The three-year-old mix breed has become an online celebrity after his owner, Aina Stormo of Hedmark, recently posted a video of the long-haired feline acting like a sled dog and pulling her on her cross-country skis.

Social media marveled at the “amazing” and unusual pet, which seems to make your average kitty a couch potato.

California-based animal behaviorist Jill Goldman, on the other hand, was unfazed.

“If he has the physical attributes to be comfortable, such as a long coat, and has adjusted over time to be comfortable with the activity, it’s not surprising the owner can ski with her cat,” Goldman says.

In other words, despite what Internet memes like Grumpy Cat might suggest, domestic cats are very adaptable creatures—if they’re taught young, as Jesper was.

Stormo, who adopted Jesper as a kitten, quickly discovered it was easy to bring the youngster along on her family’s outdoor activities, such as cross-country skiing and horseback riding.

“We wanted to make it possible for us to live the same life we had before we got Jesper, and it’s more fun to bring Jesper with us!” Stormo told National Geographic in an email.

Acclimating the kitten to traveling and being outside was only the beginning—Stormo also applied the same training techniques she had previously used with dogs to Jesper.

For instance, when Jesper behaves the way Stormo wants, she uses positive reinforcement, such as a soothing voice or a snack. “I never punish him when he has bad behavior, instead, I just try to ignore it,” she says.

Making an Adventure Cat

So you want to turn your kitten into an adventure cat? Goldman thinks that’s fabulous.

“It’s enrichment, it’s exercise—so long as it’s done with the proper care,” for instance by not putting the cat in extreme weather and safely securing it, for instance with a harness and leash.

“The first step is to start exposing the cat to the outside in a safe manner. Bring it in a knapsack, so that the cat starts to become familiar with smells and sights” of the outdoors.

Goldman agrees with Stormo’s method of positive reinforcement using treats and avoiding punishment, because it “undermines the relationship.”

“They need to trust us, and if we cause them harm, they don’t trust us,” Goldman says.

Know When to Stop

Stormo says that she works with Jesper only for short amounts of time, and stops before he gets tired.

It’s not always easy, she adds: “If they don’t want to do it, then it doesn’t matter how much you try.”

In the same vein, Goldman says, if your kitten starts running from the knapsack, stop the training—he’s just not interested.

Even Jesper, who clearly enjoys his outdoor lifestyle, has his limits.

In the viral video, “you can tell when Jesper had had enough, he plunked itself down, and she had to carry him,” Goldman says.

“There’s no ambiguity,” she says, “with a cat.”

source: National Geographic

There are quite a lot of words beginning with the letter ‘a’ in the article. Can you match the words and the definitions?

Key: 

1. d

2. g.

3. a.

4. h.

5. b.

6. e.

7. c.

8. f

Bridget: Ah.

Darcy: Shall we?

Bridget: I know I’m going to like skiing a lot. Very romantic, very relaxing.

Darcy: Bar going up.

Bridget: No. What? Why? [Bridget whimpers] Um… Er… Oh. Oh, God. [whimpers] Oh, God. Oh.

Have you read Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones novels? Here are five of the best quotes from Bridget Jones’s Diary.

“Resolution number one: Obviously will lose twenty pounds. Number two: Always put last night’s panties in the laundry basket. Equally important, will find sensible boyfriend to go out with and not continue to form romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobic’s, peeping Toms, megalomaniacs or perverts. And especially will not fantasize about a particular person who embodies all these things”

“But if you are single the last thing you want is your best friend forming a functional relationship with somebody else.”

“I realize it has become too easy to find a diet to fit in with whatever you happen to feel like eating and that diets are not there to be picked and mixed but picked and stuck to, which is exactly what I shall begin to do once I’ve eaten this chocolate croissant.”

“Being a woman is worse than being a farmer there is so much harvesting and crop spraying to be done: legs to be waxed, underarms shaved, eyebrows plucked, feet pumiced, skin exfoliated and moisturised, spots cleansed, roots dyed, eyelashes tinted, nails filed, cellulite massaged, stomach muscles exercised.

The whole performance is so highly tuned you only need to neglect it for a few days for the whole thing to go to seed. Sometimes I wonder what I would be like if left to revert to nature — with a full beard and handlebar moustache on each shin, Dennis Healey eyebrows face a graveyard of dead skin cells, spots erupting, long curly fingernails like Struwelpeter, blind as bat and stupid runt of species as no contact lenses, flabby body flobbering around. Ugh ugh. Is it any wonder girls have no confidence?”

“When someone loves you it’s like having a blanket all round your heart…” 

Surgeons battle to save Michael Schumacher’s life

Update 31st December:

An initial scan on Monday night showed "an improved situation" and indicated a window of opportunity for a second operation, doctors said. The family took the "difficult decision" to give consent for the procedure, and doctors operated on Schumacher for about two hours. A subsequent scan revealed a "slight improvement".

"We can’t say he is out of danger but… we have gained a bit of time,” said Dr Jean-Francois Payen."The coming hours are crucial. All the family is very much aware that his state is still sensitive and anything can happen." Doctors said it was impossible to give a prognosis for his condition for tomorrow, six months’ or even a year’s time.

scan – vizsgálat (ultrahang, CT, stb)

to indicate – vmire utal, mutat

window of opportunity – időkorlátos lehetőség

to give consent for – belegyezést adni

subsequent – azutáni, későbbi, következő

slight – apró, kis, enyhe

to gain time – időt nyerni

crucial – létfontosságú

to be aware of – tudatában lenni valaminek

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Update: "We can say that his condition is life-threatening," Dr Payen, said. "For the moment, we can make no prediction on the future of Michael Schumacher."

The doctors denied reports that they had performed a second operation overnight. They said that they were waiting to see how Schumacher responds before deciding on the next phase of treatment. His body was being kept at the low temperature of 34 to 35 centigrade (instead of the normal 37C) according to usual procedure with brain injuries. The aim, the doctor said, was to "reduce the pressure within the skull. His helmet protected him partially," the doctor said. "Anyone who had had this accident without a helmet would not have survived this long."

life-threatening – életveszélyes

prediction – jóslat

to deny – cáfolni, tagadni

to respond – reagálni, válaszolni

partially – részlegesen, részben

to survive – túlélni, életben maradni

Seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is in a ‘critical’ condition after suffering a head injury while skiing. ‘He suffered head trauma with coma that needed prompt neurosurgical treatment,’ Schumacher’s agent said in a statement read to reporters at the hospital where the retired driver is being treated in the French city of Grenoble.

The German had been taken to hospital after hitting his head against a rock after a fall while skiing off-piste in the French Alps resort of Meribel. It had previously been disclosed that Schumacher was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident and was conscious while being transported to the local hospital.

The 44-year-old is under the care of Professor Gerard Saillant, a brain and spine injury expert and also a close friend of Jean Todt, the president of Formula One’s governing body and Schumacher’s former Ferrari team chief. Schumacher is the most successful Formula One driver of all time with a record 91 race victories. He won his titles with Benetton and Ferrari.

He left the sport last year after a three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006. He lives in Switzerland with his wife and two children.

Schumacher suffered fractures in his head and neck when he fell off his motorcycle in Spain in February 2009.  He had suffered pains in his neck ever since and is understood that his ski accident on Sunday has impacted on his old injuries.

The Grenoble University Hospital Center said the retired racing driver arrived at the clinic in a coma on Sunday and underwent immediate surgery for a serious head trauma. He then underwent a second procedure in which surgeons reportedly drilled holes in his skull to relieve pressure on his brain as they battled overnight to save him. A medical source confirmed today that the 44-year-old was in a ‘critical state’ and that his health had ‘not improved‘ following a brain haemorrhage.

sources: www.metro.co.uk, www.dailymail.co.uk

condition – állapot
head injury – fejsérülés
prompt – azonnali
neurosurgical treatment – idegsebészeti kezelés
agent – ügynök
retired – visszavonult
off-piste – pályán kívül
previously – előzőleg
to disclose – felfedni, nyilvánosságra hozni
helmet – sisak
to be conscious – öntudatánál van
spine – gerinc
expert – szakértő
of all time – minden idők
victory – győzelem
comeback – visszatérés
fracture – törés (csont)
to impact – hatni
to undergo – átesni (műtéten)
surgery – műtét
procedure – beavatkozás
to drill – fúrni
skull – koponya
to relieve pressure – csökkenteni a nyomást
to improve – javulni
haemorrhage – vérzés

Match the words with the definitions.

answers: 1-b 2-d 3-e 4-a 5-c

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