Mr. Magoo has been living at the Valley Animal Center in East Central Fresno, Calif., for the past two years. Considered retired by volunteers, the blind feline is one of the shelter's most famous residents and is not available for adoption. The nine-year-old Siamese cat has a very special talent: painting.

Last week, a fun project led to the discovery of Mr. Magoo's artistic abilities. At an art event for animals, the cat quickly took to creativity.

"Mr Magoo, he's just like, 'Give me my paint. I'm going to dip on my own. I'll make my own design,'" said the centre's adoption assistant, Katie Dezso.

The blind cat developed a habit of walking in circles due to psychological stress, Dezso explained. Now, this signature circling move helps Mr. Magoo create such unique pieces.

"We've turned it into something positive," said Dezso. "That's what really creates the design and really mixes up the colours and gets those really unique pieces."

Shelter workers hope to sell the cat-created works

A German couple lost their lucky charm — a cuddly toy frog — while hiking in the Austrian Alps.

They hired a mountain rescuer to retrieve it.

Doris and Juergen Bellmann had reached the peak of the 2192-metre Hinteren Goinger Halt last month. When Juergen, 54, posed for his photograph-taking wife, he slipped. While he managed to keep his footing, the frog he was holding slipped from his hand and tumbled down the mountain.

They searched for the toy for two days and "went home very said," Doris said.

So the couple appealed to the German Alpine Association and hired rescuer Markus Fleischmann for €425 ($573 CAD), who undertook a successful 8-hour rescue mission.

"It wasn't that dangerous a mission and, it being off-season, I had nothing better to do," Fleischmann admitted.

As one Arbroath commenter noted, the frog's lucky charm status now seems a little ironic.

We use webcams to chat with family overseas, long-distance significant others, and friends who've moved away. In many relationships, face-to-face communication trumps the phone, email and written word.

St. Jude Medical Center in California acknowledges this over-the-screen bonding and is now using a webcam system to let parents peek in on their newborns in neonatal intensive care units.

Five American hospitals currently use NICVIEW, a password-protected webcam system "which gives parents a virtual window to their newborns," CNN reports.

"The family feels that they are really connected to their infant, which is important for bonding. In the past, the bonding process had to be instituted every few days," Dr. David Hicks, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Jude Medical Center, told CNN. "The family dynamics are improved."

Parents can share the password to the live-stream video of their baby's incubator with friends and family who can watch the child on their

The BBC's Frozen Planet "takes you on the ultimate polar expedition," showcasing the stunning Arctic and Antarctic wilderness.

In honour of the series' last episode — and of his last BBC appearance — famed naturalist and narrator Sir David Attenborough recited the words to "What a Wonderful World" over some of the program's stunning wildlife footage.

What a wonderful world, indeed.

RKCR/Y&R, the advertising agency responsible for the 2-minute spot, said that the greatest challenge "was to create a trail that explicitly showcased the phenomenal content the BBC has brought, and will continue to bring, the nation and to implicitly pay homage to the legend that is Sir David Attenborough."

Snowfall can bring out the kid in all of us.

Hua'ao and Qingfeng, giant pandas at Nanshan Park in China's Shandong province, recently celebrated winter's fresh snow with somersaults.

"They get particularly excited when they see snow," park staff member Ma Rong told the Telegraph. "Sometimes they like to roll a snow-house and hide inside. They also lump the snow together until they make small snowballs. Then they eat the snowballs as if they're having ice cream."

Pandas' thick fur can make them uncomfortably warm in the summer months. The snow is a welcome reprieve.

"Snow is nothing new for the endangered animals, which live in cold areas at an altitude of about 2,000 meters above sea level, according to state television," Reuters reports.

Monkeys learn fast. Or at least this one does.

Pete the monkey lives at an animal sanctuary in El Chapar, Bolivia. There, he watched Louis (the human) wash dishes.

It wasn't long before Pete mastered the chore.

"Pete had been observing me washing the pots for a few days before he took over and began completely and perfectly imitating me!" Louis told Amazing Stuff.

"The monkey on his back is a baby female called Pea. She is not his daughter. Pete had an unfortunate overbite which made him a particularly ugly monkey; he had very little success with the ladies and therefore looked after babies a lot."

The latest in extreme snowboarding doesn't require snow. (A quad bike is needed, however. Protective gear is apparently optional.)

Utah's Bonneville salt flats is the perfect place for "salt-boarding." Boarders, pulled by quad bikes, reach speeds of 50 mph as they glide across the barren landscape.

Devin Graham filmed the following sailboard adventure with his friends this past August. The group mastered the salt flats on snowboards provided by the company BLANK.

"We filmed this all in Utah, on the Salt Flats. This was not shot at all on snow, it was salt, I promise, no hidden tricks or gimmicks," Graham said.

"While filming we were able to pull people on the snowboards clocking in at 50 mph."

Do the salt flats look familiar? Independence Day and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End featured scenes filmed here.

Brenda Hewlett, 59, needed a new truck.

"She had been in to get some service work done to her old truck, and had said 'God, I wish I could afford a new truck — mine is falling apart,'" said Scott Coupal, of the Frenchie's Ford dealership in Massena, New York.

The dealership happened to be holding a draw for a chance to win what she needed: a new 2011 Ford F-150 4x4.

Hewlett promptly filled out a ballot. The next day, at an Akwesasne Warriors game, her name was drawn.

"The only problem was that the final step would require her to shoot a puck from 114-feet away into a hole that is barely larger than the size of a regulation hockey puck.  It is a feat that is difficult enough for anyone who has played hockey their entire life, let alone someone who has never previously held a hockey stick or shot a puck," Total Pro Sports reported.

Still, Hewlett arrived at a local rink and aimed for the small hole 114 away. Her first-ever shot at net won her the Ford truck.

Watch her incredible