Thanks Barbara for the great photo..I believe this photo shows love as it should be among everything on Mother Earth..
In January 2000, an oil slick off southern Australia threatened the Phillip Island breeding stock of the world's smallest penguin. The little, of fairy, penguin stands 18 inches tall and weighs a little more than 2 pounds. The oil rendered the penguins' feathers useless against the cold.Menbers of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust came to the little penguins' aid, capturing and cleaning them. During the birds' rehabilitation, the rescuers relied on wool to insulate them and keep them from preening their feathers and ingesting residual oil.
To inspire community support, the Trust published a knitting pattern for penguin sweaters in a national magazine. Thousands of tiny woolly jerseys were specially knitted and sent from as far away as Japan. For the fashion-conscious penguin there is a wide choice of colors and designs, even a black and white tuxedo number, complete with bow tie. The pattern is based on one used for penguins in the northern hemisphere, only smaller. It was re-designed for the little penguins in the southern hemisphere. Many older ladies in nursing homes made jerseys in their favorite football team colors and used scraps of wool to make patchwork tops. The jerseys will be kept in case they are needed for future oil spills.
Hercules. Part lion, part tiger, (a lion father and tiger mother), he is not just a big cat but a huge one, standing 10 ft. tall on his back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species. On a typical day he will devour 20 lbs. of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100 lbs. at a single setting. At just three years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton.He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents. "Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr. Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger."
Hercules can run 50 miles per hour. Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia. But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II. Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger.
- Story sent in by Rosemary May -
I would like to invite every one to also join my group to discuss pet safty health and happiness thank you all for makeing me a part of your group
Sand Creek, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Dogs Chase Bulls Away!
An angry bull violently tossed farmer Roger Hanson into the air and then rammed him from the back. The animal then tossed him again as another bull bellowed, waiting its turn.
Hanson's wife unleashed their 135-pound (61-kilogram) Great Dane. But the silly dog just wanted to play. Hanson had locked their miniature rat terriers—Jack, Jill, and Mary—inside a truck because they had been teasing the bulls earlier. Now they were yelping at the sight of their owner being attacked. "Get the little dogs!" Hanson gasped.
Mrs. Hanson opened the truck door. "They roared out like a team of horses," she says. The three flew at the nearly 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) rampaging bulls and nipped at their ankles. Courageously, the little dogs stood their ground under the stomping hooves, then chased the bulls into the pasture.
But the dogs' good deeds weren't quite over. Mr. Hanson had broken his leg and many ribs in the attack. Who came to the hospital to cheer him up? Jack, Jill, and Mary!
Text by Aline Alexander Newman
Fred the monk parakeet is no birdbrain. The bird escaped from his owners, survived four years in the wild, and then found his way back home!
Even though sightings of the bright green parakeet had been reported over the years, the Edwards family was shocked when he suddenly showed up in a friend's yard.
"We knew it was him because he had the same chipped beak," says 12-year-old Aaron Edwards. The bird also kept repeating "What Fred," a nonsense saying he squawked before he escaped.
Plus he snuggled up to his pals just like he used to. "It was as if he never left," Aaron's dad says.
Some things had changed, though. Fred stopped biting, and he now eats only birdseed instead of his previous favorite food, french fries.
"I think he's relieved to be back," Aaron says. “It's like he thought, 'It's been a nice vacation, but it's time to go home.'"
Text by Kristin Baird Rattini
Photograph by Karine Aigner
