Animals

A three-year-old boy and his mother sent a letter to heaven for his beloved dog Moe, who died in April, and in a complete surprise, they actually received a response! -illustr8r, IOTW Report

…The allegation was that bad language was used by an employee on the property in front of the sheep, and that they could have been offended by the use of bad language...."

The Tulsa Fire Department tells FOX23 a house fire Friday, near Highway 169 and East 28th Street, was the largest pet rescue in the department's recent history. … fire crews said they brought out more than twenty pets that were living in the home with two people.

"It was daunting because of the amount of resuscitations that were going on," District Chief Glenn Brigan said. "Because as each animal is coming out, we're trying to work on them. I would say we had one if not two companies working just on that." …

Researchers in Japan said on Thursday oxytocin, a hormone that among other things helps reinforce bonds between parents and their babies, increases in humans and their dogs when they interact, particularly when looking into one another's eyes.…

…known for her kindness to all kinds of animals and every morning she would feed the stray dogs and cats that would show up at her home.… also known for taking a bag of food along when she went out so she could treat other strays she encountered… the dogs suddenly appeared at the funeral parlor where Margarita's body was being kept… Realizing that the animals had come to pay their respects to Margarita, the staff allowed the dogs to come in and they laid peacefully on the floor near the woman's coffin… On the day of the funeral, March 15, the dogs even formed a procession behind the hearse… [A bird, too, see video.]

Louisiana …The vehicle was pulled over on the side of the road. It was tipping over, but a couple of elephants…

IDABEL — A Broken Bow man was arrested and charged this week with illegally importing 117 feral swine from Texas to Oklahoma, many of which had diseases that have been eliminated in Oklahoma's domestic livestock population…

SEATTLE - Like the Supersonics, Seattle's two remaining elephants are being relocated to Oklahoma City. …Oklahoma City Zoo was selected as the Asian elephants' new home after a careful selection process over the past three months. The Oklahoma facility has a family of Asian elephants including multi-generations. … a state-of-the-art facility with a healthy environment free of active infectious disease, a high-caliber elephant keeper and veterinary staff, a restricted contact management system and an established history of stable finances and leadership.

“We are delighted to be able to provide Bamboo and Chai a great new home with a family,” said Woodland Park Zoo Board Chair Laurie Stewart. “They will be with a larger, multi-generational herd, which is a primary recommendation of our Elephant Task Force."

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Parton has been released, but made he made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t give a crap about being jailed or paying the city’s fine.

"Oh, no, if I had a million dollars I wouldn’t have paid it. Hell, no. No!" Parton said.

He was actually just worried about the cats the whole time he was in jail and added “God told me to keep feeding them and leave the consequences to Him.”

Source Story by Bud Gillett at CBS DFW

"…an objective measure which probably correlates with subjective experience does exist. It is called the critical flicker-fusion frequency, or CFF, and it is the lowest frequency at which a flickering light appears to be a constant source of illumination. … For people, the average CFF is 60 hertz… Dogs have a CFF of 80Hz… Flies, which have a CFF of 250Hz, are notoriously difficult to swat. A rolled up newspaper that seems to a human to be moving rapidly appears to them to be travelling through treacle."

"What This Police Officer Did For A Marine And His Combat Dog Is The BEST Thing You'll See All Day" [Video from Fox]

…We used to be able to blame the Monarch's decline on Mexican farmers, who cut down the trees in the butterfly's over-wintering grounds.

But in this country, in just four years, we've lost an area of conservation, and wild lands larger than the state of Texas, to corn conversion because of the ethanol boom.

…his backroom blossoms with great fluffy bags and tidy little boxes of possibility, milkweed seed.

The seed, gathered by volunteers across the country who are taking a stand alongside Taylor, will be taken to a greenhouse in Baldwin City where, by spring, he'll pop milkweed plugs to plant in Oklahoma, and Kansas and Iowa.

For 50 years Raju the elephant was held in chains, beaten and abused… legs bleeding from spiked shackles… But last week animal charity workers swooped to save him in a daring midnight rescue operation on the streets of India. … Raju’s rescuers insist the giant animal wept as he realised his ordeal was coming to an end. …