Unlikely Friends....

A dear friend sent me this email and I thought it well worth sharing.

Much of life can never be explained, only witnessed.'
- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast, has formed a strong 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

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


The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.

Comments

Tammy said…
Oh Craig, what a thrill it is to know you've heard of Owen & Mzee! They are favorites of ours in our home, and we have these 2 beautiful books:

http://www.amazon.com/Owen-Mzee-Story-Remarkable-Friendship/dp/0439829739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263997747&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Owen-Mzee-Friendship-Isabella-Hatkoff/dp/0439899591/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263997886&sr=8-2

I bought both books some time ago for homeschooling. Usually when Kayla's finished using one of our resources, I Ebay it. These 2 books, however, I'll always keep since the story is just so beautiful.

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