http://www.care2.com/greenliving/3-stories-of-animal-kindness-to-humans.html
Animal Kindness: 3 Stories
Animals can be utterly amazing creatures, especially when they are interacting with people in what seem like unlikely ways. Many inspiring stories of animal kindness towards people can be found in Random Acts of Kindness by Animals, by Stephanie LaLans. Here are three that just take my breath away:
ELEPHANT FRIENDS
James Wentworth Day, the wildlife writer, related this incident that was described to him by Commander David Blunt, who held the title of Cultivation Protector of Tanganyika. An African woman had placed her baby in the shade of a tree while she worked.
An elephant herd strolled by and saw the baby. Several of the elephants pulled leafy branches from the tree and covered the sleeping babe with them. Flies can be a problem in this part of Africa and the branches protected the infant from the flies.
The elephants were so gentle and quiet about this that they did not even wake the baby. The elephants then departed.
I will remember what I wasI am sick of rope and chain.
I will remember my old strength
And all of my forest affairs.
I will not sell my back to man
For a bundle of sugar-cane.
I will go out to my own kind
And the wood-folk in their lairs.
I will go out until the day.
Until the morning break,
Out to the winds’ untainted kiss,
The water ’s clean caress.
I will forget my ankle-ring
And snap my picket-stake.
I will revisit my lost loves
And playmates, masterless.
–Rudyard Kipling, “The Captive’s Dream”
PSYCHIC CAT
Do you believe a cat can psychically sense a human’s distress? The English magazine Tomorrow offers this story: Bill the cat stayed home while his human was away on a trip. But the man was injured in a railway accident and died a few days later in a hospital.
At the burial, the man’s brother was shocked to see Bill in attendance. The faithful cat had journeyed to the distant hospital grave site, looked down upon the coffin, and then sadly returned home.
“We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man-all belong to the same family.”
–Chief Seattle
ROBIN RED BREAST
When Anne Marie Schilling’s children adopted an injured red-breasted robin, she never expected that it would remain with them as their devoted friend.
Many times she tried to return the bird to the wild, but it was devoted to the young boy and girl who had saved it. The woman relented to their pleadings to allow the bird to accompany the three on a long car-trailer trip, planning to get rid of the bird when they returned home. But the bird’s heroism changed all that.
One night while Anne and her two children were asleep in the bunks of their trailer, the bird suddenly began shrieking. He landed by Anne’s ear, shrilled, then flew furiously to the front of the trailer. When Anne got up, she realized what had alarmed the bird: A large idling tractor-trailer rig had pulled up next to their trailer so that rig’s vertical exhaust pipe was spewing its fumes into an open window–and it was asphyxiating them! The driver was nowhere to be found. She closed the window, aired out her trailer and, with the robin’s help, aroused her children from their potentially deadly sleep.
The next day the family drove along a country road with the bird singing along with the radio, something he loved to do. Suddenly he became perturbed and flew madly around the inside of the car. Anne stopped the car. The robin flew out the car window, around the trailer, and back. The woman started to scold the bird–who chirped sadly at this undeserved punishment–but just then her children called, “Mother, come quick.” She found that the trailer hitch had broken; had they continued driving down the road it would have meant disaster.
While waiting for repairs, the local mechanic was amazed by the robin’s playfulness, devotion to his humans, and heroic deeds. The mechanic offered to buy the bird.
“Not for all the money in the world,” Anne replied.
A Robin red breast in a cage
Puts all of heaven in a rage.
–William Blake
Adapted fromRandom Acts of Kindness by Animals by Stephanie LaLand (Conari Press, 2008).
Please send us your stories of animal kindness to humans!
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14 comments
add your comment »Animals can be such an inspiration to humans!
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Thank you for these beautiful stories. I hope these kinds of stories do inspire people to understand we are all interconnected. But I also hope this feeling of connection to fellow animals does not remain locked within your heart as a feel-good pick-me-up, but inspires you to act to reduce the suffering of humans and non-humans. While of course we should be kind to the animals we interact with directly, like pets, the biggest impact we make in developed countries is how we interact indirectly with animals we are deliberately shielded from. Every dollar you spend is a vote. So if you believe the suffering of animals matters, don’t buy factory-farmed meat, milk, or eggs.
One inaccuracy, though: the lovely quote is not really Chief Seattle’s, but Ted Perry’s version. See wiki for a good explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Seattle
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these are really wonderful and so touching!
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This stories to good because it gives inspiration to do something for caring animals remarkable creatures for those people whose not know more about animal behaviour and its complex civilisation.This stories has not only inspired word but aspiring other people to gives some time to know better about this features.This stories influenced many people which really wanted to save African,Asian elephant.This considered some unforgattenable dialog.Guys go deeper in this reading because it covered many charecteristics on it word for you better conveince.
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beautiful stories!! :)
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Beautiful! Thank you. I have my "own" little animal story that really happened. I was traveling to another state with my little doggie. Normally, he would just lay in the back seat sleeping but this time all of a sudden he started jumping back and forth from the back of the car to the front, yipping wildly. I thought to myself...what is wrong with him??? I suddenly had a blowout going 65 mph on a back tire and then I understood. He knew miles before. When I looked at the damaged tire there was nothing left...just shreds of rubber. It was Sunday and nothing for miles except a station which closed on Sundays. Right away a man in a pickup came to see if we needed help. I said thank you but I have a spare tire in the trunk. He ask me if I was sure it had air in it and it didn't. Just happened he had an air compressor to air it up...I was driving in the panhandle of Oklahoma at the time and nothing, nothing for miles and miles. I was 100 miles from the nearest town. I am so grateful for my little dog pound doggie...thanks for letting me share this.
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If you truly care about animals, eating organic meat won't cut it! Go Vegan. How can someone love his cat and not a chicken who is as intelligent as the cat. Just because they are not cute and cuddly doesn't give us the right to take their lives! These stories, I hope, will inspire more people to look at animals in general as more than just food or pets.
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Beautiful!
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Thank you Anne for these wonderful stories!! Animals are so intuitive to our needs and feelings! Thank you for sharing the smile!
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lovely stories, ty Annie.
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