Zappa, a toothless 15-year-old Italian greyhound that looks surprisingly like Sid the Sloth from the animated movie Ice Age, is redefining dog beauty. Owners Sadie and Rosalie Millen, of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, say that Zappa started sticking her tongue out a few years ago when she lost her teeth.

At the end of rice harvesting season, the folks of the Kagawa and Niigata Prefectures in Japan hold a straw festival to celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Dried straws cover wooden frames to form larger-than-life sculptures from animals like sharks and gorillas to vessels such as ships and tanks. The family-friendly event invites visitors of all ages to engage, interact, and play on the enormous structures.

About a dozen dogs traded in their leashes for life vests Saturday for the chance to ride the waves at Jupiter beach as part of a canine surfing competition to raise money for an animal rescue group. Photo: Musso paddles in with Jengo. (Photo by Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

A 500-pound lion and an 11-pound dog have formed an unlikely friendship, proving that cats and dogs really can get along. Bonedigger the lion and Milo the dachshund live together at Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Okla., along with three other dogs. The puppies were introduced to Bonedigger in 2008 when he was just a 4-week-old cub.

Bottlenose dolphins leap off the Southern California coast on January 30, 2012 near Dana Point, California. A coalition that includes Native American tribes, Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council is on the National Marine Fisheries Service for more protection for dolphins, whales, and other migrating marine animals from the use of sonar in training by the US Navy on the West Coast. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Florin Bors, aged 8 from Bacau, northern Romania, wearing a bear fur takes a break from performing a holiday season ritual in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, December 16, 2014. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, touring house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil. In recent years following the economic downturn in Romania, a European Union member since 2007, the tradition has moved to Romania's cities where dancers travel to perform the ritual for money. (Photo by Octav Ganea/AP Photo/Mediafax)

These may look like alien creatures from another planet, but the odd organisms are, in fact, colorful, microscopic life forms found in our forests. The bizarre slime molds, known as mycetozoa or fungus animals, were captured by geologist Valeriya Zvereva. She spent months documenting the common life forms that are found beneath our feet – but are rarely seen. Incredibly, the organisms can move and hunt for other microscopic life forms on which to feed. Zvereva, who is from Moscow, used a special macro lens to capture the vibrant and up-close shots, which show off the organisms’ unlikely beauty. (Photo by Valeriya Zvereva/Caters News)