cars-while-trying-to-exit-a-parking-structure-221555354.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27343546
http://www.thelocal.de/20140509/woman-crashes-into-11-parked-cars-in-erfurt-germany

[Unorthodox]

Yahoo! News  |  Odd News
Bird Attack Knocks Tooth Out of Man’s Mouth (with video)
By Will Lerner

On May 1, we told you about a California woman who was dealing with hundreds of birds flying into her house . Strange goings-on with birds continue this week, with multiple bird attacks in the town of Channelview, Texas. As KHOU 11 News reports, one of the bird attacks was so severe that Benny Hines, a trucker, fell down, lost a tooth, and was knocked unconscious.

Benny Hines was outside the Chrome Shop, a business that provides accessories for 18-wheelers, when a bird swooped down and started to attack him. Mr. Hines told KHOU, “I took off my cap and started waving them away. All of a sudden it was more than one bird. The more I tried to fight them off, the worse it got. It was like why were they after me, you know?"

Lonny Siegler, the Chrome Shop’s owner, told KHOU, “We got some kamikaze birds…He was running, I mean running…All of a sudden that bird hits him, and he went flying.” In security video provided by Mr. Siegler, you can see Mr. Hines desperately trying to get away from the birds. One bird hit Mr. Hines, and he went tumbling down to the ground. A witness, Jennifer Zavala, said that he had, “open gash wounds, bloody. It’s awful.” Mr. Hines would lose a tooth from the incident and was knocked unconscious.

It was not reported as to what kind of bird they are, and nobody is completely sure why Mr. Hines would be attacked by them, but KHOU does present a possible reason. For the past few days there has been a baby bird in the business’s parking lot. It cannot fly yet, so perhaps the adult birds are trying to protect it. Mr. Siegler says that one day later, he had one bird come after him. As for Mr. Hines, he’s out of the hospital and back on the road, saying, “They had to put some stitches on my face.”



http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/bird-attack-knocks-tooth-out-of-man%E2%80%99s-mouth--with-video--163630712.html

We had a jay get trapped in our garage a couple years ago.  I tried to shoo her out, she flew into the door instead or out, and died.  Her husband spent the next month attacking me every morning as I went to the car.  If he threatened that baby, or killed some bird with his truck, I can see that easily provoking an attack. 

[gwillybj]

Video Captures Family Cat Saving California Boy From Dog Attack
Reuters
By Jennifer Chaussee
May 14, 2014 5:42 PM

(Reuters) - A California child pulled from his bike by an attacking dog was saved by his family's cat on Tuesday, which quickly rushed in and attacked the dog, a video posted on YouTube showed on Wednesday.

The video, which quickly spread on the Internet, shows a young boy playing on a driveway in Bakersfield, when a dog lunges at his leg, grabs hold of it with his jaws and drags the boy off of the bike. (YouTube video: http://r.reuters.com/hyt39v)

A dark cat swiftly hurls itself onto the dog and chases it down the driveway and away from the child before a woman runs to help the boy. Local media reported the video was from multiple security cameras and shows graphic pictures of the bite wounds sustained by the boy.

“Thankfully, it wasn’t worse," his father, Roger Triantafilo, wrote in posting the video. "My son is fine."

Bakersfield police said the attacking dog, identified as an 8-month-old Labrador-Chow mix, had been surrendered by its owner’s family after the Tuesday afternoon attack and was in quarantine and would ultimately be euthanized.

Police spokesman Sergeant Joseph Grubbs said the dog's owners, who live in the same neighborhood as the boy, said the dog did not like children or bicycles. He did not identify the owner by name.

The Triantafilo family could not be reached for immediate comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/video-captures-family-cat-saving-california-boy-dog-214201515.html
(video)