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Snapchat challenged its users to share their best pet tricks and these are the winners

Cats can play fetch?

snapchat, pet tricks, dog tricks
via Snapchat and Snapchat

Snapchat's #PetTrick Challenge winners.

Snapchat launched a #PetTrick Challenge last week where it offered users a chance to win $7,000 by showing off their pet's most clever tricks. The challenge was part of a new campaign through its Spotlight platform where users are given the chance to win cash prizes for creating popular snaps using Lenses, Sounds or #Topics.

“Whether it be your best trick shot or your funniest impression, these challenges champion Snapchatters to create Snaps that highlight their unique voice, perspective, personality and creativity,” Snapchat wrote on its website.

The Top Snap winner @loganbackflip won $3,500 for turning the challenge on its head. Instead of merely showing off his dog Nike’s amazing tricks, he recreated them himself including fetching, hopping backward and grabbing the mail. The video probably reminded a lot of people of David Letterman's “Stupid Human Tricks” bit.

What’s most impressive is how Logan holds his hands up like paws as he hops across his house. "This is my pet friend, his name is Nike," Logan wrote. "Today I will be recreating all of his #PetTricks."

Click on the photos to watch the videos in a new window.

loganbackflip | Spotlight on Snapchat

story.snapchat.com

The second-place winner @babyitabbey won $2,500 for her dog Astro’s unique tricks of playing dead, catching a snowball and sharing hugs. Have to admit that if they gave our Academy Awards for dogs, Astro would win one for his compelling playing dead performance. He also does a great job at understanding commands when he finds Abbey a dog toy and gives her a big warm hug.

5 pet tricks with Astro | Spotlight on Snapchat

story.snapchat.com


The third-place winner @joshsadowski won $1,000 for teaching his cat Milo to play fetch, an unusual characteristic for a feline. I wonder if Josh also has dogs that play fetch and if the cat picked it up from them?

My cat just learned how to play fetch😂 | Spotlight on Snapchat

story.snapchat.com

If you didn’t think it was possible to train your cat how to play fetch, Chewy has step-by-step instructions that teach you how to do it using a training clicker. Even if your cat doesn’t naturally play fetch, Chewy stresses that it’s still possible.

“If your cat happens to be one who needs greater effort to train, I encourage you to do it,” Chewy writes. “Training your cat to play fetch is worth it. You will also enjoy the process and end result with your cat. So for those of you with cats who don’t just play fetch instinctively, I would like to state: You can train your cat to play fetch."

The American Kennel Club put together a list of the best dog breeds to teach tricks. It says that the best dog for tricks is the border collie because they are “whip-smart workaholics” and are a “highly trainable breed.” The club also recommends poodles for being “keen to work” and “eager to please” as well as German shepherds because they are “tireless workers and want nothing more than to please their handlers.”

In the end, pet training is all about having fun and creating a stronger bond between yourself and your pet. When it comes to learning, pet training is not just a one-way street, it teaches humans a thing or two about themselves as well.

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Science

Astronaut shares the profound 'big lie' he realized after seeing the Earth from space

This change in perspective could change humanity.

via Rubén Moreno Montolíu/Flickr

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

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space
Internet

This viral bookshelf hack is helping people create beautiful luxury closets on a realistic budget

The closet of your dreams is only a bookshelf away.

Morgan Baiiley|TikTok

Viral bookshelf hack is creating luxury closets on a budget

Peak adulthood is being envious of rich people's closets. There's usually some sort of full length couch in them or a luxurious chaise lounge, a wall of shoes and some sort of automated rack that spins to help you pick out a tie. They are amazing and the non-rich people typically have some wire racks in a small walk-in with no where to put shoes, bags or anything else that doesn't hang.

But people have been finding a way to revamp their normal closets to look like they were custom built and it's for a price tag that will make your budget happy. The Target bookshelf hack has been going viral on TikTok for several months as new people discover the trend and post their own before and after videos.

Users on the social media app are buying the tall $40 Room Essentials bookshelves from Target and turning them into custom closet builds.

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target bookshelf hack
Science

A juice company dumped orange peels in a national park. Here's what it looks like now.

12,000 tons of food waste and 21 years later, this forest looks totally different.


In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs approached an orange juice company in Costa Rica with an off-the-wall idea.

In exchange for donating a portion of unspoiled, forested land to the Área de Conservación Guanacaste — a nature preserve in the country's northwest — the park would allow the company to dump its discarded orange peels and pulp, free of charge, in a heavily grazed, largely deforested area nearby.

One year later, one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot.

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Joy

Teen with autism makes record-breaking Jenga block tower, inspiring Hallmark holiday movie

15-year-old Auldin Maxwell, who stacked an astonishing 1,840 Jenga pieces all on one single block, says using them helps tap into his creativity.

Canva

Maxwell hold two Jenga-realted world records

At the ripe old age of fifteen, Auldin Maxwell is already breaking world records and inspiring Hallmark movies.

Maxwell landed his first spot in the Guinness World Records in November 2020, when he successfully balanced 693 Jenga blocks all on top of one vertical facing Jenga block.

Only four months later, he broke his own record by stacking 1,400 Jenga blocks onto one vertical block, more than doubling the original amount. He then broke the record for most Jenga GIANT blocks (500) stacked on top of a single vertical Jenga GIANT block.

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pop culture
Internet

Are women actually quiet quitting their marriages? Women say not so much.

Men are often blindsided by their partner filing for divorce while women prepare for months.

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

Women push back on claim they're quiet quitting their marriage

By now everyone's familiar with the term quiet quitting. Doing the bare minimum of your job requirements to not get fired but don't really go above an beyond to secure promotions or pay increases. The term has been applied to areas outside of the workplace as well, specifically dating relationships but in a recent Newsweek article, it's expanded to marriage.

Except, Newsweek's article and accompanying video are implying that the quiet quitting of a marriage is more prevalent for the woman in marriages. Statistics are pretty indisputable—nearly 70% of divorces are initiated by women and men, according to the article are often blindsided by the filing.

In the case of quiet quitting marriage, the wife often continues to do the daily responsibilities of a partner and continue having a sexual relationship while planning their exit. But are women actually quiet quitting because women have other opinions on the matter.

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quiet quit marriage
Family

'This isn't how it's supposed to be': Family with ‘good jobs’ lives paycheck-to-paycheck

“Go to college, get a degree, work to support your family. Here we are. Did that. Now what?”

via Mackmoan1988/TikTok and Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

A mom in Pennsylvania is having a hard time getting by even though she has a good job.

There’s a specific trait that exists deep in the American collective psyche that suggests that one’s financial well-being is somehow a reflection of their moral compass. Many people assume that if someone struggles to get by, they don’t work hard enough or make poor choices.

But that knee-jerk reaction couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are countless reasons why hard-working people struggle, especially these days with historically high inflation. Just about everything costs an arm and a leg.

For many, the sharp increase and costs forced them to go from being comfortable to getting by paycheck to paycheck. In addition to the financial stress, many feel stigmatized because of their struggles.

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inflation
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