the good good pig

If you're looking for an enjoyable read, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood, by Sy Montgomery (Ballantine '06).  I picked it up off a bookstore's featured shelf a few years ago, and could hardly put it down over the following days.

The Good Good Pig does in fact tell the story of a fine pig, dubbed Christopher Hogwood after the conductor and musicologist by the same name.  Christopher was born a sickly and tiny runt, and was spared an early death by a kind farmer who couldn't bring himself to do the deed: "George would take him out to the manure pile, intending to dispatch him quickly with a blow to the head from his shovel.  But George would watch the little piglet-his soulful eyes, his big floppy ears, his admirable will to live-and just couldn't do it" (pg. 9).

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feel-good Monday

We've been running a few posts on companion animals, and it seemed high time in general to share some uplifting and cute stories about our four-legged friends ...

- First, a heartwarming video of Winston the cat taking care of his canine buddy Zeke just home from the vet and a bad allergy reaction.  Winston licks him clean and then straddles on top of him to sleep (from Purina Animal All Stars).

- This is a cute video of a baby cuddling with an unbelievably amiable and patient cat, one of several clips if you look to the right on the YouTube page:

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Grady the Gray Cat

Earlier this year I bumped into Christian author Lori A. Moore on Twitter, who most recently has written a book for children called Grady the Gray Cat (Tate Publishing '11).  I don't know of many books for children written by fellow believers with a strong message of concern for animals in general, or the value of adopting a pet in particular.  So I was grateful to Lori when she sent me a copy to review for not one sparrow.

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closing tracks, a win for all

It was great to see Citizen Link, a Focus on the Family affiliate, address horse and dog racing earlier this year in a blog post by Chad Hills.  In "Closing Tracks, A Win for All," Hill mentions some of the harsh realities which racing horses and dogs can face, including whipping in the case of horses and inhumane warehouse kennelling for greyhounds, and all too frequent injury and euthanasia for both of these noble creatures.

Hills also mentions the gambling machine supporting both racing industries, even gambling unrelated to the actual races: "Today, if a track survives, it’s likely dependent on revenue from highly addictive slot machines.  Empty stands surrounding the tracks replay past generations’ entertainment to a mere handful of spectators like a dusty, broken record."

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underwater intelligence

Aside from aquatic mammals such as dolphins and whales, we don't tend to think of sea life as very smart, certainly not fish.  But more and more studies are pointing to a much higher degree of sentience and intelligence in fish and other supposedly simple creatures of the sea than we might expect.  Following are some fun, some heartwarming, and all eye-opening examples from across the spectrum of sea life ...  

This first feature from "Animals at Work" features Comet the goldfish, who was trained to perform nine different tricks including swimming through tunnels and hoops, playing soccer and basketball, and even to fetch like a dog!  Say's Comet's trainer Dean Pomerleau of R2 Fish School: "People don't think that fish have any intelligence whatsoever.  And when you tell them that they can do tricks better than many dogs, it just floors them. ...  There has not ever been a fish that I could not train to do (something)."

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a mother is a mother ...

Updated on May 8, 2011 by Ben DeVries

In honor of all the moms in our lives, I thought we might pay tribute to some animal mothers who went above and beyond the normal call of duty.  The following heartwarming report features a shelter dog named Lily whose own puppies were adopted out, but who still took on some very special charges in their stead (thank you to John Laukkanen of Ahavafriend for sharing):

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Jessica the hippo

In yesterday's post, Cal DeWitt pointed us to God's affection and care for the hippo, a creature which we weren't meant to try to hunt, control or domesticate.  But this real-life story of Jessica the Hippo might just be one special exception to the rule, because of a bond she formed and chooses to maintain with the South African family who rescued her as a baby.  It might even be a glimpse of the peaceable kingdom, in which we'll be able to live and play even with the majestic hippo!

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recess monitor hens

It's your typical scene: two rabbits are mixing it up when two motherly hens come along and break up the melee.  As my wife suggested, it's hard to avoid the sensation that you're watching recess monitors break up a schoolyard fight between a couple of scrappy boys, with a dose of muted threat directed at each of the boys before the monitors indignantly walk away:

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cuteness all around

Just wanted to share a short video clip to help warm your weekend (we just had our first snow and cold spell here in southeastern Wisconsin).  Care2.com describes it as "Cute Dog Makes Adorable Baby Laugh,"  and it definitely lives up to the billing and some more, with plenty of adorableness to go around:

(video and screenshot courtesy YouTube user mahna1mahna, thanks to Whole Pet Health for sharing)

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sibling roughhousing

Just a lighthearted video to close out your weekend, which I hope was a restful and enjoyable one.  It's of Buddy and Theen, a family's dog and rescued baby white tail deer playing and roughhousing together like only siblings can:

The brief background story on the family's thoughtful adoption and raising of the fawn is well worth reading as well.  Thanks very much to Alison Carmack (@lilmeezer) for sharing.