The attached video was captured on smart phone camera by someone at Kruger National park in South Africa. The video was reportedly sold to National Geographic for one million dollars ($1,000,000.00). It has been declared by animal lovers as one of the best videos on wildlife.
To some, the woman in the video has real "guts"… to others, she must be really "nuts".
German photographer, Tanja Brandt, has made it her mission to take pictures of rare and unique animals and wildlife.
Recently, Brandt found two truly amazing subjects when she photographed the unique bond between two unlikely animal friends: Ingo, a Belgian shepherd, and Poldi, an owlet.
Ingo is a perfect specimen of his breed and family of dogs famous for their brute physical strength and ruthlessness.
While Poldi, the owlet, is a perfect example of the proverbial runt of the family. Not only did he hatch two days late compared to his six siblings, but he is also unusually small, which makes him very vulnerable to predators.
According to Brandt, “They respect each other and they can read each other.”
The dog and the bird have a special protector-protectee relationship. Ingo lovingly and tenderly guards Poldi. And their affection and respect for each other are very evident.
A Brazilian junkyard dog has captured the hearts of people all over the world after being caught on video risking her life to make sure her family of junkyard animals is fed.
For the last three years, Lilica has traveled the same four-mile journey every night to get a bag of food from her friend Lucia Helena de Souza. Lucia explains that she first met Lilica a few years back and began to feed her. One day, Lilica began to stare at the bag of food that Lucia was holding, and Lucia’s neighbor suggested that she probably wanted to take the food back with her to wherever she came from.
“I realized that she ate and then stared at what was in the bag,” Lucia said, who decided then to give the dog the bag. “From then on, that’s what how we did it.”
Amazingly, Licila has made the same four-mile journey from her junkyard home to Lucia’s house every night for the bag of food, and upon returning to the junkyard, she generously feeds her animal friends which include another dog, some chickens, a few cats and a mule.
“An animal sharing things with other animals is a lesson,” Lucia said. “A lesson for us.”
Check out Licila’s amazing journey to feed her animal friends in the video below
Never let anyone tell you dogs don’t feel loss when their human companions die. Dogs a re complex, devoted animals. They have a keen sense of loyalty. For some dogs, the death of a human friend is devastating and life changing.
These are the stories of four dogs who mourned the loss of their human friends in moving and extraordinary ways.
Little Man: The Dog Who Wouldn‘t Leave
Ronnie Ward spent a lot of time with his beloved bull terrier, Little Man. It’s no wonder, then, that Little Man refused to leave his side when Ward collapsed and died on July 11, 2014, while walking by the river near Oklahoma City.
Police reported that Little Man stood watch over his deceased friend in blistering near-100 degree heat, never leaving Ward’s side even to drink from the nearby river until Ward’s body could be removed from the scene. Authorities struggled to pull Little Man away from the body, but he fought them every step of the way. Early reports indicated Ward was a homeless man, but that was later determined to be inaccurate.
Little Man showed clear signs of sadness and depression at the animal shelter to which he was taken after police found Ward’s body. He refused to eat, drink or even lift his head. HLN reported on the dog’s obvious distress at the loss of his companion here:
Don’t worry about Little Man, though. Ward’s daughter has adopted him, happy to give a home to her father’s faithful friend:
Figo: Final Respects to Fallen Police Partner with a Paw on Casket
Kentucky police officer Jason Ellis, 33, died in an ambush in 2013. He was a K-9 officer who worked daily with a police dog named Figo. They’d formed a strong bond, coming to depend on one another as they fought crime together. When Officer Ellis died, there was no question that Figo would attend his funeral along with throngs of other law enforcement workers.
Figo’s devotion touched many around the world when a moving image from the funeral went viral. Figo stepped up to his partner’s casket and touched it with his paw, appearing for all the world as though he was sending an affectionate and sad final farewell to Ellis. See it happen here:
“It seemed like the dog was aware of what was going on,” photographer Jonathan Palmer told Today.
“His mannerisms, his posture. He went to the casket and put his paw on it. It was like he was inspecting it.”
The loss of a partner hits hard and Figo had to be retired after the loss of Ellis. The happy ending here is that Ellis family adopted the devoted dog, keeping all those who loved Jason Ellis together forever.
Matilda: She Won‘t Stop Returning to Scene of Fatal Crash
No one knows her real name, but locals in Makhachkala, Russia, call her Matilda. For at least two years now, the German Shepherd has refused to leave the spot of the car crash that killed her human friend, Artem Makovich.
The police think Makovich was out driving with Matilda, fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a streetlight. Makovich died instantly. Matilda survived, though she was injured.
Hawkeye: Guarding the Coffin of His Navy SEAL at Funeral
Tumilson, along with 29 other American troops, died when the Taliban shot down a helicopter in Afghanistan in August 2011. According to media reports, his dog Hawkeye was present for the funeral and did something remarkable right from the beginning of the service.
Hawkeye led Tumilson’s family down the aisle to their seats. He then followed Tumilson’s friend, Scott Nichols, as Nichols approached the podium to eulogize his fallen friend. Hawkeye padded forward, right up to the flag-draped casket. He then lay down on his side next to it with a sigh and remained there for the eulogy and the duration of the funeral.
See a brief snippet of Hawkeye beside Tumilson’s coffin during the funeral service here:
In a fitting final touch to this heartbreaking story, Nichols has adopted Hawkeye. It warms the heart to know that Tumilson’s two best friends have forged their own bond.
Can dogs really grieve for the dead? Behavioral experts are torn. Those who love dogs like the four in this story know the answer, however. Dogs can grieve. Some always will. –Care2
Mighty Mouse may not be coming to save the day, and Underdog may be stuck changing out of his Shoeshine Boy clothes, but who needs cartoon characters when we have a real life super hero cat to put them both to shame?
The video, which was compiled from surveillance cameras surrounding a home in California, has to be seen to be believed (and, based on its over 7 million hits in 24 hours, may have to be seen over and over and over again). In it, a young boy is attacked by a neighbor’s off-leash dog, who knocks the boy off his bike and attempts to drag him across the ground.
The dog is thwarted, surprisingly, as a cat streaks across the yard, chasing the dog away. The boy’s mother runs into the picture soon after, comforting him as she picks him off the driveway.
“I’ve never seen a cat do that,” said Roger Triantafilo, the boy’s father, to a local ABC affiliate. “Especially ours. It just shows how much she really has a family-oriented mind set.”
The cat, who’s name is Tara, isn’t just a hero, as the internet quickly dubbed her. She’s a superstar now, too. She’s already made an appearance on national television via ABC News, which called her “a fearless fur ball ready to rescue a friend,” and she also was the subject of an interview on the Today Show, where the family couldn’t be more proud.
“Every once in a while she puts our dog back into her place, but for the most part, she’s just the most mellow cat you’ve ever met,” Erica Triantafilo said to Today. “All our boys love her and pick on her occasionally. She just loves them right back anyway.”
That love apparently developed early on, as well. According to the ABC News interview, the cat “adopted the couple 5 years ago, following them home from the park one day,” and that when Jeremy, the boy in the video, was a baby, “she’d climb into the crib and curl up beside him.”
As for the dog that Tara managed to terrify away from the young boy, it was picked up by animal control after the incident and, according to TMZ, because it was so aggressive even afterward, the organization decided that in the interest of public safety that the dog must be put down.
Now that the young boy is recovering from his stitches, and Tara is becoming a public (furry) face, the question is what is next for the duo? Perhaps a Disney Channel crime fighting special or a buddy superhero show on the cartoon network? Whatever happens next, it sounds like Tara will be there to make sure no one takes advantage of her best friend. –Care2
