Lucky It Wasn't A Pig*

Lost Parrot Gives Vet His Name & Address

Lost in Tokyo, Yosuke the parrot was able to give his name and address to get taken home.

CNN reports:

When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught -- recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said.

The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.

But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials.

"I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said.

* Old joke:

A New Yorker, hopelessly lost while driving through the countryside, stopped to ask a farmer for directions. The farmer was feeding pigs, dumping buckets after bucket of vegetable scraps and cut up fruit into a trough when the New Yorker noticed that one of the pigs had a wooden leg. After getting directions back to the main road, the New Yorker asked the farmer about the pig with the wooden leg.

The farmer told the New Yorker, "That's one very special pig, a real hero. He's saved my life on more than one occasion. One night a fire breaks out in the farmhouse, the pig breaks down the front door, rushes up the stairs squealing all the way, drags each of my kids out to the front of the house by their pajama collars, and then pulls me and the missus to safety. Another time, I'm plowing and the tractor turns over on me. The pig roots around, grabs me by my belt and pulls me free of the wreck. This is one helluva pig."

The New Yorker, suitably impressed, asked, "Is that how he lost his leg? Saving you and your family?"

The farmer replied, "Well, not exactly. You see, a pig like this you don't eat all at once."

Dancin' Cheek-to-Cheek

First Time Ever: Gorillas Photographed Mating Face-To-Face

Western gorillas 'Leah' and unidentified male in Mbeli Bai in the Republic of Congo.
(Credit: Copyright Thomas Breuer – WCS/MPI-EVA)

From Science Daily:
Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have released the first known photographs of gorillas performing face-to-face copulation in the wild. This is the first time that western gorillas have been observed and photographed mating in such a manner.

The photographs were part of a study conducted in a forest clearing in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo that appeared in a recent issue of The Gorilla Gazette.

"Understanding the behavior of our cousins the great apes sheds light on the evolution of behavioral traits in our own species and our ancestors," said Thomas Breuer, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and WCS and lead author of the study. "It is also interesting that this same adult female has been noted for innovative behaviors before."

The western lowland gorilla is listed as Critically Endangered as a result of hunting by humans, habitat destruction, and health threats such as the Ebola virus.

The female gorilla in the photograph, nicknamed "Leah" by researchers, made history in 2005 when she was observed using tools -- another never-before-seen behavior for her kind in the wild. Breuer and others witnessed Leah using a stick to test the depth of a pool of water before wading into it in Mbeli Bai, where researchers have been monitoring the gorilla population since 1995.

Researchers say that few primates mate in a face-to-face position, known technically as ventro-ventral copulation; most primate species copulate in what's known as the dorso-ventral position, with both animals facing in the same direction. Besides humans, only bonobos have been known to frequently employ ventro-ventral mating positions. On a few occasions, mountain gorillas have been observed in ventro-ventral positions, but never photographed. Western gorillas in captivity have been known to mate face-to-face, but not in the wild, which makes this observation a noteworthy first.

"Our current knowledge of wild western gorillas is very limited, and this report provides information on various aspects of their sexual behavior," added Breuer, whose study is funded by the Brevard Zoo, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Max Planck Society, Sea World & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, Toronto Zoo, Wildlife Conservation Society and Woodland Park Zoo. "We can't say how common this manner of mating is, but it has never been observed with western gorillas in the forest. It is fascinating to see similarities between gorilla and human sexual behavior demonstrated by our observation."

Scientists estimate that western gorillas have declined 60 percent in recent years due to habitat loss, illegal hunting, and Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which is the only organization working to protect all four gorilla sub-species (also including the Cross River Gorilla, the mountain gorilla, and the Grauer's gorilla), has been studying gorillas and other wildlife in the Republic of Congo since the 1980s. In 1993, the Congolese Government, working in tandem with technical assistance from WCS, established Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park.

Gasping Canaries in the Mines - Hay shortage driving up incidence of neglect and voluntary forfeitures

"They eat before I do."

Livestock owners say the situation is now so desperate, many of them are having to get rid of some of their animals, simply because they can't afford to feed them.

The News & Observer reports:

Rescue agencies are taking in record numbers of horses across the state, many emaciated because of the drought-related hay shortage.

In the most recent case, a Randolph County woman was charged Thursday with 11 counts of animal abuse and eight counts of disposing of a dead animal improperly, after county officials investigated separate reports of a large number of dead horses scattered on the ground and of 11 live horses jammed into an undersize corral with no water and little hay.

The U.S. Equine Rescue League normally accepts about 100 neglected or abused horses a year in the three states where it operates, which include North Carolina. This year, the agency has taken in about 170 -- 90 in this state alone -- said Jennifer Malpass, director of the league's Triangle chapter.

Horse rescue groups nationally -- even those in states not stricken with a severe drought -- are being inundated with pleas to take neglected horses.

One group in Florida is fielding daily calls, up from bimonthly requests early this year. A rescue group in south central Kentucky had to turn away 13 horses this month. Kathy Grant, an equine cruelty investigator who runs a rescue group, says the rural roads in her eastern Tennessee community are lined with pastures dotted with emaciated horses.

"A lot of the farmers around here have hay, but they're holding on to it," said Grant. "When they're releasing it, they're charging exorbitant rates. A normal person can't afford it."

A round bale jumped from $12 to $100 since the summer, Grant said. In South Carolina, rescue volunteers noticed the price triple. In Texas, struck by a severe drought last year, hay prices haven't leveled off; horse owners are paying double what they did three years ago.

High prices are leaving owners with tough choices. Some are voluntarily forfeiting their animals. In other cases, horses are seized after county officials determine they have been abused or neglected.

County officials typically don't have holding facilities for large animals and so depend on agencies such as the rescue league to assume responsibility for horses. The league nurses them back to health, then places them in foster homes until someone adopts them, Malpass said.

The flood of rescues this year is a double blow to the volunteers.

Even before the drought, they were struggling to find space for foster horses. Now, they not only have to find shelter for more horses but also feed them when hay is expensive and scarce, Malpass said.

Hay donations drop

Her chapter normally receives about 300 bales of donated hay before winter, mostly from big horse operations clearing spring hay from their storage barns to make room for the fall cutting. But there was so little to spare that hay donations this year were only about a third the normal amount.

That means the volunteer rescuers are having to pull money out of their own pockets -- and a lot of it -- for hay, which has doubled in price in many areas.

The hay crisis also has increased the severity of the cases they are seeing, said Amy Woodard, a volunteer who leads the league's efforts in the northeastern corner of the state.

As the expense of feeding them has risen, the selling prices of horses have dropped. That has made purchase possible for people who might not be able to afford proper food and health care, or who didn't have the knowledge to keep horses healthy, Malpass said.

'Pieces everywhere'

The horse owner in the Randolph County case, Jauvanna Craven, 51, of Groom Road, Sophia, surrendered her horses. That saved time in court and allowed the county to get the surviving horses more quickly into the hands of rescuers.

Randolph County Health Director MiMi Cooper was so shocked at the animals' condition that she went to Craven to issue the charges herself. Craven could have faced more counts of improper disposal, said Cooper, who owns four horses herself.
"There were probably more than eight, but there were pieces [of dead horses] everywhere," she said. "Do you know what I had to do? I had to count heads."

Craven could not be reached for comment.

She had kept the horses on a 22-acre tract but sold it recently, Cooper said. The new owners discovered a number of horse carcasses and called the health department Dec. 21 to report them.

On the same day, the department got what it thought was an unrelated call about the 11 living horses, which were in a different location. They were confined in a pen that was big enough for only one or two horses, Cooper said. The horses were clearly starving, with every rib showing and their hip and shoulder bones jutting. One had an injury and had to be euthanized.

"She said that she was running a rescue operation," Cooper said. "That's not how you rescue horses."

The Equine Rescue League's Triad chapter took four of the horses, and another agency took three. The other three were apparently owned by someone else, who hadn't known about their health problems, and he took them away.

Shortage hits everyone

The hay shortage is so bad, though, that even conscientious owners are getting into trouble, Malpass said.

Marilyn Kille, who is taking care of three foster horses just outside Chapel Hill, said that people who own only one or two horses don't often have the massive dry storage space required for a whole winter supply of hay.

Normally, hay is abundant enough that suppliers keep plenty on hand, and horse owners can drop by every couple of weeks to buy more. Now, horse owners are competing for the scant supply against beef and dairy operations. Often, the only way to get it is to buy full truckloads from as far away as Ohio or New York.

Randolph County has fielded at least half a dozen calls this year from owners who didn't know where to turn, Cooper said, and area veterinarians have been getting similar calls.

Depending on the situation, Cooper said, the county steers them to hay sources like the on-line list kept by the state agriculture department, or links them with a rescue agency. Instead of suggesting that owners give up horses, the rescue agency prefers to teach them how to keep horses healthy, Malpass said.

Usually that approach works, she said. When it doesn't, the county or the rescuers ask the owner to give up the horse, or the county takes the owner to court to force the issue.

Normally rescues taper off in summer, when horses can graze. That's when the rescuers get a breather and start to build up their stores of hay.

This past summer, though, there was no break in rescues and the hay donations didn't come. So now, Malpass' group finds itself starting winter -- when livestock rely more on hay and less on grazing -- with an unusual number of horses to feed, not nearly enough hay and predictions that hay crops next year might be poor, too.

"It's really worrying because it can only get worse from here," she said.

And The Zebra Mussels Will Inherit The Earth

The zebra mussel (Dreissenia polymorpha), a dangerous new invasive species in North America. While less than an inch in length, it has a tremendous reproductive rate and apparently no significant natural enemies in North America. It's larvae are free-swimming and do not require an intermediate host. They will attach to any hard surface, even each other. They are capable of completely obstructing water intakes at power plants, smother native mussels by growing all over them and completely dominate benthic substrates and remove tremendous amounts of plankton from aquatic food webs.

UPI reports:

The trailer of a truck inspected last month in West Lakeland Township, Minn., was found to be completely infested with zebra mussels, a report says.

As part of a required inspection at an area weigh station, a North Dakota company's vehicle was found to be carrying more than 5,000 of the marine creatures, which are known for their rapid proliferation, the Minneapolis Star Tribune said Wednesday.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Lt. John Hunt said that the mussels were found after the truck was deemed too small for the load it was carrying.

He said the Oct. 27 discovery of the animals, known to disrupt the aquatic food chain in certain areas, helped head off a potential threat to the region and even the country.

"Think of how many bridges they potentially drove across where small items can fall into the water below," Hunt told the newspaper. "The vibration from the road or bridge surface could have caused zebra mussels to fall off into who-knows-how-many bodies of water across the country."

The invasive zebra mussels are native to southeast Russia.

Protect your waters from these opportunistic creatures.

First It's The Polar Bears . . . .

Now, Warming Alters Walrus Behavior

The LA Times reports:

Thousands of walruses have appeared on Alaska's northwestern coast in what conservationists say is a dramatic consequence of global warming melting Arctic Sea ice.

The animals, especially breeding females, are usually found on the Arctic ice pack in summer and fall. But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich area beneath the Bering and Chukchi seas.

Walruses feed on clams, snails and other bottom dwellers. Given the choice between an ice platform above water deeper than their 630-foot diving range or the shore, many walruses chose Alaska's rocky beaches.

Friday Cat Blogging

Feline Memories Found to be Fleeting

Fortunate for Creme Soda's people.

Creme Soda, a Maine Coon cat, waits with a Cowboy hat before competing in the South Central regional cat show sponsored by The International Cat Association in Waco, Texas August 19, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)

From LiveScience.com:

A new study has measured just how long cats can remember certain kinds of information—10 minutes.

The research was designed primarily to compare cats' working memory of their recent movements with their visual memories, and found that cats remember better with their bodies than their eyes when they have encountered an object placed in their path by say, an annoying owner or experimenter.

When a cat steps over a stray toy or shoe left on the floor on the way to its food dish, it has to coordinate the stepping action of its front legs with its hind legs.

"Animals, including humans, unconsciously keep track of the location of objects relative to the body as they move, and this tracking is largely dependent on signals associated with movement of the body," said researcher Keir Pearson of the University of Alberta in Canada.

Though researchers were aware of this association, they wondered exactly how kitty remembers to bring her hind legs up after her front legs have cleared an obstacle.

To test cats' coordination, the researchers looked at how well they could remember having just stepped over a hurdle. The researchers stopped cats after their front legs had cleared an obstacle, but before their hind legs went over.

They then distracted the animals with food and lowered the obstacle to see how the tabbies would respond. The cats remembered having stepped over the hurdle for at least 10 minutes, bringing their hind legs up to clear the object, even though it wasn't there.

To compare this working memory to the cats' visual memory of the obstacle, the researchers repeated the experiment, this time stopping the cats just before they made their first step over the hurdle.

Turns out the cats weren't so good at remembering what they had seen but not yet done: when the obstacle was removed this time, the cats forgot it had even been there in the first place and continued on their way.

"There's not high-stepping at all," Pearson told LiveScience.

"We've found that the long-lasting memory for guiding hind legs over an obstacle requires stepping of the forelegs over the obstacle," Pearson said. "The main surprise was how short lasting the visual memory on its own was—just a few seconds when animals were stopped before their forelegs stepped over the obstacle."

Research with horses and dogs has shown similar results, Pearson said.

Similar memories may play a role in humans' ability to navigate objects in the dark or remember where they parked their car in the morning.

By actually walking from your car into your office, you solidify the memory of what space your car is in and don't spend half an hour looking for it—well, not usually.

A Peace Owl

Shaul Aviel, center, an Israeli from Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, Jordanian veterinary surgeon Dr.Safwan Fawzi Al Hussein, right, and Jordanian agricultural engineer Baker Hasan Barakat examine a barn owl in this recent undated picture taken south of the Sea of Galilee. In the midst of seemingly endless Mideast violence, Israelis and Jordanians are sharing ideas for protecting nature, using owls instead of harmful pesticides to keep the rats out of the crops. (AP Photo)

The LATimes reports:

For years, Ibrahim Alayyan watched in frustration as rats ravaged the date crop at his lush family farm.

Having no luck with pesticides, the retired Jordanian heart surgeon was only too eager to try a pest control agent widely used in fields just across the Jordan River in Israel -- owls.

"There used to be so many rats," Alayyan said. "But after we put in the owls, thank God, this is the first time we have had a full date harvest."

To the world, the symbol of peace may be a dove, but to farmers on either side of the Jordan, it's Tyto alba, the common barn owl.

Alayyan is one of dozens of Jordanians working in cooperation with Israeli colleagues, targeting rodents with a natural predator instead of with chemicals.

The effort still faces suspicions and superstitions, but organizers hope the message of their partial success will spread to Lebanon, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, and demonstrate the fruits of the 1994 peace treaty that ended a 46-year state of war between Israel and Jordan.

Political benefits aside, the project is driven foremost by environmental concerns.

In the late 1970s, chemicals killed hundreds of birds in northern Israel, said Yossi Leshem, an Israeli ornithologist and director of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration.

So Leshem persuaded Sde Eliyahu, a kibbutz south of the Sea of Galilee, to try owls, which can eat up to 10 rodents a day. All the farmers needed was to build boxes where the birds could mate and raise their young.

"I put up 14 barn owl boxes, and everybody laughed at me," said Shauli Aviel, who oversees the effort at the collective farm.

A few years later, Sde Eliyahu's rat problem had vanished, he said. More than 60 nesting boxes now sit on the grounds of the kibbutz, and the technique has caught on with other farmers along the Jordan.

Yet as the owl population grew, the birds increasingly began flying -- and looking to nest -- across the nearby border with Jordan, where pesticide use remains rampant. Chemicals seeped into the water table, and owls were poisoned by eating contaminated rodents.

Then came the peace treaty, Israelis and Jordanians got used to being good neighbors, and in late 2002 Aviel and fellow Israeli farmers planned a regional conference on barn owls to explain their advantages to colleagues across the Jordan River.

The response was discouraging. Many Arabs consider owls the same way others view black cats -- as bad luck. Word came back to the Israelis that no Jordanians would attend.

So the organizers changed the title of the conference to focus on organic farming, and two dozen Jordanians turned up. Midway through the gathering they were given a demonstration on owls, and soon Jordanian farmers were asking how they could attract owls to their fields, Aviel said.

With funding from the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, Ohio, the kibbutz gave the Jordanians advice and building materials. More than three dozen nesting boxes have since been put up in Jordan, organizers said.

Among the most eager participants was Alayyan, a former chief of cardiovascular surgery at a Jordanian hospital. He agreed to build a nesting box at his family's farm in the village of Sheik Hussein, six miles from Aviel's kibbutz.

"For me, it was a real pleasure to find a man like that on the other side of the border," said Aviel, as he and Alayyan surveyed a group of newborn owl nestlings. Unable to communicate in their own languages, the two men spoke to each other in English, but when it came to nature and conservation, "He spoke in my language," Aviel said.

The project also has gotten support from political and former military leaders in both countries, including Mansour Abu Rashed, the former head of Jordanian intelligence.

Rashed, who heads the Amman Center for Peace and Development, said organizers are "under no illusions" the owl project will ease Mideast tensions; the goal is simply "to bring people together, to let them talk and build confidence."

But obstacles remain. After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Israeli farmers delayed the initial delivery of building materials to Jordan for the owl boxes because of the tense atmosphere. Arabic posters promoting the benefits of barn owls make no mention of Israel.

Some Israeli organizers have expressed frustration at the pace of progress in Jordan. And last month, some nesting boxes on Jordanian farms were stolen or vandalized. Although it was unclear whether the vandalism was driven by owl-phobia or by Israel's involvement, it upset Leshem, the Israeli ornithologist.

"We are wasting our money and time, coming and putting boxes -- and then, suddenly, they are destroyed," he said after a recent meeting with the Jordanians.

"It's a new project in our area," explained Abu Rashed, the retired general. "Nobody knows what's inside" the boxes.

Organizers also say the project has gained little traction among Palestinians, because of security restrictions that make it hard for them and Israelis to travel to each other's territory for meetings.

Still, even when tensions run high, the environment is one of the few areas where Israelis and Arabs cooperate. The owl conference went ahead at a time when the Palestinian uprising against Israel was at its peak, and during that uprising, Israeli and Palestinian officials maintained contacts on issues such as water quality and waste removal.

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in southern Israel trains Jewish and Arab students, including Jordanians and Palestinians, in solving ecological problems.

Friends of the Earth-Middle East, an organization of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmentalists, leads joint efforts to clean up the Jordan River and promote eco-tourism packages on both sides of the border.

"We're doing something our governments are not able to do," says Mira Edelstein, an organization spokeswoman. "If people know how to highlight the environmental benefits that can come out of this type of cooperation, then it's not political anymore."

When it's in their mutual interest, people find a way to get along.

Romney, The Hoser

Except Mormon Romney can't blame it on beer-drinking.



What Was It Like For Romney's Dog? Scientists weigh in on Mitt Romney's dog's experience of being on roof of car for 12-hour road trip. ABC News reports:

It may sound like a scene from Chevy Chase's "National Lampoon's Vacation." Mom and Dad pack their five boys into a white Chevy station wagon, load the luggage into the back, strap the dog to the top of the car and begin the annual family road trip from Boston to their summer home in Ontario.

Actually, it's not a movie. It's the true story of Mitt Romney's 1983 family vacation, according to an article in Wednesday's Boston Globe.

The article pegged Romney, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Massachusetts, as a family man, father to five sons, adoring husband and dog's not-so best friend. Using a 1983 family vacation to talk about Romney's family values, a shocking paragraph caught the eye of animal rights groups and angered pet owners across the country.

"Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family's hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon's roof rack. He'd built a windshield for the carrier, to make the ride more comfortable for the dog," read the article.

Jordan Kaplan, the owner of Petaholics, a dog walking service in New York City, and a lifelong dog owner and dog lover, said Romney's actions were uncalled for.

"It would be one thing if someone put it down or forgot and then drove 50 feet and realized what they did," said Kaplan. "I don't know anyone who would purposefully do that to a dog."

Physicist Dr. W.J. Llope, a senior faculty fellow at Rice University in the department of physics and astronomy, has his theory about the Romney's decision to strap Seamus to the top of the car.

"Seeing the inside of the car is full, Romney absentmindedly says to himself, 'Where am I going to put ole Seamus here?' and hearing his name, the dog says, 'Roof, roof,'" said Llope.

What Happens to a Dog on a Roof Traveling 50 MPH?

All kidding aside, what exactly would be the dangers of strapping the family pet to the roof of a speeding vehicle for 12 hours?

Llope said putting a dog on top of a car is just like putting anything or anyone else on the roof.

"What happens to a dog in this situation is precisely what would happen to any of us in the same situation: Trapped in a box for 12 hours would be no one's idea of comfortable," said Llope.

Dr. Russell Cumming, a professor of aerospace engineering at California Polytechnic State University, got a little more technical.

"At that speed, assuming sea level conditions, the poor little dog would have about 10 pounds per square foot pressing against his head," said Cumming.

And in layman's terms?

"He would constantly feel a little less than 3 pounds pressing on his head for the entire trip," he added. "The windshield would help, but boy that would get tired."

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Douglas Osheroff of physics at Stanford University said the dog crate on top of the car would change the air flow around the vehicle.

"Beyond a certain velocity, the air flow becomes turbulent," said Osheroff. "The airflow isn't going to be laminar," which means it won't have a uniform distribution.

Cumming said that's bad news for Seamus.

"Chances are the windshield would only protect the front of the dog, but the air flowing around the windshield would buffet the side of the dog -- that would be tiring," said Cummings. "My wife's a vet, and she would be more worried by the dehydration of the dog's eyes under those conditions."

In addition to dehydration, fatigue and fright, Seamus was strapped on top of a car for 12 hours with limited or no bathroom breaks -- a condition that was highlighted in the Boston Globe article.

"A brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who'd been riding on the roof in the wind for hours," the article said.

After his son noticed the liquid, Romney pulled the car over and hosed down Seamus at a gas station before putting him back into the crate on top of the car and continuing on with the drive.

Just a Sign of the Times?

The incident happened more than 20 years ago, at a time when Pet Palaces and Doggie Day Cares didn't exist, so were the Romneys just following a trend? Maybe, said Kaplan, but that doesn't make it any more acceptable.

"Certainly, a lot has changed as to how we view our dogs, our pets since 1983. The dogs would stay in the basement with just a bowl of food, and now we have products and services for dogs that didn't exist 20 years ago," said Kaplan. "But I just couldn't imagine anyone would ever do that to a pet. What if they got hit? I would never do that to any animal."

But Osheroff said the inside of a car may not be any safer for the family pooch in the case of an accident.

"In general, if you have a dog in a car, that dog is not wearing a seat belt. And I dare say there were no seat belts for dogs [in 1983], so I don't know if it makes any difference where the dog is," said Osheroff.

He equated it to a dog riding in the back of a pick up truck, a sight commonly seen on America's roadways.

Political Implications: Pet Lovers Protest Romney

Will this nearly quarter-century-old tale affect Romney's presidential bid in 2008? That remains to be seen, but for now pet owners across the country are speaking out in defense of dearly departed Seamus.

Dog lovers certainly aren't happy. Thousands of readers have posted comments on The New York Times Web site attached to a blog discussing the anecdote.

"This can't be real, this has to be a joke, right? Who, in their right mind straps their dog to the roof of the car? I don't care if he's got a windshield on this dog carrier," read one comment.

"I'm also amazed the story didn't end with the death of the dog," read another. "Did he make any trips where he strapped his wife or one of his children up there?"

Others related Romney's actions to the type of president he would be.

"The people who will vote for him are those who think torturing animals, making them suffer is OK. He's a disgusting man, presidential candidate, NOT," wrote one poster.

Yet others seem to think Romney's seemingly lack of concern for Seamus' well-being was a quality that will help him win over voters.

"Mitt Romney will be a great president, he can think dispassionately, with a clear head and objectively," one poster said.

This story didn't come to light through dogged-research by investigative journalists. Romney volunteered it as an example of his cool-headed management skills, "'emotion-free crisis management': Father deals with minor — but gross — incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day."

It's more like, "When Romney's policies create shitstorms, he hoses them down."

Romney's response to the controversy:

Per WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh: "Romney answered questions about a Boston Globe feature story that mentions how he strapped his dog's cage, with the animal inside, to the top of his family's car during a 12-hour road trip 24 years ago. He said Thursday that the pet enjoyed the experience, and he took a shot at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a group that has labeled his actions as cruelty."

"You know, PETA has not been my fan over the years," Romney said. "PETA has been after me for having a rodeo at the Olympics and were very, very upset about that. PETA was after me when I went quail hunting in Georgia. And PETA is not happy that my dog likes fresh air."

After eight years of selfish, greedy sadists, Republicans want to saddle us with another clueless, insensitive ass. (Romney is the Bush family's choice in the 2008 elections.)

And The Winner Is . . . .

Elwood, Chinese-crested/Chihuahua mix, was crowned the World's Ugliest Dog

Canines from all over flock to Petaluma to vie for dubious honor of being named the World's Ugliest Dog at Sonoma-Marin Fair

SF Chronicle reports:

The dogs came to Petaluma with looks that define their celebrity status -- in large part so their owners could prove their pets aren't defined by those looks.

The comedian and animal rights activist from southern New Jersey wanted to promote a message of tolerance. The punk-rock type from Philadelphia, complete with mohawk and skull-logo T-shirt, came to support animal charities.

But they all had one thing in common: a desire for their genetically unfortunate pooch to be crowned the World's Ugliest Dog.

The anti-beauty contest, an increasingly popular event at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, celebrates physical repulsiveness -- and inner beauty.

Elwood, the Chinese crested-Chihuahua mix from Jersey, was crowned the World's Ugliest Dog after holding off challenges from previous winners.

He sports a mohawk, a scrunched face, a droopy tongue and Yoda ears that make him a natural funny guy.

What these dogs lack in looks -- and that's a whole lot -- they make up for in personality.

"You see him and you can't not laugh," said Elwood's owner, Karen Quigley. "He's funny. He's funny-looking. And that's the first instinct, but when you get past that, he has a very loving personality."

A face only a mother could love.

That's the foundation of camaraderie among the owners, who bring their unattractive darlings to the competition, which has taken place at different Petaluma venues since 1976, for a shot at up to $1,600 and a 4-foot trophy.

Winners from the purebred and mutt divisions are chosen by a handful of local celebrity judges, and the 2007 winner was selected from those two. Elwood then went on to challenge previous winners for the world title.

None of the dogs appeared especially aware of the ramifications of participating in, or even passing, the pre-qualification round, established because too many wannabe participants were not "legitimately ugly dogs," fair spokeswoman Bethrenae Tribble said.

For Rascal, the 2002 winner from Sunnyvale, the competition was just one more stop in a list of high-profile appearances. Ugly runs in the bloodline of the purebred Chinese crested, a lapdog who is hairless save for the squiggly white mane on his head. His grandfather earned the title seven times, and his mother and grandmother have won, too.

Not a surprise, given that owner Dane Andrews has been participating in the competition since 1979. Rascal first found fame with an appearance on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno before winning World's Ugliest Dog in 2002, a victory that shocked the doting Andrews.

"I guess I should have had a hint when they had him on Leno that he was that ugly, but I don't really find him ugly at all," Andrews said.

Passers-by, on the other hand, often balk, grimace or laugh -- all common reactions to most of these dogs.

PeeWee Martini, the 2-year-old Chinese crested-Japanese chin mix from Philadelphia, made his second appearance at the anti-beauty battle Friday after coming in second last year. His contorted nose and hanging tongue, which earned him "ugliest face" in judges' comments last year, often prompt strangers to ask what illness he has or if he was hit by a car.

But as with many of his opponents, PeeWee's genes are at fault for the warts, the snorts and the three random hairs sticking off his tail.

Kristen Maszkiewicz holds 2-year-old PeeWee Martini, who won second place in the World's Ugliest Mutt category.

Karen Nau, vice mayor of Petaluma and a contest judge, said Elwood's personality propelled to him victory over the others.

"It was almost like a caricature," Nau said, "like one of those cartoons."

Quigley, Elwood's owner, called it "sweet satisfaction" that the dog was being rewarded for his ugliness after being saved from a breeder who wanted to have him killed because he was so unsightly.

Big prize for a little lady (and dog).

What's Happening To Some Of Our Most Common Birds?

Top Row, left to right: American Bittern, Black-Throated Sparrow,Boreal Chickadee, Common Grackle, Common Tern; Row 2, left to right: Evening Grosbeak, Eastern Meadowlark, Field Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Greater Scaup; Row 3, left to right: Horned Lark, Lark Sparrow, Little Blue Heron, Loggerhead Shrike, Northern Bobwhite; Bottom Row: Northern Pintail, Ruffed Grouse, Rufous Hummingbird, Snow Bunting, Whip-poor-will


The NYT reports:

Spreading suburbs and large-scale farming are contributing to a precipitous decline in once common meadow birds like the Northern bobwhite, the Eastern meadowlark, the loggerhead shrike and the field sparrow, a report released yesterday by the Audubon Society said. [List of top 20 common birds in decline.]

Twenty common birds have lost more than half their populations in 40 years. The population of the bobwhite, a rotund robin-size bird that lives in meadows from the mid-Atlantic to the Plains, has dropped more than 80 percent, to 5.5 million from more than 31 million.

The evening grosbeak, with a range from northern New England to the Pacific Northwest, has declined 78 percent, to 3.8 million from 17 million.

The report covers a period when suburbs and exurbs were being carved out of Eastern and Midwestern farmlands and Southern wetlands. It also documents the loss of large numbers of Canadian and Arctic birds like the mallard-like greater scaup, the Northern pintail and the greater tern, all affected by a combination of climate change and development along lakes and rivers.

While the report, published in Audubon magazine has a national focus, it also gives state-by-state snapshots of declines in birds in 48 states where enough information is available.

“The song of Eastern meadowlarks used to be the soundtrack of summer,” said Scott Weidensaul, a naturalist and author born in eastern Pennsylvania who has reviewed the report. “Now it’s a rare thing. The landscape is changing. Farming is much more industrialized. Development is sprawling across these valleys.”

Although the declines since 1967 are steep, the overall populations of the meadow birds still number in the millions, or in the case of the scaup 300,000, making them too robust to qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The new analysis is the first of three reports. The next will look at birds that may need federal protection. The final installment will track the effects of climate change.

The changing bird demographics largely parallel the changes in the North American landscape wrought by people. In the Northeast, the reversion of fields to forests has hurt some field-dwelling species, and some forest-dwelling species have been hurt by the loss of woodland shrubs overbrowsed by deer.

The most common backyard birds like robins, cardinals and blue jays are thriving, though blue jay numbers have been cut somewhat by West Nile virus, said Greg Butcher, the author of the Audubon report.

The birds that have done best —perhaps too well, in the case of nonmigratory Canada geese — are those most at home in the world of manicured lawns and artificial lakes.

The report coincides with Congressional deliberation of measures like the farm bill, which includes some provisions to set aside agricultural land in conservation reserve programs. Those provisions are under pressure because of the demand for expanded land for corn crops to fuel the ethanol boom.

The report is based on a statistical analysis of two long-range bird censuses, one by the United States Geological Survey and one by Audubon.

Both surveys cover 300 species, said Mr. Butcher, the director of bird conservation at Audubon and a former director of bird population studies at the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory. About 550 are covered by one or the other.

The report has not been submitted for peer review, he said, but its methodology has been vetted in a peer-review process.

On the Audubon Society's website:

How Citizen Science Revealed the Problem
For the first time ever, this analysis combined data from the world’s longest-running uninterrupted bird census — Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) — with information from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) to study how populations of all common North American species routinely encountered in these surveys have fared during the past 40 years. The CBC data are the product of swarms of volunteers —citizen scientists— who counted birds every winter over this period and submitted their reports to Audubon. The BBS is a standardized morning count of birds along roadsides organized by the U.S. Geological Survey and conducted by volunteers from May into July.

Too Little, Too Late?

China to Revise Food and Drug Safety Rules



The NYT reports:

Responding to growing international concerns about tainted food and counterfeit drugs, China said late Tuesday that it was overhauling its food and drug safety regulations and would introduce nationwide inspections.

The announcement, from the State Council, the nation’s highest administrative body, is the strongest signal yet that Beijing is moving to crack down on the sale of dangerous food and medicine and also trying to calm fears that some of its exports pose health problems.

The move follows a series of embarrassing episodes this year involving China’s export of contaminated pet food ingredients and toothpaste. The shipments of tainted pet food ingredients set off one of the largest pet food recalls in United States history.

Last month, an article in The New York Times revealed that at least 100 people had died in Panama after taking medicine containing a toxic chemical called diethylene glycol that had been produced in China and exported as the harmless syrup glycerine.

And in recent weeks, several countries, including the United States, Panama and Nicaragua, recalled or issued warnings about toothpaste made in China because it contained diethylene glycol.

While Beijing has strongly defended the quality and safety of its food and drug exports, and even denied that toothpaste it exported was unsafe, government regulators at the same time have stepped up safety inspections and shut down companies accused of producing unsafe food or counterfeit drugs.

But with pressure growing from regulators in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world, and international food companies expressing concern about the risks of importing Chinese-made food and feed ingredients, Beijing is pushing for a more forceful response to the crisis.

In its announcement on Tuesday, which was posted on a government Web site, China said that the state council had approved a new food and drug safety guarantee system on April 17 and that an outline of the new program was being distributed to government agencies nationwide.

The government said in its announcement that it planned by 2010 to place new controls on food and drug imports and exports, to step up random testing on medicines and have inspection information on 90 percent of all food products.

It said it also planned safety checks on a large majority of food makers and said that regulators would crack down on the sale of counterfeit drugs and medical devices.

The government did not indicate whether it would provide more funds for the efforts or which agencies would carry out the bulk of the functions.

But in announcing the new measures, the government hinted at its weaknesses in enforcement, saying that after five years one goal was that “100 percent of the significant food safety accidents are investigated and dealt with” and that “80 percent of the food that needs to be recalled is recalled.”

A few weeks ago, the government had announced that it was planning to set up a food recall system.

On Tuesday, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which oversees food and drug exports, also posted statements on its Web site about the issue.

“Recently, our country has had a series of export food problems, and that has triggered a lot of overseas attention about China’s food safety,” said Wei Chuanzhong, deputy director of the agency. “This has put us on high alert, and led us to seriously look into the reasons for the problem.”

Food and drug safety experts have complained for years about an incredibly flawed system that has led to food scares or mass poisonings tied to counterfeit or substandard medicines on the market.

Much of the blame has centered on weak enforcement of the nation’s food and drug regulations, as well as corruption, bribery and a business culture where counterfeiting thrives.

China’s food and drug administration, which is supposed to safeguard the nation’s health, has also been implicated.

Last week, a Chinese court handed down a death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of the Food and Drug Administration in China from 1998 to 2005, after he pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption. The government also said that he took bribes to approve drug production licenses and that it was reviewing production licenses the agency had issued.

Some experts say the new food and drug safety program suggests that the nation’s top leaders are taking up the call for reforms and new enforcement measures.

“There’s been concern for a while about food safety in this country, and now that there are growing concerns about China’s international image, the state council has decided to act,” said Russell Leigh Moses, an analyst of Chinese politics who is based in Beijing. “This may be a sign that everyone in the government ought to get in line.”

But the challenges facing China are enormous because its regulatory system is weak and enforcement is particularly difficult, partly because the economy is growing so fast and also because local officials accept bribes and sometimes allow small companies to flout regulations.

Also, regulators here say many exporters of food and medicines are mislabeling goods and shipping them illegally.

Two weeks ago, food and drug safety issues were even on the table in Washington during the strategic economic dialogue hosted by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.

“These are issues China has to deal with over time,” says Rio D. Praaning, secretary general of the Public Advice International Foundation in Belgium, an advisory group that is working on food and drug safety issues around the world. “But we can’t wait. We have interim developments. We have patience, but frankly patience is out the window when people start dying.”

If Democrats really were liberals, and not deregulation-embracing moderate Republicans, they would be using stories like these to teach the American people what good government is all about and what our tax dollars pay for.

It will take China decades before they have in place the food and drug safety inspections that the U.S. had in place before Conservatives took it into their heads to dismantle U.S. government agencies and do away with regulations requiring safety measures and inspections of our food and drug industries. Until then (and until we sweep Republicans out of government and until liberals regain control over the Democratic party), we will dice with death every time we swallow food or medications. That goes for our pets, too.

From The State That Gave Us Fred Thompson*, Jeff Sessions, and Truman Capote . . . .

[* born in Sheffield, Alabama]

. . . . Boy Bags Hog Said Bigger Than 'Hogzilla'

In this photo released by Melynne Stone, Jamison Stone, 11, poses with a wild pig he killed near Delta, Ala., May 3, 2007. Stone's father says the hog weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. If claims of the animal's size are true, it would be larger than "Hogzilla," the huge hog killed in Georgia in 2004. (Photo by Melynne Stone via Associated Press)

SFGate.com reports:

Hogzilla is being made into a horror movie. But the sequel may be even bigger: Meet Monster Pig. An 11-year-old boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9 feet 4, from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.

If the claims are accurate, Jamison Stone's trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.

Hogzilla originally was thought to weigh 1,000 pounds and measure 12 feet long. National Geographic experts who unearthed its remains believe the animal actually weighed about 800 pounds and was 8 feet long.

Regardless of the comparison, Jamison is reveling in the attention over his pig.
"It feels really good," Jamison said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a good accomplishment. I probably won't ever kill anything else that big."

Jamison, who killed his first deer at age 5, was hunting with father Mike Stone and two guides in east Alabama on May 3 when he bagged Monster Pig. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

Through it all, there was the fear that the animal would turn and charge them, as wild boars have a reputation for doing.

"I was a little bit scared, a little bit excited," said Jamison, who lives in Pickensville on the Mississippi border. He just finished the sixth grade on the honor roll at Christian Heritage Academy, a small, private school.

His father said that, just to be extra safe, he and the guides had high-powered rifles aimed and ready to fire in case the beast, with 5-inch tusks, decided to charge.

With the animal finally dead in a creek bed on the 2,500-acre Lost Creek Plantation, a commercial hunting preserve in Delta, trees had to be cut down and a backhoe brought in to bring Jamison's prize out of the woods.

It was hauled on a truck to the Clay County Farmers Exchange in Lineville, where Jeff Kinder said they used his scale, recently calibrated, to weigh the hog.

Kinder's scale measures only to the nearest 10, but Mike Stone said it balanced one notch past the 1,050-pound mark.

"It probably weighed 1,060 pounds. We were just afraid to change it once the story was out," he said.

The hog's head is being mounted by Jerry Cunningham of Jerry's Taxidermy. Cunningham said the animal measured 54 inches around the head, 74 inches around the shoulders and 11 inches from the eyes to the end of its snout.

"It's huge," he said. "It's just the biggest thing I've ever seen."

Mike Stone is having sausage made from the rest of the animal. "We'll probably get 500 to 700 pounds," he said.

Jamison, meanwhile, has been offered a small part in "The Legend of Hogzilla," a small-time horror flick based on the tale of the Georgia boar. The movie is holding casting calls with plans to begin filming in Georgia.

Jamison is enjoying the newfound celebrity generated by the hog hunt, but he said he prefers hunting pheasants to monster pigs: "They are a little less dangerous."

I'd hold off on eating that pig.

Delta, Alabama is right down from Fort McClellan, home to the U.S. Army Combat Developments Command Chemical Biological-Radiological Agency and the U.S. Army Chemical School and Chemical Decontamination Training Facility (CDTF), where chemical soldiers worked with live nerve agents.

Friday Cat Blogging

Mystery Cat Takes Regular Bus To The Shops



London's Daily Mail reports:

Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week.

The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop.

The cat, nicknamed Macavity, has one blue eye and one green eye

The cat was nicknamed Macavity after the mystery cat in T.S Elliot's poem. He gets on the bus in front of a row of 1950s semi-detached houses and jumps off at a row of shops down the road which include a fish and chip shop.

Driver Bill Khunkhun, 49, who first saw the cat jumping from the bus in January, said: "It is really odd, the first time I saw the cat jumping off the bus with a group of passengers. I hadn't seen it get on which was a bit confusing.

"The next day I pulled up on Churchill Road to let a couple of passengers on. As soon as I opened the doors the cat ran towards the bus, jumped on and ran under one of the seats, I don't think any of the passengers noticed.

"Because I had seen it jump off the day before I carried on driving and sure enough when I stopped just down the road he jumped off - I don't know why he would catch the bus but he seems to like it. I told some of the other drivers on this route and they have seen him too."

Since January, when the cat first caught the bus he has done it two or three times a week and always gets on and off at the same stops.

Passenger, Paul Brennan, 19, who catches the 331 to work, said: "I first noticed the cat a few weeks ago. At first I thought it had been accompanied by its owner but after the first stop it became quite clear he was on his own.

"He sat at the front of the bus, waited patiently for the next stop and then got off. It was was quite strange at first but now it just seems normal. I suppose he is the perfect passenger really - he sits quietly, minds his own business and then gets off."

Unholy Alliance

"North Korean Commies ate my giant rabbits!" says a German rabbit breeder who sold 12 of his animals to North Korea so the communist country could start its own breeding program fears they have been eaten by officials.

Karl Szmolinsky with one of his giant rabbits, which weighs 23lb

From the Telegraph:
Karl Szmolinsky sent the huge rabbits, which can grow as big as dogs and produce 15lb (7kg) of meat, to North Korea last year so they could be bred and used to ease desperate food shortages.

He thought they were being kept at a zoo in the capital Pyongyang and was planning to travel to the country after Easter to give advice on setting up a breeding facility.

But the 68-year-old says his trip has been cancelled and he suspects it may be because communist officials have eaten the rabbits, which he sold for a cut-price €80 (£54) each rather than the usual €200.

Mr Szmolinsky, who has won prizes for his rabbits during 47 years of breeding them, said: "That’s an assumption, not an assertion. But they’re not getting any more.

"I think the animals aren’t alive any more. I was due to go and inspect the animals and look at the facility.

"They kept delaying the trip. I would have liked to go."

He added that he will no longer export rabbits to the country. "North Korea won’t be getting anything from me any more, they shouldn’t even bother asking."

But the North Korean embassy in Berlin denied anyone had contacted Mr Szmolinsky and insisted his "German grey giant" rabbits were still alive.

"The rabbits aren’t intended to be eaten, they are for breeding purposes," a spokesman said.

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's leader, is said to be a huge film buff, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes. His reported favorites are the slasher film Friday The 13th, Rambo, the James Bond and Godzilla series, any movie with Elizabeth Taylor, and Hong Kong action movies. He is the author of the book On the Art of the Cinema. In 1978, on the orders of Kim, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche (self-reliance) based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production".

More than two million people are thought to have died as a result of a famine in North Korea during the mid-1990s, and its citizens have been encouraged to breed rabbits to be eaten as food shortages continue.

Mr Szmolinsky, meanwhile, is in talks to sell his rabbits to a host of other countries including China and Russia.

I'd like to know how far Szmolinsky's 'ranch' is from a nuclear power plant.

Screwing around with nature:

According to Szmolinsky, eight female rabbits should produce between 60-70 offspring each year. So, in theory, North Korea could have a large enough population of German Grey Giants in less than decade to begin using the rabbits as a food crop. Each rabbit should provide around 7 kg. of meat, enough to feed more than one family.

If it is true that North Korea plans on turning these rabbits into a high-volume food source to help feed its 23 million citizens, it will be interesting to see how Pyongyang actually makes it happen.

Many European countries, China, and Indonesia do produce and consume significant amounts of rabbit meat. But no major population on earth uses rabbit meat as a primary food source.

Malta is the worldwide leader in per capita rabbit consumption. And, at present, North Korea is not even one of the world’s major rabbit meat producers.

The problems that North Korea faces setting up this programme are significant. First, how would Pyongyang establish such a large breeding operation? It is doubtful that the government could create the infrastructure needed to make this a viable industry. In order to produce 2,273,000 kg. of rabbit meat annually, North Korea would have to build facilities to house at least one million rabbits. The number and size of housing could be reduced by turning a large portion of the public into “backyard breeders.”

But, leaving this programme in the hands of an underfed populace and small farms is not a viable option. Especially when you consider the eating habits of these giant hares. Each rabbit eats close to one kg. a day of grains and vegetables that could otherwise be consumed by humans. Szmolinsky himself limits the number of rabbits he keeps on-hand because of the cost of feeding them.

Nationwide, a population of 1,000,000 rabbits would be consuming 910,000 kg of food staples daily. Should this rabbit population grow into the millions, it is conceivable that the rabbits would end up eating more potatoes and rice daily that the North Korean population.

Necessity Breeds Invention

It just requires the right motivation:

"Good enough for government work."

Humans and Their Animals, and Friday Cat Blogging

Wisconsin Man Spears a 6-Foot Sturgeon:

The fish's long shadow slid under the ice, causing Darren Horness to blink. "I was skimming some ice off the hole, and all the sudden I thought I caught a little bit of movement, and I had to kind of take a step back," said Horness, 36, of Howards Grove. "The fish was actually coming up into the hole, I just could see part of it and could tell it was a kind of a nice fish, but I had no idea how big it really was."

The 102-pound, 72-inch sturgeon was nearly as long as he was tall.

He had cut a hole through the 16 inches of ice on Lake Winnebago, and the sturgeon arched through it, coming within six inches of the surface. Horness heard the fish's back scrape the ice on the bottom edge of the hole.

"I had to get down on my knees and I had to spear almost horizontal because it was so high up into the hole," he said. "I didn't know how good of a hit that I had on it because it was such a weird throw."

The spear lodged in the fish's tail, about two feet from the end. Within minutes, the female was tiring and had moved close enough to the surface for Horness to see what he'd caught.

"My knees just almost buckled because it looked so humongous in the water," he said.

It's Westminster Kennel Club Show Time Again:

Bill Cosby's Dandie Dinmont, Fineus Fogg, goes for Best in Show:

The Westminster Kennel Club competition is threatening to turn into the Cosby show.

It's no joke - comedian Bill Cosby's terrier could win Best in Show at the prestigious competition in Madison Square Garden.

Fineus Fogg, the contest's only Dandie Dinmont terrier, was awarded Best in Breed and Best in Category yesterday, qualifying him to compete against six other finalists for the grand title tonight.

"They were all beautiful dogs out there," Cosby's daughter Erinn Cosby told The Associated Press, "but there was only one."

Cosby wasn't there last night; the dog's handler said the star thinks he has bad luck, and didn't want it to rub off on Fineus Fogg, rated as the country's top dog.

But now that the dog, also known as Harry, has won, all bets are off.

I bet 'Harry' is Camille's dog:
Camille (Mrs. Bill) Cosby



The story of 'Fat Cat' 'Goliath' 'Hercules':

For four years the pudgy kitty was Earnest's constant companion. Earnest, 31, has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the mucus lining of the lungs and leads to breathing problems. In June, Earnest flew to Seattle for a rare double-lung transplant at the University of Washington Medical Center. A housesitter watched Hercules, but the cat disappeared and Earnest assumed his beloved pet was dead.

But Hercules, it turned out, was alive and well -- so well that last month he sneaked into a stranger's garage, snacked on food and got his ample frame stuck exiting through a doggie door. He landed at the Oregon Humane Society, which alerted reporters to the cat's escapades. His story was picked up by reporters, was aired on local television news and eventually spread worldwide.

One night in early January, while watching television, Earnest saw the fat cat's mug flash on the screen during a newscast.

That looks like Hercules, he thought.

Indeed it was.

These days, Earnest speaks to schools and community groups about twice a week, and sometimes his famous cat tags along. Earnest -- told at age 29 that he would die without a lung transplant -- talks about his own experience as an organ transplant recipient and encourages others to become organ donors.

In his talks, he's always sure to mention Hercules.

The way Earnest sees it, he and his cat have something in common.

"He came back from the dead like I did," he said.

Most days, Hercules can be found resting, more like dozing, on a towel draped on Earnest's bed or footrest. Every morning, Earnest puts his cat on a leash, and the pair head into the neighborhood for exercise.

Since Hercules has returned home, he's been placed on a diet. So far, he's lost about a pound, slimming down to a still-rotund 19.6 pounds. (According to his veterinarian, Dr. Joshua Horner, Hercules could stand to lose another three or four.)

Hercules may look, well, how to sensitively put this, big boned to the rest of us, but to Earnest he's perfect.

"He's just a big, big cat," he said. "I don't want to see him get any smaller."

Earnest and Hercules, Reunited.


American Cat Idol, anyone?:

What's Black & White . . . .

. . . . And bred all over?



Panda cubs drink milk at the Giant Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu, China. Some 34 pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 survived, both records for the endangered species.

Mystery of 11 Missing Dogs Solved!

A snake ate 'em:

Ali Yusof, 35, who had lost 11 dogs in the past three months, found the python coiled at the edge of a swampy area near his orchard at Kampung Pogoh here.

He ran to inform other villagers. "I was shocked to see such a huge python," he said.

It took six men and three hours to capture the 70kg snake (154 lbs.) which measured 7.1 metres in length (about 22 feet) and 60cm in diameter (about 24 inches). They tied it to a tree.

Ali said he had four dogs to guard his orchard, but for the past three months the canines had disappeared one after another, and he had to replace them. He suspected his guard dogs were being eaten by a beast after he found footprints of the dogs disappearing into a swampy area.

"But I did not expect it to be a python," he said.

Ali and the villagers contacted the Wildlife and National Parks Department in Segamat and the officers collected the python yesterday.

Happy New Year . . . .

. . . . But remember to be careful out there.

Spiders on drugs:



Oh Canada, oh Canada.

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