Unusual animal friend's
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Photo: KATHARYN BOUDET/KNP
Bassett Hound and owl strike up unusual friendship
An owl and a Bassett Hound have struck up an unusual friendship.
The pair often cuddle up together on an armchair to watch television
The pair have become inseparable since meeting at an animal refuge, and are quite happy to cuddle up together on an armchair.
Beryl the Basset Hound, who is a grand old dame at 16 years old, and four-year-old tawny owl Wol struck up a friendship when their owner realised they both loved watching television in the evenings.
Sara Ross, who shares her home in Tenterden, Kent, with the animals said: "They are both rescue animals and they're like best buddies. Wol needs full-time care and one day I was giving him a bit of exercise and he just plonked down on Beryl's back. She doesn't mind, she's really laid back and a bit of a pussycat really.
"She didn't mind at all and now you can't keep them apart.
"Four times-a-week you'll see them settle down to watch what's going on in Albert Square. Beryl barks when it's over and Wol gets a bit upset too, with a bit of flapping.
She added: "They are inseparable. They love cuddling up and watching television together.
"It won't come as a surprise that they love nature documentaries, but they also like soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale."
She added: "I've never known two animals who are so different hit it off quite so well. They just love being around each other."
Very nice Liz
For about as long as she can remember, Debby Cantlon says, friends and strangers have brought her animals in need: injured crows and blue herons, sick raccoons, all manner of critters needing nursing back to health.
So it wasn't much of a surprise when someone Cantlon did not know called Sept. 6 to ask if she'd care for a newborn squirrel found at the base of a tree somewhere near Renton.
Cantlon, who lives with her husband, Maqsood Ahmed, in View Ridge, said the squirrel was probably no more than one week old; it had yet to open its eyes. The caller had found it near what he thought was its mother, dead, most likely from poisoning.
"Ninety-five percent of those animals that come to me, come to me battered and beaten and bruised," Cantlon says, "nearly dead because people are so careless."
So Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him. But this time, she found herself with an unlikely nurse's aide: her pregnant Papillon, Mademoiselle Giselle, who actively encouraged the orphan to join her own litter, born Sept. 9.
For Cantlon, who has cancer, helping wounded animals is a healing activity. And in that spirit, she says, came the name she bestowed on the young squirrel, Finnegan: "As in, 'Finnegan, begin again.' "
Another amazing and sweet example of the nurturing instinct in animals (inter-species)! An example for us all...
These little bunnies, about 6 days old, were attacked by a dog and orphaned.
Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these three were not doing very well.
Noah-the non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon/rock dove that we have here in rehab. kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in...even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.. Then, 2 days ago, I only counted 2 bunnies in the cage, so I hurriedly picked Noah up from the front of the cage so I could look inside. And to my surprise...there was the tiny bunny...under Noah's wing...sound asleep! The bunny had crawled through the cage....preferring a featherbed, no doubt. Now, they are all together, and the bunnies are doing GREAT. When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah's feathers, he extends his wings out to surround them.. and they snuggle. When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak!!!!!
This is amazing!!!
These little bunnies, about 6 days old, were attacked by a dog and orphaned.
Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these three were not doing very well.
Noah-the non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon/rock dove that we have here in rehab. kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in...even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.. Then, 2 days ago, I only counted 2 bunnies in the cage, so I hurriedly picked Noah up from the front of the cage so I could look inside. And to my surprise...there was the tiny bunny...under Noah's wing...sound asleep! The bunny had crawled through the cage....preferring a featherbed, no doubt. Now, they are all together, and the bunnies are doing GREAT. When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah's feathers, he extends his wings out to surround them.. and they snuggle. When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak!!!!!
This is amazing!!!
A fawn followed this beagle home -- right through the doggie door -- in the Bittinger, MD area. The owner came home to find the visitor had made himself right at home. This Hit the 6 o'clock news big time.
And....it beat out the McCain/Obama political news
Tortoise Adopts Baby Hippo
NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen, and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.
It is incredible! A less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a mother, ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.
After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together, the ecologist added. The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother, Kahumbu added.
The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years, he explained.
http://www.digyourowngrave.com/tortoise-adopts-baby-hippo/
NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.
The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen, and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.
It is incredible! A less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a mother, ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.
After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together, the ecologist added. The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother, Kahumbu added.
The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years, he explained.
http://www.digyourowngrave.com/tortoise-adopts-baby-hippo/
Sept 20, 2008. In the Florida Keys a man punched a shark in the face when it tried to eat his dog, Jake. The terrier got into trouble during his daily swim off a pier, when a 5 foot long shark lunged and caught him in its teeth. His owner, carpenter Greg LeNoir, leapt into the ocean on top of the shark.
"I clenched my fists and dove straight in with all my strength, like a battering ram," LeNoir, 53, said Sunday, reliving the frightening ordeal. "I hit the back of the sharks neck. It was like hitting concrete."
LeNoir explains his reaction:
"The shark put almost all of Jake in his mouth, except for his head and three of his legs. We have no children. Jake became our child. When I saw the shark engulf him, I thought, "This can't be the end."
Against all likelihood, both Greg and his dog Jake made it to shore alive after Greg punched the shark. The terrier did have to get surgery for the giant bite mark the shark left on him, which extended around his chest, back and legs, but he is reported to be healing well. So that officially makes it OK now to laugh at how he looks in his tiny doggy leg cast and I.V.
"I clenched my fists and dove straight in with all my strength, like a battering ram," LeNoir, 53, said Sunday, reliving the frightening ordeal. "I hit the back of the sharks neck. It was like hitting concrete."
LeNoir explains his reaction:
"The shark put almost all of Jake in his mouth, except for his head and three of his legs. We have no children. Jake became our child. When I saw the shark engulf him, I thought, "This can't be the end."
Against all likelihood, both Greg and his dog Jake made it to shore alive after Greg punched the shark. The terrier did have to get surgery for the giant bite mark the shark left on him, which extended around his chest, back and legs, but he is reported to be healing well. So that officially makes it OK now to laugh at how he looks in his tiny doggy leg cast and I.V.
Ray Peterson, Special to the Sun /
Mother duck shows police officer where her ducklings fell through a grate into a sewer underneath the Granville Street Bridge.
Petersen, a community police officer for Granville Downtown South, was walking in the 1500-block Granville Street (directly under the Granville Bridge) Wednesday morning when a duck came up and grabbed him by the pant leg. Then it started waddling around him and quacking.
"I thought it was a bit goofy, so I shoved it away," Petersen said in an interview.
But the duck, a female (he thinks it was a mallard), wasn't about to give up that easily. Making sure she still had Petersen's eye, she waddled up the road about 20 metres and lay on a storm sewer grate.
Petersen watched and thought nothing of it.
"But when I started walking again, she did the same thing. She ran around and grabbed me again."
It became obvious to him then that something was up.
So when she waddled off to the sewer grate a second time, Petersen decided to follow.
"I went up to where the duck was lying and saw eight little babies in the water below. They had fallen down between the grates."
So Petersen took action. He phoned police Sergeant Randy Kellens, who arrived at the scene and, in turn, got in touch with two more constables.
"When they came down, the duck ran around them as well, quacking. Then she lay down on the grate," Petersen said.
While Kellens looked over into the grate, the duck sat on the curb and watched.
Then the two constables, John Schilling and Allison Hill, marshalled a tow truck that lifted the grate out of position, allowing the eight ducklings to be rescued one by one with a vegetable strainer.
"While we were doing this, the mother duck just lay there and watched," Petersen says.
Once the ducklings were safe, however, she set about marching them down to False Creek, where they jumped into the water.
Kellens followed them to make sure they were all right, but elected to remain on shore.
The experience has changed Petersen's mind about ducks. He thinks they're a lot smarter than he used to.
And while he never ate duck before, he says he wouldn't dream of it now.
As Bambi discovered, life as an orphaned fawn can be a bit scary - unless you have a friend called Rocky that is.
photos by Richard AustinDoe-eyed Cindy would have been left all alone in the world were it not for the strong paternal instincts of the Great Dane, who is as protective of her as he is his puppies.
Staff at the Secret World Animal Rescue Centre in Highbridge, Somerset, have been caring for Cindy since she was found close to death when she was days old.
The 9st dog towers over his spotted companion, who he gently nuzzles and accompanies on daily walks, ever watchful.
The two-week-old fawn returns the affection by rushing over to her trusted friend whenever she is in need of reassurance.
Pauline Kidner, who runs the centre, told the Daily Express: "A nurse found her in a terrible state. She was wet, cold and almost unconscious.
"Rocky belongs to my son Simon. I was walking Cindy and Rocky was there and she thought he was more likely than me to be her mother."
Come this autumn however, carers hope Cindy will be confident enough to leave her companion and join a herd of roe deer in the wild.
photos by Richard Austin
Staff at the Secret World Animal Rescue Centre in Highbridge, Somerset, have been caring for Cindy since she was found close to death when she was days old.
The 9st dog towers over his spotted companion, who he gently nuzzles and accompanies on daily walks, ever watchful.
The two-week-old fawn returns the affection by rushing over to her trusted friend whenever she is in need of reassurance.
Pauline Kidner, who runs the centre, told the Daily Express: "A nurse found her in a terrible state. She was wet, cold and almost unconscious.
"Rocky belongs to my son Simon. I was walking Cindy and Rocky was there and she thought he was more likely than me to be her mother."
Come this autumn however, carers hope Cindy will be confident enough to leave her companion and join a herd of roe deer in the wild.
