bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal

facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about

300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki

River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore

when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on

December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

 

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a

male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to

be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu,

who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.

 

"After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized.

It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.

Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.

They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother.

If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive,

as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

 

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and

by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their

mothers for four years," he explained.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the moments that take our breath away."

This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter

much when we need the comfort of another.

We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God,

"Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together."

Save the Earth... it's the only planet with chocolate.

ok, yes I am still alive, no I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, my room hasn't eaten me, and as far as I know NU hasn't kicked me out yet........the reason for my long absence???  Well it all started back when we had all that horridly cold weather...you know the ice (BLAH ) and the GORGEOUS SNOW!!!!!! .  On the very first warm day, I managed to slip sideways and land directly on my knee.....I knew it was bad when I got up and couldn't actually feel anything...just a lot of tingling.  I had to play organ for a concert that week, so I told myself that since I could still put weight on it, I was fine, and so I merrily went to orchestra.  Two hours later (after said orchestra rehearsal), I knew I was in trouble, I hobbled upstairs to the music office and found an ice pack and some ibuprofen.  I iced every day for four days, and was taking maximum strength motrin with hardly any results...so I finally went into the doctor.....found out I had not one....but TWO sprained ligaments.  Meaning months of recovery.  I still managed to get through the concert (Tracy had a school conflict else I totally would have had her play for me!) but the meds I had to take to control the pain, left me feeling exceedingly tired and rather a bit loopy (Mediation of any kind and my brain, do NOT mix well.  Period, end of story.  Even a simple benadryl will leave me feeling loopy and knocked out for TWO days...on the smallest dose.  Yes, can you say super sensitive to any and all side effects????).  Thus I did not trust myself to write anything, and was far too tired to do my usual, "hmm I have no time to write my own post, so let's find something fun on hughhewitt.com or drudgereport.com and post that."

Spring break I was still recovering, and now we are in a new quarter at school and things are even busier.  Thankfully I am not an such a high dose of the pain meds and (only have to take them when I do a lot of walking), none of my classes involve needing to go up or down stairs (they are my nemesis right now).  I will not guarantee any more frequent posts....but hey, who actually reads my crazy ramblings and quotes from other people anyway????

So there you have it folks.  I'm not exactly back....but at least know you know why I've somewhat disapeared.

hehehe this is too funny  (http://www.townhall.com/funnies/2007/02/16)

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