Tiny Octopus Gets So Excited When His Diver Friend Comes To Visit
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A wild donkey approached a kayaker. You'll never guess why.
Video shows the donkey approach Travis Ward who removed several spines stuck near its eye.
https://www.12news.com/article/life/ani ... ac3354f93c
<iframe width="640" height="360" style="border:1px solid #e6e6e6" src="https://www.12news.com/embeds/video/res ... c5f/iframe" allowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
PHOENIX — Hundreds of donkeys roam free around Lake Pleasant. But only one of them approached a kayaker for help out of 'thorny' situation.
Travis Ward started kayaking about a year ago. He lives near the lake and goes kayaking nearly every weekend to enjoy the desert scenery and the feeling of gliding through the water.
“For me it’s just connecting with nature,” Ward said.
Last week, he had a connection like no other.
Ward had just set out his kayak and was about to get on the water when a wild donkey approached him on one of the beaches. Ward has seen dozens of donkeys at the lake but none had ever come so close.
“He got closer and I saw there were thorns in his nose and his ear as well," Ward said.
The spines stuck to the donkey were likely from the thousands of saguaros in the area.
“I could just tell he was in pain,” he said. “I realized he was in trouble.”
He slowly moved toward the animal and started plucking out each spine one by one. Ward said he felt as though the donkey approached him to ask for help.
“He was being very still very calm and he just let me get all of them out,” Ward said.
After taking out about 40 spines, Ward said the donkey thanked him in its own way.
“He does the donkey noise for about a minute and then he takes off,” Ward said.
Ward stood on the beach for about ten minutes as he took in the moment, before getting on his kayak and going into the water.
“It’s always nice to help whether it’s a person or an animal,” he said.
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Video shows the donkey approach Travis Ward who removed several spines stuck near its eye.
https://www.12news.com/article/life/ani ... ac3354f93c
<iframe width="640" height="360" style="border:1px solid #e6e6e6" src="https://www.12news.com/embeds/video/res ... c5f/iframe" allowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
PHOENIX — Hundreds of donkeys roam free around Lake Pleasant. But only one of them approached a kayaker for help out of 'thorny' situation.
Travis Ward started kayaking about a year ago. He lives near the lake and goes kayaking nearly every weekend to enjoy the desert scenery and the feeling of gliding through the water.
“For me it’s just connecting with nature,” Ward said.
Last week, he had a connection like no other.
Ward had just set out his kayak and was about to get on the water when a wild donkey approached him on one of the beaches. Ward has seen dozens of donkeys at the lake but none had ever come so close.
“He got closer and I saw there were thorns in his nose and his ear as well," Ward said.
The spines stuck to the donkey were likely from the thousands of saguaros in the area.
“I could just tell he was in pain,” he said. “I realized he was in trouble.”
He slowly moved toward the animal and started plucking out each spine one by one. Ward said he felt as though the donkey approached him to ask for help.
“He was being very still very calm and he just let me get all of them out,” Ward said.
After taking out about 40 spines, Ward said the donkey thanked him in its own way.
“He does the donkey noise for about a minute and then he takes off,” Ward said.
Ward stood on the beach for about ten minutes as he took in the moment, before getting on his kayak and going into the water.
“It’s always nice to help whether it’s a person or an animal,” he said.
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Missing toddler found sleeping in woods using her dog as a pillow after walking 3 miles barefoot
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/us/michi ... index.html
A 2-year-old girl who walked barefoot more than three miles with her family’s two dogs was found sleeping off a wooded Michigan trail using the smaller dog as a pillow, authorities said.
Troopers were called to a house in rural Faithorn, Michigan, around 8 p.m. on Wednesday after the toddler, Thea Chase, had wandered away from the home, Michigan State Police Lt. Mark Giannunzio told CNN on Friday.
Faithorn is a small town about a mile east of Wisconsin’s border in northern Michigan.
Brooke Chase, Thea’s mother, said she had an instinct to check on her daughter who had been playing in the yard, and learned the toddler’s uncle told Thea to go inside because she had no shoes on.
When Chase and her brother-in-law realized Thea wasn’t in the house, she said she began to yell. They searched for about 20 minutes before calling Chase’s husband and police.
“When we get a call like that, everything else stops,” Giannunzio said.
Michigan State Police put out requests for drones, search-and-rescue and canine teams, while members of the close-knit community formed their own search party to help locate the child, who was assumed to be somewhere in the heavily wooded area near the home, Giannunzio said.
Around midnight, four hours after police were first notified, a family friend searching for Thea on an all-terrain vehicle came across the Chase family’s Rottweiler, Buddy, who started barking as he approached, according to Chase.
The 2-year-old was discovered a short way off the trail, sleeping on the ground with her head atop Hartley, the family’s English Springer. When the ATV driver tried to get near the toddler to wake her up, the smaller dog growled, Chase said.
“She has those dogs wrapped around her finger,” the mother said.
Chase added she was “in a fog” for the roughly four hours that search teams looked for her daughter. While she stayed in the home with Thea’s younger brother, troopers searched the house multiple times and tried to comfort the mother.
When Thea was returned home on the back of the ATV, the child was giggling and saying, “Hi, Mommy,” Chase said.
The outdoor temperature was about 60 degrees when the toddler was found. Thea was determined to be fine after a medical evaluation, according to Giannunzio.
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/us/michi ... index.html
A 2-year-old girl who walked barefoot more than three miles with her family’s two dogs was found sleeping off a wooded Michigan trail using the smaller dog as a pillow, authorities said.
Troopers were called to a house in rural Faithorn, Michigan, around 8 p.m. on Wednesday after the toddler, Thea Chase, had wandered away from the home, Michigan State Police Lt. Mark Giannunzio told CNN on Friday.
Faithorn is a small town about a mile east of Wisconsin’s border in northern Michigan.
Brooke Chase, Thea’s mother, said she had an instinct to check on her daughter who had been playing in the yard, and learned the toddler’s uncle told Thea to go inside because she had no shoes on.
When Chase and her brother-in-law realized Thea wasn’t in the house, she said she began to yell. They searched for about 20 minutes before calling Chase’s husband and police.
“When we get a call like that, everything else stops,” Giannunzio said.
Michigan State Police put out requests for drones, search-and-rescue and canine teams, while members of the close-knit community formed their own search party to help locate the child, who was assumed to be somewhere in the heavily wooded area near the home, Giannunzio said.
Around midnight, four hours after police were first notified, a family friend searching for Thea on an all-terrain vehicle came across the Chase family’s Rottweiler, Buddy, who started barking as he approached, according to Chase.
The 2-year-old was discovered a short way off the trail, sleeping on the ground with her head atop Hartley, the family’s English Springer. When the ATV driver tried to get near the toddler to wake her up, the smaller dog growled, Chase said.
“She has those dogs wrapped around her finger,” the mother said.
Chase added she was “in a fog” for the roughly four hours that search teams looked for her daughter. While she stayed in the home with Thea’s younger brother, troopers searched the house multiple times and tried to comfort the mother.
When Thea was returned home on the back of the ATV, the child was giggling and saying, “Hi, Mommy,” Chase said.
The outdoor temperature was about 60 degrees when the toddler was found. Thea was determined to be fine after a medical evaluation, according to Giannunzio.
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Florida park gives apt name to alligator missing top half of its jaw
https://www.cnn.com/travel/alligator-ha ... index.html
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/ste ... 850,c_fill
The alligator that was taken to Gatorland after being reported wandering around Central Florida with the top half of its jaw missing now has a name, the park announced in a social media video Wednesday.
And the inspiration comes from a decades-old country music hit about a beautiful romantic rival.
“Jawlene,” named for the 1973 Dolly Parton song “Jolene,” continues to receive treatment in isolation from the other Gatorland animals. The female gator has gained about 0.3 grams, or 0.01 ounces, according to crocodilian enrichment coordinator Savannah Boan.
Gatorland, which took in the gator earlier this month, chose Jawlene from a list of names submitted by parkgoers and fans of the viral reptile, park CEO Mark McHugh said in the video.
McHugh also shared that Jawlene reached a new milestone Wednesday by eating two mice completely on her own using the back of her tongue.
The park has been in conversation with animal and human prosthetics makers about a potential prosthetic upper jaw for Jawlene but has decided to hold off while the gator gets comfortable in her new environment and puts on more weight, McHugh added.
“This little gator is an absolute treasure,” he said.
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https://www.cnn.com/travel/alligator-ha ... index.html
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/ste ... 850,c_fill
The alligator that was taken to Gatorland after being reported wandering around Central Florida with the top half of its jaw missing now has a name, the park announced in a social media video Wednesday.
And the inspiration comes from a decades-old country music hit about a beautiful romantic rival.
“Jawlene,” named for the 1973 Dolly Parton song “Jolene,” continues to receive treatment in isolation from the other Gatorland animals. The female gator has gained about 0.3 grams, or 0.01 ounces, according to crocodilian enrichment coordinator Savannah Boan.
Gatorland, which took in the gator earlier this month, chose Jawlene from a list of names submitted by parkgoers and fans of the viral reptile, park CEO Mark McHugh said in the video.
McHugh also shared that Jawlene reached a new milestone Wednesday by eating two mice completely on her own using the back of her tongue.
The park has been in conversation with animal and human prosthetics makers about a potential prosthetic upper jaw for Jawlene but has decided to hold off while the gator gets comfortable in her new environment and puts on more weight, McHugh added.
“This little gator is an absolute treasure,” he said.
PP
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Rescuers descended into a deep cave to rescue a trapped dog – then they found a bear
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/14/us/dog-t ... index.html
CNN
—
Firefighters encountered an unexpected challenge while rescuing a dog trapped in a Tennessee cave: A black bear was also there.
The dog, Charlie, spent three days trapped nearly 40 feet deep in an “extremely narrow cave shaft” on English Mountain in eastern Tennessee, according to a Facebook post from the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
A rescue team consisting of “rope rescue technicians” from several fire departments set off on the mission to free Charlie on Tuesday, the Facebook post says. The team hiked to the mouth of the cave, where firefighter Tori Downing and captain Jon Lanier descended into the cave.
“Things took a turn when Firefighter Downing rounded a corner and found a bear sleeping five feet below her and the trapped hunting dog farther in the cave system,” reads the Facebook post.
Charlie’s unwitting companion was a 2-year-old black bear weighing an estimated 200 pounds, according to the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
The rescue team left the cave and set up trail cameras to track when the bear left the cave, the Facebook post says.
On Wednesday, they determined that the bear “had left the cave and not returned.”
With the cave “bear-free,” the stage was set for Charlie’s rescue. Three firefighters descended into the cave on a rope system. But initially, it seemed they would still be unable to retrieve the trapped canine.
“At first, we actually thought the dog had slipped further into the cave where we couldn’t access,” Lanier said, according to CNN affiliate WVLT. “It was kinda sad because we felt like we were gonna have to leave the dog there.”
“As we’re about to head back out, I looked back one more time and I saw his antenna from his tracker collar,” another firefighter, Christian Ellard, said, according to WVLT.
Charlie was “dehydrated and hungry, but in otherwise good condition,” says the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
The rescue team “fashioned a harness for the dog and effected the rescue,” the department explained. “Charlie was quickly reunited with his happy owner.”
The department included a photo of a volunteer emerging from the narrow cave mouth with Charlie in his arms and a shot of the rescued pup with four members of the rescue team.
“It was definitely a sigh of relief for everybody on scene,” said Andrew Wojturski, a firefighter with Sevier County Fire & Rescue, according to WVLT. “And then once we finally got him out and the owner came up afterwards and shook our hands and thanked us, it was really rewarding.”
In their Facebook post, the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department thanked “the entire rescue team and people who worked together to make this happen.”
“It was truly a team effort that required all these departments to make it a success,” they said.
English Mountain is near Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park, described by the National Park Service as “one of the largest protected areas in the eastern United States where black bears can live in wild, natural surroundings.” An estimated 1,900 bears live in the park.
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https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/14/us/dog-t ... index.html
CNN
—
Firefighters encountered an unexpected challenge while rescuing a dog trapped in a Tennessee cave: A black bear was also there.
The dog, Charlie, spent three days trapped nearly 40 feet deep in an “extremely narrow cave shaft” on English Mountain in eastern Tennessee, according to a Facebook post from the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
A rescue team consisting of “rope rescue technicians” from several fire departments set off on the mission to free Charlie on Tuesday, the Facebook post says. The team hiked to the mouth of the cave, where firefighter Tori Downing and captain Jon Lanier descended into the cave.
“Things took a turn when Firefighter Downing rounded a corner and found a bear sleeping five feet below her and the trapped hunting dog farther in the cave system,” reads the Facebook post.
Charlie’s unwitting companion was a 2-year-old black bear weighing an estimated 200 pounds, according to the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
The rescue team left the cave and set up trail cameras to track when the bear left the cave, the Facebook post says.
On Wednesday, they determined that the bear “had left the cave and not returned.”
With the cave “bear-free,” the stage was set for Charlie’s rescue. Three firefighters descended into the cave on a rope system. But initially, it seemed they would still be unable to retrieve the trapped canine.
“At first, we actually thought the dog had slipped further into the cave where we couldn’t access,” Lanier said, according to CNN affiliate WVLT. “It was kinda sad because we felt like we were gonna have to leave the dog there.”
“As we’re about to head back out, I looked back one more time and I saw his antenna from his tracker collar,” another firefighter, Christian Ellard, said, according to WVLT.
Charlie was “dehydrated and hungry, but in otherwise good condition,” says the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
The rescue team “fashioned a harness for the dog and effected the rescue,” the department explained. “Charlie was quickly reunited with his happy owner.”
The department included a photo of a volunteer emerging from the narrow cave mouth with Charlie in his arms and a shot of the rescued pup with four members of the rescue team.
“It was definitely a sigh of relief for everybody on scene,” said Andrew Wojturski, a firefighter with Sevier County Fire & Rescue, according to WVLT. “And then once we finally got him out and the owner came up afterwards and shook our hands and thanked us, it was really rewarding.”
In their Facebook post, the Waldens Creek Volunteer Fire Department thanked “the entire rescue team and people who worked together to make this happen.”
“It was truly a team effort that required all these departments to make it a success,” they said.
English Mountain is near Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park, described by the National Park Service as “one of the largest protected areas in the eastern United States where black bears can live in wild, natural surroundings.” An estimated 1,900 bears live in the park.
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'A**hole' dog adopted after Texas shelter's hilarious Facebook post
https://www.fox4news.com/news/dog-adopt ... ebook-post
Link has pics.
WICHITA FALLS, Texas - A Texas dog has a new home after a hilarious Humane Society post went viral online.
The post from the Humane Society of Wichita County describes Eddie the dog as an "a**hole."
"Eddie hates other dogs, he's 17 pounds and could take on a Rottweiler and win," said the post last Thursday.
The post goes on to say that if Eddie had an accent that he would sound like he is from the Bronx and would be able to hold his own in the bar fight.
"If you think you are man enough to adopt him, please be out guest. We want Eddie out of here because he scares our big dogs," the post ends.
The original has been shared more than 70,000 times on Facebook.
It worked too.
Linda Brooks says she saw the post and took her daughter from Cleburne to Witchita Falls to pick up the pup.
Less than 8 hours after Eddie's photo went up online, the Human Society posted a photo of Eddie with Linda's daughter Taryn.
The harsh words seemed to have an effect. The shelter originally posted about Eddie on Facebook on Oct. 30 saying the Dachshund mix was a "little nervous," but very sweet.
It wasn't until the shelter got real that he found a new home.
The Brooks' say they have received a great deal of attention since adopting the pup and even started a Facebook page of their own.
Thousands have already joined the page, which Brooks says is looking to share the message of adopting pets from shelters, rather than buying from breeders.
◀︎▶︎
Image 3 of 3 ▼
(Source: Linda Brooks)
As for Eddie, Brooks says things have been great since taking him home last week.
"We just live in Eddie's world," she told FOX 4.
PP
https://www.fox4news.com/news/dog-adopt ... ebook-post
Link has pics.
WICHITA FALLS, Texas - A Texas dog has a new home after a hilarious Humane Society post went viral online.
The post from the Humane Society of Wichita County describes Eddie the dog as an "a**hole."
"Eddie hates other dogs, he's 17 pounds and could take on a Rottweiler and win," said the post last Thursday.
The post goes on to say that if Eddie had an accent that he would sound like he is from the Bronx and would be able to hold his own in the bar fight.
"If you think you are man enough to adopt him, please be out guest. We want Eddie out of here because he scares our big dogs," the post ends.
The original has been shared more than 70,000 times on Facebook.
It worked too.
Linda Brooks says she saw the post and took her daughter from Cleburne to Witchita Falls to pick up the pup.
Less than 8 hours after Eddie's photo went up online, the Human Society posted a photo of Eddie with Linda's daughter Taryn.
The harsh words seemed to have an effect. The shelter originally posted about Eddie on Facebook on Oct. 30 saying the Dachshund mix was a "little nervous," but very sweet.
It wasn't until the shelter got real that he found a new home.
The Brooks' say they have received a great deal of attention since adopting the pup and even started a Facebook page of their own.
Thousands have already joined the page, which Brooks says is looking to share the message of adopting pets from shelters, rather than buying from breeders.
◀︎▶︎
Image 3 of 3 ▼
(Source: Linda Brooks)
As for Eddie, Brooks says things have been great since taking him home last week.
"We just live in Eddie's world," she told FOX 4.
PP