My World
The world according to me!Archive for Animals
Ok Laika
There’s no question about it I’m a dog person. I’ve always been that way. The all encompassing love faithful dogs have for their owners gets to me. I love their noses, their temperament, their everything.
I have my preferences but really any dog will do. My younger brother even jokes that I could find cuteness in the mangiest pothound. That my favourite refrain is, “All they need is a little love.”
It’s true, I have a weakness for dogs. Hence the title of this post.
Animal Tales
Oh dear, cute and heartbreaking animal stories have been making the news these last few days, and I just couldn’t stop myself from sharing the most poignant with you.
Sigh, this is Gana holding the body of her infant aloft. 3-month old Baby Claudio died suddenly over the weekend, and Gana is taking it hard. And after seeing this picture, so am I.
Gana lives at a zoo in Stuggart. She won’t let zoo keepers near the corpse, so they’re yet to determine the cause of death. According to zoo director Joerg Adler, gorillas in the wild have been known to “keep hold of a dead baby for weeks”.
The other heartbreaking animal story making the rounds this week is about a lost humpback whale calf.
The poor thing got separated from its mother, and bonded with a yacht. The 1 to 2-month old calf was seen trying to suckle the yacht in the Sydney harbour. Since feeding the calf is out of the question, its only hope would be for it to find another pod, and hopefully be reunited with its own mother or find a new one. Unfortunately the prognosis for the calf doesn’t look good.
But my final and favourite animal story is this one about dolphins!!! 
Apparently wild dolphins are tail-walking on water. Now tail-walking isn’t done in the wild. What happened here is that one of the dolphins spent some time in an marine centre recovering from some illness a few years ago. She may have witnessed some others doing the trick. Now that’s she back in the wild, not only is she doing the trick, she’s teaching it to her friends.
Aren’t dolphins cool!
Dangerous Beauty
The BBC is going to air a documentary on a series of maladies facing pedigree dogs. Hundreds of years of inbreeding to produce award winning beauty has also lead to the development of genetic deformities. As one vet puts it, he’s treating freaks. Dogs are paired with close relatives in a bid to recreate prized physical characteristics.
These dogs are suffering because of an obsession with beauty. I can’t help but think there’s a lesson we need to take out of this.
I can’t embed the documentary preview onto my blog, so you’ll have to click here to see it. I’m hoping it airs on BBC World, so that I can see the entire programme.
My World 