• Photo from Flickr Creative Commons by Marcin Kargol

The Foster Care Program at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona helps to save thousands of animals lives each year by finding temporary homes for animals that are not yet ready to be adopted.

Underweight, underage, sick or injured animals are placed in a foster home through the volunteers of the Foster Care Program until they are ready to be adopted. Animals involved in ongoing criminal investigations are also sent to a foster home during the process.

If you are interested in helping animals that need a loving home, the HSSA will be hosting a Foster Care Carnival on Monday to give information about the program and how to be a part of it. There will also be refreshments and games, as well as plenty of opportunities to ask questions about the program.

The event will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. tonight at the Companions for Life Center, 3465 E. Kleindale Rd. (right around the corner form the shelter). For more information on the event, click here.

Now, arguably, the most famous Critter Disrupting a Sporting Event in these parts is when Arizona Diamondbacks legend Randy Johnson obliterated a bird with a pitch during spring training in 2001. But this instance, from a soccer match in Switzerland, takes the cake.

From msnNOW:

A run-of-the-mill soccer match turned into a round of "catch the critter" on Sunday when a wild pine marten (a ferret-like little creature) invaded a Swiss soccer match. The wild animal streaked on to the pitch midway through the game between FC Thun and Zurich. Zurich player Loris Benito tackled and almost captured the marten, but it bit him on the finger and escaped again. It then shot up into the stands past spectators' feet and back on to the field, before it was finally removed from the stadium. But it turns out a marten bite is good luck: Zurich won the match 4-0.

Well, best wishes to you, Loris Benito. Just remember though, when you need to catch a furry critter, consider doing in a way as seen on Parks and Recreation: with a war cry and a bit of terror.

• Rob Bryson Jr. / Richard Ayrey / Michael Webber, Creative Commons
• A new Sky Island scorpion

How this information affects your day-to-day life, I'm not sure, but the discovery of a new species of scorpion near Seven Cataracts Vista in the Santa Catalina Mountains by Dr Rob Bryson Jr. is interesting in the sense that there's still a lot in our immediate area to still explore.

Here's a description of the scorpion from the online journal ZooKeys:

Relatively small-bodied scorpion from the Seven Cataracts Overlook area of the Santa Catalina Mountains, southern Arizona (total body length of the female holotype is 27.50 mm). Color is light to medium brown, light brown to yellow on the legs, with underlying dark mottling on carapace and mesosoma. Metasoma is light brown with darker carinae.

Researchers, led by a neuroscientist from Duke University, have found a way to link the brains of two rats that are occupying different cages—and that's not even the crazy part.

From Wired:

In the new study, the researchers implanted small electrode arrays in two regions of the rats’ brains, one involved in planning movements, and one involved in the sense of touch.

Then they trained several rats to poke their noses and whiskers through a small opening in the wall of their enclosure to determine its width. The scientists randomly changed the width of the opening to be either narrow or wide for each trial, and the rats had to learn to touch one of two spots depending on its width. They touched a spot to the right of the opening when it was wide and the spot on the left when it was narrow. When they got it correct, they received a drink. Eventually they got it right 95 percent of the time.

Next, the team wanted to see if signals from the brain of a rat trained to do this task could help another rat in a different cage choose the correct spot to poke with its nose — even if it had no other information to go on.

They tested this idea with another group of rats that hadn’t learned the task. In this experiment, one of these new rats sat in an enclosure with two potential spots to receive a reward but without an opening in the wall. On their own, they could only guess which of the two spots would produce a rewarding drink. As expected, they got it right 50 percent of the time.

Then the researchers recorded signals from one of the trained rats as it did the nose-poke task and used those signals to stimulate the second, untrained rat’s brain in a similar pattern. When it received this stimulation, the second rat’s performance climbed to 60 or 70 percent. That’s not nearly as good as the rats who could actually use their sense of touch to solve the problem, but it’s impressive given that the only information they had about which spot to chose came from another animal’s brain, Nicolelis says.

Information was transferred from one brain to another, by way of electronic stimulation, and no other intermediary.

Scientist hope to use this information to help patients who have suffered brain injuries through trauma or stroke to rehabilitate and recover function (though a researcher notes that you don't necessarily need another brain to do that, just a computer program), while I wonder how long it will take before private industry (Google?) acquires and uses this tech to transmit data to us directly—like, say, kung fu.

We're just that much closer to The Matrix, people.

• Photo courtesy Dani Moore
• "My tiny little rats are certainly much less disruptive than a miniature horse would be," said Dani Moore, who uses the rats to alert her to when she is having spasms.

Bethany Barnes of Arizona-Sonora News Service looks at a proposal to limit what kinds of service animals will be allowed in Arizona restaurants:

The Arizona Restaurant Association is aiming to take some of the guesswork out of who’s coming to dinner.

While it hasn’t quite been “lions, tigers and bears,” it has been “parrots, ferrets and squirrels,” according to restaurant owners, who say Arizona’s loose definition of service animal is resulting in service animal shams all over the state.

So the restaurant association is backing HB 2401, which passed out of the House Health Committee on Wednesday. The bill would align the definition more closely with the federal definition, which was narrowed in 2011.

The designation of service animal would go to the dogs—and a few miniature horses—that can perform a task to help someone with a disability. This would exclude comfort animals, which aren’t allowed at the federal level either, though people are allowed to have an animal that helps with psychiatric conditions, if the animal is trained to perform a task.

As it stands now, any animal in Arizona can be claimed as a service animal and there’s very little anyone can say about it.

For whatever reason, said Roxane Nielsen, co-owner of the Prescott Brewing Company, more people seem to believe their dogs have the right to go anywhere.

When I got this job, I vowed to myself that I wouldn't just allow The Range to become a depository for adorable animal videos or coverage of terrible musicians/'90s R&B acts.

I've maintained the second part as best I could (especially given the musical preferences of the new boss, one Mr. Dan Gibson,) but I fear I may be breaking the second now—and gleefully, at that.

I give you, the Kitten Cam.

• Ripley's Kittens
• Sorry, this is just a still. Click the kitten's face to get to the live camera.

According to the Kitten Cam's FAQ (which is adorably/annoying self-referential and full of community in-jokes), the kittens are being fostered by a computer programmer out of Washtington State, who began fostering in 2003, and does so on a year-round basis. Apparently, this man loves kittens. Good for him.

To check out the kitten cam, either click the kitten's face above, or check it out here.

In this week's issue, we previewed the Humane Society of Southern Arizona's adoption event happening this Saturday, Jan. 19, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Casa Adobes Plaza, 7001-7153 N. Oracle Road.

We just learned that the Tucson Musical Canine Freestyle Club has been invited to perform at the event. I wrote about his group in July. These women and their dogs love dancing together. Who says you always need a human dance partner?

• Shutterstock
• This is probably not Oscar, but it made me laugh.

For the second year in a row (the dachshund racing fans among us may remember our discussion of the wiener race last year), the Old Pueblo is home to a wiener dog competing in a national championship race, sponsored by (who else?) Wienerschnitzel.

On Dec. 28 27, Tucson will be represented by a dachshund named Oscar and his owner, Tyson Rondeau. Oscar will be running in the Wiener Nationals, in San Diego, for pride, glory and $1,000 cash. Also, the winner will get a position of honor in the San Diego Big Bay Balloon parade, and will be brought out to be recognized at halftime of the Holiday Bowl. Pretty heavy stuff, for dogs that are longer than they are tall.

What does this mean for you, Tucson? Truth be told, not a whole lot, unless you happen to be the kind of person who really digs it when local folks are getting national coverage. Then you should be excited!!~

Seriously, very cool for Oscar and Tyson. Best of luck to you both; we're looking forward to your victory, in which we will shower you with hot dog bun crumbs. That's like a ticker-tape parade, right? It's almost like snow, at least.

• weinerdograces.com/
• None of these are probably Oscar, but this is closer.

• Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
• Note: These puppies may not be representative of your cuddling options.

College can be a stressful time, especially when you have no sense of what a completely depressing hassle the post-academic working world happens to be, so the Humane Society of Southern Arizona and Alpha Kappa Psi have teamed up to provide a bit of relief to the grind of finals or endless parties or whatever it is that college students actually do these days.

Wednesday, December 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m, if you're passing by Old Main, cough up five bucks and you'll get yourself a cup of coffee and some snuggle time with a dog. Once there was a guy who brought his dog to the Tucson Weekly offices (long story), and while we do have coffee here, there was no cuddle time offered, so this is an opportunity you should really try to appreciate.

If you're feeling superior about your place in the food chain, stare at this for a little bit:

Okay, now resume your meaningless activities, and next time you see a feline make sure to show your future master some respect.