Animal Tales

Today I was cleaning my office and discovered some old newspaper clippings from the NEW YORK POST.

Back in February three climbers were rescued from Mt. Hood. They survived a brutal night huddled in sleeping bags, shielding themselves from high winds, but it was their faithful black Labrador who made the difference between life and death. The dog probably saved their lives by lying across them during the freezing night. The people were taken away in an ambulance and their dog leapt in after them. That dog really is man's best friend.

A Vietnamese farmer has found the secret to plumper pork - Beethoven. Nguyen Chi Cong said he started playing recordings of classical symphonies six years ago for his workers and found the music also had a soothing effect on the pigs. The pigs started eating more and they gained weight faster than usual. Guess I'd better get rid of my classical music.

Thai zookeepers are hoping a low-carb diet will get an overweight panda in the mood to mate. Chuang Chuang, a 330 pound panda is too heavy to have sex with 253 pound Lin Hui caretakers said. So they created a special diet for Chuang Chuang - replacing loaves of bread with low-fat bamboo branches. They'd better stop the music too.

Pigs now outnumber people in a German state. The farmers' association of Lower Saxony said that the end of 2006, the number of swine topped 8 million. The state's human population, meanwhile, dropped to 7,996 million. Have more bacon and eggs for breakfast.

And the last weighty item. A cat owner in Britain blamed her feline's once-fatty figure on his lifestyle in the States. Willie shed 4 1/2 pounds after his owner moved him across the Atlantic to Britain where his veterinarian put him on a diet program that included 15 minutes of daily play. I wonder how they got him to stay awake that long.