Monday, Mar. 14, 2011

The pep talk: You know what they call losers at the Crufts dog show, don't you, girl? Shoes. (Full disclosure: No animals were harmed in the making of Dalmatian owner Debbie Cheetham's sensible footwear.)

It's all my fault! Overgrooming claims another poodle at the Crufts dog show in Birmingham, England.

Leg warmers: How to avoid cold calves at Crufts.

The bases are loaded and so is the bat: In Panama City, Fla., a Southeast Missouri State spring breaker chugs beer from the open knob of a Wiffle Ball bat during a drinking game called "dizzy bat." After downing the contents of the bat, the batter spins around 10 or so times and then tries to hit a pitched beer can.

Two survivors: A displaced woman cuddles her cat at an evacuation center in Kawamatamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, two days after a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake devastated northeastern Japan.

Still alive: A Japan Self-Defense Force member rescues a 4-month-old baby girl in Ishinomaki three days after the earthquake.

Sorry, this cot is taken: U.S. search-and-rescue dogs bunk in a gymnasium at the Setamai school in Sumita, Japan. Two search-and-rescue teams from Fairfax County, Va., and Los Angeles County are joining the rescue efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.

Before leaping off a ledge, the famed cliff divers of Acapulco always check below so they won't land on rocks enormous schools of fish. Local fishermen swear they've never before seen so many fish swimming this close to shore.

Peanut sneaks away from the kids' table to eat with the adults: Thailand's Elephant Day is celebrated with a feast of fruit at Mae Sa elephant camp in Chiang Mai.

Chimp roll: A mother chimpanzee plays with her baby at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

Good sportsmanship still counts in the Ivy League: Princeton students give Harvard's Kyle Casey words of encouragement as he inbounds the ball during the Ivy League championship playoff in New Haven. Princeton won on a last-second bucket.

Nighty night: Musher Hugh Neff covers his dogs with straw at the Unalakleet, Alaska, checkpoint of the Iditarod.

Pulling strings: Russian snow kiters fly their foils on the frozen Finnish Gulf outside St. Petersburg.

Late-afternoon sun warms the walls of the Court of the Patriarchs inside Utah's Zion National Park.