While speaking at Muppet creator Jim Henson’s memorial service in 1990, puppeteer Frank Oz shared an unusual story with the people in attendance. During their early days at Saturday Night Live, Oz revealed, Henson once approached him with a pretty strange request. “Frank, I need to go in the dressing room with you,” said Henson. “And if you could take off all your clothes so I could take a picture of you naked,” he continued.

“Whoa,” a surprised Oz replied. Henson was insistent, and Oz, for whatever reason, proceeded to get “buck naked” for the impromptu photoshoot. Henson even told him how to pose: bent over with his hands over his genitals, facing the camera in a state of shock—which Oz noted was easy to do under the circumstances. Henson snapped some pictures, Oz got dressed, and they finished the show as planned. It wasn’t until Oz got his Christmas gift from Henson that year that he found out what the purpose of this was.

The Strange Story Behind Jim Henson’s Very NSFW Christmas Gift to Frank Oz

Oz went on to explain that Henson made him a large elaborate sculpture of Bert from Bert and Ernie (a character originally voiced by Oz). In Bert’s arms was a ledge containing all kinds of intricate details. For example, tiny photos of the people who’d help create Bert were incorporated into the design. Like Oz had been instructed to do for his photo session, they were all captured looking directly into the camera.

Eventually, Oz realized that the pupils of Bert’s eyes had been cut out. When Oz looked through the holes, he discovered that one of the nude photos Henson took of him had been placed inside of Bert’s head and was now staring back at him. Henson titled the piece Bert in Self-Contemplation.

You can listen to Oz recount the story for yourself below.

The post Jim Henson Once Pulled an NSFW Prank on Frank Oz, and It’s Absolutely Hilarious appeared first on VICE.

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If you have a cat, you likely know just how special the bond between human and feline friends can be. My little black kitty, Poe—named after the Gothic horror writer, of course—certainly boosts my mood (when he’s not being a complete a**, that is).

The same is true for many pet owners: According to a recent study published in iScience, A Cell Press Journal, the oxytocin levels of humans and their cats appear to rise and fall in sync. In other words, their moods and hormones affect each other. And before now, there’s been little research into this topic. 

“Cats are among the world’s most popular companion animals,” the study summary reads. However, “Owner-pet hormonal synchrony is documented in dogs but untested in cats.” 

The researchers set out to change this. 

The Chemical Connection Between Cats and Their Owners

In their study, the researchers measured oxytocin and cortisol in 19 owners and 29 pet cats over the span of one month. Then, they examined the owner’s mood and the owner-cat proximity to determine a potential connection.

“Owner and cat oxytocin were positively associated, whereas their cortisol concentrations showed little association,” the researchers found. “Higher cat oxytocin was linked to lower owner cortisol and less negative mood, while higher owner cortisol was linked to more negative mood.”

According to the study, the closer the cats were to their owners, the stronger the oxytocin link. Additionally, owners experienced better moods when their cats had higher oxytocin (feel-good love hormone) and lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels. However, when the cats’ oxytocin levels dropped and cortisol rose, owners seemed to mirror it in their own moods.

Study Limitations

This research suggests a clear chemical link between the mood, stress, and hormonal markers of humans and their cats. However, the study does have its limitations. For example, who’s to say the cat’s hormone levels aren’t influenced by their owners’ moods, but not the opposite?

“One major question about this study—one that the authors did not aim to address—is about who influences whom,” Bence Nanay, Ph.D., wrote in his Psychology Today article on the topic. “Is it that the cat’s happiness makes us happy? Or is it the other way round, and the cat feels whether we are stressed? Or maybe both? These questions will, no doubt, be addressed in future research.”

Now, I’m no scientist…just a writer who spends more time with her beloved cat than with her own friends. But I can attest that Poe triggers a calming sense of comfort and love whenever in my presence. I’m not so sure I do the same for him, with my otherwise frantic and overwhelmed nature (especially when I’m forcing cuddles on him). But hey, one can hope.

Either way, I’ll be paying closer attention to my own moods and their impacts on my little guy. Surely, my stress-induced groaning and late-night sob sessions aren’t helping him chill. But then again, neither are my energetic chit-chatting and loud cheering during Dancing With the Stars. If anything, my happiness seems to irritate him more. His name is Poe, after all.

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Spoiling a dog with birthday cakes and a fancy bed is easy. Paying to have a sock surgically removed from its stomach can make you question every financial decision you’ve ever made.

A survey commissioned by Healthy Paws Pet Insurance and Money.com asked 1,542 American dog and cat owners about the financial realities of having pets. Some 77% consider their animals practically children, but 76% admitted there’s a price at which they’d consider turning down treatment their vet recommends. For about a third, that limit is under $1,000.

Healthy Paws obviously has an interest in getting people worried about vet bills, given that it sells pet insurance. But the cost of veterinary care is a genuine concern, and other research has found that owners are already skipping treatments they can’t afford.

Pet Owners Are Facing an Impossible Choice as Veterinary Bills Continue to Climb

A PetSmart Charities and Gallup study of 2,498 pet owners found that 52% had skipped or declined recommended veterinary care in the previous year. Among those who passed on care, 71% cited financial concerns.

And veterinary care has gotten significantly more expensive. Prices climbed roughly 43% between January 2021 and January 2026, according to Labor Department figures cited by Healthy Paws. Veterinarian Matthew Murdoch told the New York Post that an X-ray used to cost about as much as dinner for two. These days, he compared the price to a weekend getaway.

The consequences can be heartbreaking. Veterinarians even have a term for euthanizing an animal with a treatable condition because the owner can’t afford care: economic euthanasia. Veterinarian Barry Kipperman has argued that the profession should treat it with the same urgency as a disease that needs preventing.

Pet insurance can give owners another option, but it has its own costs and limitations. In a 2021 University of Melbourne study involving 147 dogs with gastric dilatation-volvulus, a life-threatening stomach condition, insured dogs were less likely to be euthanized before surgery. It’s a small study involving one emergency condition, but the association is hard to ignore.

For some people, the expense of having a pet has gotten so high they’ve had to give up the animal altogether. In a 2024 LendingTree survey, 12% of pet owners said they’d surrendered a pet because they couldn’t afford to care for it. That number was even higher among Gen Z respondents, at 25%.

You can love your dog like a member of the family and still have a mortgage, groceries, and a bank account that can’t absorb a surprise surgery. Building an emergency fund or looking into insurance before a pet develops health issues could help, though neither guarantees you’ll be able to cover every bill.

Unfortunately, dogs have no idea how expensive eating a sock can be.

The post How Much Would You Spend to Save Your Pet’s Life? Here’s Where Americans Draw the Line. appeared first on VICE.

Dog people assume everyone wants to meet their dog. A good chunk of America would rather they didn’t.

A Talker Research survey of 2,000 Americans asked where people would be irritated to see someone else’s pet. Restaurants topped the list, with 48% saying a dog nearby while eating would bother them. Grocery stores came in second at 45%, followed by doctors’ offices and hospitals at 39%.

Baby boomers were especially particular about where dogs belong. They were twice as likely as Gen Z respondents to object to pets on airplanes (32% versus 16%) and nearly three times as likely to mind them at stadiums (33% versus 13%). 

Here’s the full top 10:

• Restaurants (48%)
• Grocery stores (45%)
• Doctors’ offices and hospitals (39%)
• Coffee shops (32%)
• Workplaces and offices (29%)
• Airplanes (27%)
• Arenas and stadiums (26%)
• Public transit (22%)
• Hotels (18%)
• Public beaches (18%)

Pet dogs generally aren’t allowed inside restaurants in the first place. The FDA’s Food Code permits service animals indoors and allows pet dogs on outdoor patios under certain conditions, provided state and local rules permit it.

Airlines have rules about this, too. Under a 2020 Department of Transportation rule, carriers no longer have to recognize emotional support animals as service animals. Trained service dogs receive different protections, while other pets have to follow the airline’s usual policies, including any fees.

Some of these, though, are a hard no from me. No dogs in hotels? Where are pet owners supposed to stay on road trips? And people who don’t like dogs on beaches can get right on outta here. Sure, we can have some designated hours, but I’ve never seen a happier dog than mine running at full sprint down an empty stretch of beach.

There’s room for a little common sense here. No one needs your dog wandering around the grocery store or sniffing someone’s dinner. But a pet-friendly hotel or a beach where dogs are allowed? Bring a poop bag and have some spatial awareness. What happened to dogs being family?

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