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No pet owner wants to give their vet "the ick."
Ally McBeal first brought us the phrase “gives me the ick” back in 1999, and it’s had a resurgence in recent years, thanks to TikTok. While mostly reserved for describing annoyances in the dating world, the term can and has been used to describe virtually every red flag or pet peeve under the sun. Now, thanks to Dr. Frank Bozelka, we can enjoy a veterinarian version of “the icks.”
Just to be clear, the icks in question don’t come from the patients themselves…but the pet parents. While Dr. Bozelka is clearly just poking fun, he doesn’t shy away from highlighting some of the choices that pet parents make that cause some serious problems for their furry friends.
As Bozelka points out in his video caption, breeders “are not medical experts.” He added that while there are certainly knowledgeable breeders out there—even some who taught him breed specific tidbits—”most of the time you’re dealing with a backyard breeder who is literally just trying to dodge any responsibility.”
@dr.bozelkaervet While there certainly are breeders that know their stuff, they are still not medical experts! Sure I’ve learned a few things from breeders about unique breeds I didn’t know, but it’s not very common. And the harsh reality of being a vet is that most of the time, you’re dealing with a backyard breeder that’s literally just trying to dodge any responsibility. So yes, our gut reaction when people say that is to cringe, sorry. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT JUST BUY A BREED BECAUSE IT’S CUTE!!! DO! YOUR!! HOMEWORK!!! Make sure the breed is a good fit for your lifestyle, and make sure your lifestyle is a good fit for the breed! And for retractable leashes: I’ve seen far more injuries caused to dogs and humans from retractable leashes compared to other leashes. End of explanation. For number 6: stop complaining about the wait times. We know it’s frustrating. The dirty truth, however, is the vast majority of the time it’s NOT the fault of the hospital staff. It’s other owners and the cases we are seeing. #fyp #comedyvideo #satire #doglover #catlover #petlover #vetsoftiktok #drbozelka
Hence why his gut reaction when he hears someone refer to a breeder’s opinion as gospel is to “cringe.”
Even breeders agreed on this one. One wrote, “As a breeder I never give medical advice. I say: ‘please go see your vet.’ Maybe because I’m also a vet tech.”
Next on the list: when someone asks, “If this were your dog what would you do?" then proceeds to do the opposite of what he’d do.
“Bro, why did you even ask me?” he says in the clip. Seriously, why ask if you're not even going to take the information to heart?
University Of Washington Dog GIF by Pac-12 NetworkGiphy
Some people desperately want, say, a husky dog because they're so beautiful and so smart. But breeds like that also have very high activity needs that require some pretty significant lifestyle changes. And yet, people complain when that same breed of dog is tearing up the house all the time because they're not giving them the physical activity outlets they require.
In other words, you can put a dog bred to race sleds through the snow into a 12' by 12' living room and expect them to just happily chill there.
Along the lines of the husky example, pet owners really need to understand the breed of animal they are getting.
“I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT JUST BUY A BREED BECAUSE IT’S CUTE! DO! YOUR! HOMEWORK!” Bozelka wrote in all caps.
Dog breeds in particular vary a lot and some have very specific needs that an owner may not be prepared to handle. Know what you're getting into before making a decade-plus long commitment to care for an animal.
@dr.bozelkaervet True story… Legends has it that Hisoka aged another 2 years by the time she realized what was happening with him… Make sure to follow me on other platforms for when TikTok inevitably gets banned! YouTube: @Dr.BozelkaERvet1 Facebook and Instagram: @Dr.BozelkaERvet #fyp #comedyvideo #catlover #doglover #petlover #animallover #vetsoftiktok #drbozelka
No one wants to be made to wait when their animal needs to be seen, but there's only so much that is under the staff's control.
“We know it’s frustrating,” Bozelka writes, “The dirty truth, however, is the vast majority of the time it’s NOT the fault of the hospital staff. It’s the other owner and the cases we are seeing."
Lastly, Dr. Bozelka listed retractable leashes as an ick, simply because they’re so dangerous. He’s seen “far more injuries caused” by them in comparison to other leashes, so better to be safe than sorry.
While not every vet might have the same icks as Bozelka, it’s easy to see how any one in his situation would be aggravated. Vets undergo years of education and training to help give our pets the best life possible. And when we make their job even harder, frustration is inevitable.
Dr. Bozelka has also shared things pet owners do that vets love:
@dr.bozelkaervet Replying to @konagirl02 May not be mah best work, but it’s still important work! There are plenty of things pet owners can do to make us happy, and most of them are pretty simple! And TRUST me, for those of you that are understanding and considerate of the wait times, the vet staffs are literally singing your praises and blessing your family and friends behind close doors because of how amazing you are! Being polite and understanding about your wait is a sure fire way to get a staff to love you (at least from an ER standpoint). #fyp #comedyvideo #catlover #doglover #petlover #animallover #vetsoftiktok #drbozelka
According to the website KeepingItPawsome.com, there are a few other behaviors that vets find frustrating, including:
Overfeeding, trusting “Dr. Google” over their professional opinion, being verbally abusive or getting hysterical in the waiting room, not having pet insurance or an emergency fund, waiting too long before brining the pet in to get a check up, expecting free treatment or reduced fees, giving up on sick or old pets, trying medications or supplements without consulting them (again, Google can’t always be trusted), and last but not least—expecting a quick and easy fix.
Vets want what’s best for our fur babies. So these are good things to remember as pet parents, so that we may better help them help us.
This article originally appeared last year.
Photographers capture some of nature's best moments.
The World Nature Photography Awards showcase the best of nature's moments caught on camera, and each year, the world's best photographers compete for gold in a range of categories. In the 2021 photo contest, Amos Nachoum from the United States won the top cash prize award of $1,000 for his image of a leopard seal about to capture a defenseless gentoo penguin. Four years later, the images are still unforgettable.
Getting the split-second photo was no easy task. Nachoum had to wait for hours on the remote island of Plano, off the Antarctic Peninsula, for the right moment at low tide when the seals entered a lagoon to catch their prey. Unfortunately, the photo is one of the last moments of the young penguin’s life. “The terrified penguin tried to escape as the game continued. But soon, the end came,” Nachoum said in a statement.
World Nature Photographer of the Year and Gold Winner in "Behavior - Mammals" — Amos Nachoum, USA
Amos Nachoum/World Nature Photography Awards
Nachoun's full photo statement: "For hours, I waited for the low tide to arrive along a shallow lagoon on a remote island off the Antarctic Peninsula. Like clockwork, the leopard seal arrived in the lagoon just before low tide. It put its head in the water and looked just like a rock sitting in the receding water. The young Gentoo penguins only dare to enter the water when it is shallow and when they got close enough to the seal, it turned its head at lightning speed, catching one of the penguins by its feet and taking it to deep water. Once the seal reached open water, I followed it and swam parallel to it, observing its actions. To my surprise, it let go of the penguin twice. Each time, the seal chased after the penguin again, as if it was enjoying the game. The terrified penguin tried to escape as the game continued. But soon, the end came."
Other winners included a remarkable shot of a humpback whale just outside New York City, a majestic photo of an orangutan in a river, and an arctic fox braving the frozen tundra in Iceland.
The photographs are a wonderful example of the dedication and care taken by nature photographers, but they’re also a reminder of our duty to care for the environment.
“The World Nature Photography Awards were founded in the belief that we can all make small efforts to shape the future of our planet in a positive way and that photography can influence people to see the world from a different perspective and change their own habits for the good of the planet. 2021’s competition saw entries come in from 20 countries across 6 continents,” the World Nature Photography Awards said in a press release.
Here are the other photographers who won gold in the 2021 contest.
Gold Winner in "Animal Portraits" — Tom Vierus, FijiTom Vierus/World Nature Photography Awards
"Long-tailed macaques enjoy the warmth of each other during a hot day in Bali, Indonesia. These animals show very similar behaviour to us humans including enjoying each other trusting company. The macaques are used to humans and are commonly found around temples where they tend to feed on food sacrifices by the locals."
Gold Winner in "Behavior - Amphibians and Reptiles" — Shayne Kaye, CanadaShayne Kaye/World Nature Photography Awards
"This shot came out of a 'nothing' outing to a local park. It was the middle of a sunny summer day with harsh light and little activity. After going out with low expectations, I came across this tiny Pacific Tree Frog on a flower. After waiting for it to move into a more photogenic position on the flower, and trying repeatedly to catch the mottled light through the tree’s leaves above it at exactly the right spot, I got exactly what I was hoping for. It proved to me that there’s really no bad time to head into nature with a camera!"
Gold Winner in "Behavior - Birds" — Ashok Behera, Indiavia Ashok Behera/World Nature Photography Awards
"A wildebeest’s eyes being gorged by an African vulture, keenly watched by an African fox for an opportunity to scavenge. Taken at Masai Mara, Kenya."
Gold Winner in "Behavior - Invertebrates" — Chin Leong Teo, Singaporevia Chin Leong Teo/World Nature Photography Awards
"The common red ant is ingenious at traversing terrain. When front scout ants encounter a water obstacle, they intuitively form an "ant-bridge" with their bodies, so that their ant-mates at the back of the party can cross."
Gold Winner in "Nature Art" — Federico Testi, ItalyFederico Testi/World Nature Photography Awards
"The natural creativity of San Quirico d'orcia, in Tuscany, Italy. Waves, shapes and tone created by light, in harmony with the universe."
Gold Winner in "People and Nature" — Sabrina Inderbitzi, SwitzerlandSabrina Inderbitzi/World Nature Photography Awards
"I crawled into this ice cave on the totally frozen Lake Baikal in Russia. First I didn't like the fact that the car and the people were in the middle of my picture, but then on a second view I found it just perfect."
Gold Winner in "Plants and Fungi" — Gautam Kamat Bambolkar, IndiaGautam Kamat Bambolkar/World Nature Photography Awards
"Entrance to a room inside an abandoned house in Goa, India. It is fascinating how mother nature takes over from where man has left."
Gold Winner in "Urban Wildlife" — Matthijs Noome, USAMatthijs Noome/World Nature Photography Awards
"Finally got the shot I wanted: a humpback's fluke with the New York City downtown skyline in the distance. As water quality measures and conservation efforts have started to show real results over the last years, humpback whales are becoming a common sight more and more in New York waters."
Gold Winner in "Planet Earth's Landscapes and Environments" — Sam Wilson, AustraliaSam Wilson/World Nature Photography Awards
"Travelling down random dirt roads can be so rewarding when you are greeted with scenes like this. Taken on South Island, New Zealand."
Gold Winner in "Black and White" — Vince Burton, United KingdomVince Burton/World Nature Photography Awards
"A recent trip to Iceland where we were lucky to view and photograph the rare 'blue morph' Arctic fox. The weather conditions were extreme, but that didn't seem to bother the fox."
Gold Winner in "Animals in Their Habitat" — Thomas Vijayan, CanadaThomas Vijayan/World Nature Photography Awards
"Mature male orangutans have large flappy cheek-pads, known as flanges, a throat sac used to make loud verbalisations called long calls. Once they reach maturity, they spend most of their time alone, about 90%. I was lucky enough to get this fully-grown, matured orangutan giving me the best pose possible."
Gold Winner in "Nature Photojournalism" — Alain Schroeder, BelgiumAlain Schroeder/World Nature Photography Awards
"Sibolangit, SOCP Quarantine Centre, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The whole SOCP team works together to prepare Brenda, an estimated 3-month-old female orangutan (she has no teeth yet), for surgery. A sedative is administered, the arm is shaved, her temperature is taken, while others hold her head or her hand out of compassion for the baby. During the three-hour procedure, Dr. Andreas Messikommer, a renowned orthopaedic surgeon invited from Switzerland, will place a pin and screws to secure the damaged humerus. Brenda was confiscated from a villager in Blang Pidie on the west coast of Aceh who was keeping her as a pet."
You can find the latest World Nature Photography Award contest detail and winners at worldnaturephotographyawards.com.
This article originally appeared four years ago.
Lost wallet experiments show people are more benevolent than we believe.
In the age of 24/7 news cycles and social media algorithms, it's easy to become cynical about humanity. Sensational videos of bad behavior catch people's attention and get pushed into our feeds, negative headlines reinforce negative feelings, and the cycle leads people to the conclusion that people in general are more selfish and dishonest than helpful and kind.
But is that actually true? According to the 2025 World Happiness Report, it's not. In fact, in reality, humans are far kinder than we think we are.
People are more likely to return a wallet if it has money in it.Photo credit: Canva
Researchers use a simple wallet experiment to test benevolence levels in a given area. If someone finds a dropped wallet, will they turn it in or will they keep it? The perception most people have is that only a small percentage of people will return a lost wallet, but the actual data negates that notion. In fact, overall, people are twice as likely to return a lost wallet than people believe. And perhaps even more interestingly, people were more likely to turn in the wallet if it had money in it than it if didn't.
And this result isn't new. Wallet tests conducted over the years have come to the same conclusion.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
"Collectively, these data on expected and actual wallet return show that people are far too pessimistic about the benevolence of others," the report states. In other words, people are much better people than we think.
Interestingly, our perception of people's benevolence is strongly linked to our happiness. The most social trust we have—believing that people will generally do the decent or honorable thing—the higher our happiness level. Ironically, we could all be a happier if we knew we could trust people more, but it's just our skewed perception of people that's getting in the way. "People may be made needlessly unhappy by their unwarranted pessimism," the report states.
And our beliefs about others doesn't have a small impact. The report says "believing that others would return a wallet predicts a larger boost to life satisfaction than a doubling of income." The positive effect of believing your wallet will be returned is also higher than the expected negative effect that unemployment, mental health issues, or violent crime would have on your life satisfaction.
The good news is that we don't have to try to drum up feigned positivity about humanity in order to increase our social trust. We simply have to look at the data that demonstrates we actually can trust people more than we think we can and internalize it. Reality itself is the antidote to pessimism about humanity. Isn't that wonderful?
The World Happiness Report has a lot to say about people-to-people interactions and relationships, as research shows that social bonds are key to our wellbeing. There are several elements that can impact people's happiness—how much money we have, how healthy we feel, whether we feel a sense of purpose, etc.—but our feelings about and experiences with others is a big piece of the puzzle.
"This year’s report pushes us to look beyond traditional determinants like health and wealth. It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of wellbeing than expected," said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, economics professor, director of Oxfort's Wellbeing Research Centre, and an editor of the World Happiness Report. "In this era of social isolation and political polarisation we need to find ways to bring people around the table again — doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing."
So which countries are the happiest? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Finland topped the list for the 8th year in a row. Despite its cold weather much of the year and it's lack of sunlight in the winter, the Finnish way of life appears to lead to higher levels of happiness than other places. In fact, the Nordic countries in general seem to have a bead on happiness, since Denmark, Iceland and Sweden rounded out the top four spots.
The United States landed at the #24 spot, right behind the United Kingdom at #23, a slip in the rankings for both countries. Here's the list of the top 25 happiest countries:
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
11. Australia
12. New Zealand
13. Switzerland
14. Belgium
15. Ireland
16. Lithuania
17. Austria
18. Canada
19. Slovenia
20. Czechia
21. United Arab Emirates
22. Germany
23. United Kingdom
24. United States
25. Belize
Wherever your country falls on the happiness rankings, focusing more on social connections and a positive outlook on humanity may help give your own personal happiness a boost.
A nurse comforts a dying woman.
In 2011, hospice nurse Bronnie Ware wrote the bestselling book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, recalling the lessons she learned as a palliative care nurse. The big takeaway is that when people are in their final days, their regrets are about their relationships and how they failed at being their true selves.
Ware’s Five Regrets of the Dying:
1. "I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
2. "I wish I hadn’t worked so hard."
3. "I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings."
4. "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
5. "I wish I had let myself be happier."
An older man in his final moments.via Canva/Photos
It’s worth noting that when people are in their final days, they never wish they had worked more or complain that they spent too much time with their families. It seems that when we take a full assessment of life, what really matters are their relationships and experiences, not the car they drove or the number of digits in their bank accounts.
A group of hospital workers on Reddit shared their experiences with the final regrets of the dying, and they were similar to Ware's. However, their experiences are more dramatic because they worked with people who may have just had a catastrophic diagnosis or were in an accident, and their reaction to their final days came as more of a surprise.
Here are 13 of the most common regrets hospital workers have heard from their dying patients.
"Some people just want you to let them go. I had a man with terminal cancer break down crying after his daughters left the room because they wanted him to 'keep fighting' and he just wanted to rest and pass peacefully. Learn when to let go."
"So often I see people who are ready to die but feel more tethered to their relationships with others rather than their relationship to themselves in pain. It creates a sort of stagnancy in their transition that I think prolongs their suffering."
"He was one of my first patients as a nursing student, named Frank. He was 92. After knowing him a few days, he disclosed to me his regret was outliving everyone he loved.. that he and his wife hadn’t had kids, and he was 'all that was left' and that he wanted to see his wife again. I wasn’t sure how to respond , so I just listened... and it made me realize how living so long isn’t great if everyone you love is gone. He passed away later that week, and while I distinctly recall some of my classmates being upset, I felt relief for him. I knew he was where he wanted to be. I’ve had many patients since, but you tend to remember your first ones."
A doctor checking on a man receving oxygen.via Canva/Photos
"He wished he had been a better father to his daughter. He wished they had reconnected. His dementia prevented him from remembering they had reconnected years before and that she visited often. I wish I could have made him aware that he had accomplished his last wish. But he died not really understanding that."
"I worked in long-term care for 12 years. I remember a married couple that shared a room. She had cancer and kidney failure. I was helping her eat lunch one day, with her husband sitting there with us. She looked like death, but her husband looked at her, then at me, and said Have you ever seen a more beautiful woman? I had to leave and go to the bathroom and cry. I cried for days every time I thought of what he said."
"I worked as an oncology nurse right out of nursing school. I was barely 21 years old. Had a patient about my age who was dying of lung cancer. A few hours before he died, I sat with him and he was telling me how much he wished that he had had more time, maybe fall in love, marry, have kids. He was so young. He asked me to call his parents, and he died shortly after they arrived. It was awful. His regrets were more about the life not lived."
"In the ER, it's not something most people see coming when they arrive, but it's usually the same regret when they are coherent. They all wish their family was there. Or they cry out for their SO in a panic. It's gotten to the point recently where we tell them 'SO is right here with you.'The look of relief on people's faces just hearing that gets me every time. People just want to not be alone at the end."
"In a confession subreddit, a dude confessed how he was with a man, during his last moments ( he crashed his truck in the roadside, op was behind him, called the urgencies). As op was waiting the ambulance, even hearing it, the man asked after his wife, where she was, that he wanted to see her. Op tried to comfort it the best he could, saying she was on her way. The man died when the ambulance arrived. Sometimes after, op looked after this man, on social networks. He found out that this man's wife was already passed. And that he said to the man that his late wife was on her way."
Firemen help a motorist in a car crash.via Canva/Photos
"It's very likely that no one ever said, 'I wish I let my life pass by,' or I wish I had been a passive observer in my life.'"
"I second this, worked in hospice for about 5 years."
"More specifically people regret not spending more time with family, spending too much time with the wrong people, and not having children. There are plenty of regrets about not going skiing, not learning a different language, not going dancing more etc...but the majority of regrets are related to relationships with other people."
"AEMT here most patients that I see in my ambulance are too sick to talk in these cases but one sticks with me. A mid-40s male called us for chest pain, put a 12-lead on, and he was in the middle of a massive heart attack( for those that know the term, he was throwing tombstones). The sad part was that he had medical training, so he knew that it wasn’t good. We were screaming to the hospital he looked me dead in the eye and goes, 'I should have ate that f****** cake'when I asked what he meant he told me 'F what others think if it makes you happy do it, eat the cake, pet a squirrel, take a nap. F anyone else it doesn’t matter.' He crashed shortly after we got to er, didn’t come back."
"'Not yet! I can't die yet. I still have so much growing to do. I want to see my children and grandchildren grow up...' I am a physician trainee who has done a decent amount of palliative care. I have been privileged to hear many stories and be part of many deaths, but I still can't explain why it is that certain lines remain with me and hit me so much harder. The gentleman who told me the line above was in his late 60s to early 70s. It made me reflect on how I view patients in this age group - yes, much older than myself, but still with growing and living to do."
A woman in her final moments.via Canva/Photos
"I had a patient who I was in the room with when her doctor explained she only had a few weeks to live. I knew her well, spent quite a bit of time talking to her up to the news. The days that followed, she seemed to have accepted she was dying. She lived this beautiful, independent, and successful life, maybe not money successful, but just plain happy. Anyways, when I was helping her to the tub on day 10 since receiving the news, she just broke down crying and couldn't stop crying about how much she wished she hadn't put her dog down b/c they could have died together. Come to find out her dog was on his deathbed too. I guess she put her dog down a few days before going into the hospital, she knew her life was over so she put him down first. She hated herself for it and for the fact she blew the opportunity for them to spend their last moments together. Really heartbreaking to watch, to hear that unfold."
"I shouldn't have spent so much energy on negative emotions / hatred as the things that made me angry now seems completely trivial and I wish I spent my time being more happy and positive in life."
"You'll find out who they really are when they are dying. Kind, mean, chill, blaming. Just keep asking them to tell stories. They love that."
"I spent a fair amount of time with this man during his last weeks. It’s pretty amazing how different of a person he was just a few months later. Before, he was arrogant, obnoxious, prideful, skeptical, and pretty self-absorbed. He was not a fun patient. But in those last weeks - his whole ego had dissolved. All that was left was just... him. The real him. Or at least it seemed that way to me. The man spent his life working as a writer/reporter for a large political website. He was a very liberal man, and he told me that his biggest regret was absorbing himself in politics."
"I’m a chaplain in hospitals and hospices. Doing everything we can to reconcile people before they die is a large portion of my work. I have a lot of stories. Regrets naturally are expressed at the end of life because people want to close their narratives and they are reflecting on everything they’ve lived. This isn’t scary or heartbreaking, it’s natural and a way to end things with beauty. The important lesson isn’t to focus on the regrets, it’s to live a life now of love, acceptance, and mending bridges because you don’t know when it’ll be your time to tie loose ends."
The stairway to heaven. via Canva/Photos