Pictures from our Readers: Pets!

On Friday I shared some of the stranger pictures that exist of my cat (of which there are many) and asked readers to share their weird pet pictures too. Predictably, we got a deluge of responses. (I think reader Xan summed it up when she replied "Do you know how many days a week I wake up and think to myself, 'I wish someone would ask to see photos of my cat?' ALL OF THEM.") In retrospect, I guess we asked for it.

After you've checked out the below, see many more entries on our Flickr page!

Above: "This is my cat Ndut (which means "chubby" in Indonesian), trying to get in the house in an unconventional way. Why she doesn't get through the door is beyond our comprehension." - Cinthia

Elizabeth Edwards' cat Basil has a great poker face.

My friends Laurie and Jon sent us this Christmas card of their cat Egon a few years ago; it's been on our fridge ever since.

I love this pic but

lost the email

-- I have no idea which reader took it! Let me know in comments and I'll give you credit! (Dumb, dumb, dumb.)

There's no way a photo like this won't get featured. (We're suckers for cattery. Er, flattery.) Brittany writes: "That's Tiwilliger on top of my monitor looking at my other cat Peeshu. They are, of course, enjoying Mentalfloss.com."

Enough cats, time for a funny looking dog! Joy Taney writes:

"This is Jade. Jade is a three-legged black pug who was hit by a car two months before my boyfriend and I adopted her. Her family didn't want to pay for the amputation fee--the leg was mangled beyond repair--despite the fact that they had the money. No, they wanted to put this dog down, rendered useless because she was in need, and but a new puppy with the money they could have spent saving her life. Luckily, the vet knew of a pug rescuer who covered the bill, and who we found by a stroke of luck. For Jade's first Halloween with us, in 2006, I decided she needed to go the the Pug Playdate at the Atlanta Piedmont Dog Park as the scariest thing her little dog-brain could think of--the car that took her leg!"

Ed Gunther's cat. "Too much pudding... must... sleep," he writes.

"Disclaimer: I never thought I would be one of those people who dressed up their pet. How foolish and cruel. But when I saw this Superman costume at the craft store on clearance a few years ago, I couldn't resist. This is Bailey, he's a 2 year old Papillion. Some people cringe when they see dogs dressed as humans, but I wish they could see the way he behaves before the costume is on. Once we get out the sweater or football jersey (Go Penn State!) he jumps up and down excitedly. Posing for the camera has become second nature to him. When I lean down to dress him, he sits perfectly still. Why? He loves the attention. He also knows he will soon get a treat." -Nicole Nasuti

This is Sarah Moak's cat Caracas. It just screams out for a LOLcat caption, in my opinion. Any brilliant ideas out there?

Most of the dog pictures we got featured costumes. Maybe I'm just not a dog person, but I don't get it. (They do, however, make for funny pictures.) This is Liz Dager's dog, Samantha, ready for winter.

Costumes occasionally work on cats as well, but I'm of the less-is-more school. As is Maira, who sent in the above: "This is my cat Coop who absolutely HATES dressing up, yet he is always willing to sit still long enough to get his picture taken."

Alternatively, pet owners themselves can dress up just to freak out their pets, like Elizabeth Edwards' friend in the above pic, "Cat Fight."

Egon hates bathtime. (Thanks, Laurie!)

Dr. Dog will see you now. "Tigger the wired haired dachshund is never far when a human in our house is sick, as a matter of fact she is usually sitting on top of their chest or their head." - Kath

Of her cat, above, Shelley writes only that "She's a really weird animal."

While a lot of these cat photo cry out for LOLcatting, Janet Throop's picture, above,

has already been LOL'd

. She explains: "This is my cat Daisy. As you can see in the pictures I had an old trombone out. I was using it as a reference for an art project and Daisy just loooved the warm lining of the case. I was able to capture this perfect positioning one day and uploaded it to my catster profile for Daisy. (catster is like myspace for cats"¦so maybe I'm a little crazy too!) Anyway, someone plucked that image of Daisy and made a lolcat out of her! I happened to be cruising the sites I check daily (including yours) and went to www.icanhascheeseburger.com. There was my Daisy lol'd! I could have died from the excitement. I ended up getting credit for the pic"¦after discovering that the lol-r must have snagged it from my long forgotten catster page. I'm so proud of my little kitty for being an internet celeb for a day. God bless the lol cat!"

Sandie's cat Sears loves a good joke.

Alicia writes: "Here's Tyrone. He won't go for a boat ride without his Louis Vuitton life jacket and his doggles with the flames on the side. He's so hip."

Which of these ornaments is not like the others? (Thanks for the pic, Sara!)

"Sydney is a six month-old mastiff whose hobbies include taking naps on the library rug, singing along with the organ and spoons (you know, as instruments), and posing for photographs. She is named after the hero of A Tale of Two Cities. (Okay, so maybe I'm the nerd.)" - Kayleigh

"At Doggie Palooza in Minneapolis last summer, one of the vendors had this wash tub full of rubber duckies. Dogs were supposed to pick up a duck, then you'd win the prize indicated on the bottom. My dog Chaz approached the tub, then proceeded to climb in. To him, it was either the smallest kiddie pool he's ever seen--or the largest water bowl. He never did pick up a duckie." - DT Treadwell

Danielle's paroleet Loulou will take a bath anywhere -- even in your water glass.

It's Emmitt the mental_floss dog! Winslow writes: "Emmitt's main job besides sleeping behind my desk all day is to look and act as goofy as possible. couple of shots from our recent snowfall, and one from this summer (which with an 8 bit santa hat) was used as a christmas card." (Loving his bizarre eye color, by the way.)

"Ever since my pug Oliver died in September, I've been really active in pug rescue in Indiana. This rescue "bug" (Pug with part Boston Terrier) Dixie belongs to me and my boyfriend Brian. We just bought them their Easter getups this past week! I swear"¦ Dixie has real ears, they're just hiding. As a bonus, I attached one of our rescue pug Sophie struttin' her Easter stuff as well." - Kelly