Animals never fail to delight

I do hope that somehow you are managing to keep warm, it feels cold here in London, however I’ve seen the really freezing temperatures you have. Layers of clothing, hot drinks and stews to help warm up your insides.
I’ve seen some joyful animal stories that I hope will bring us all some cheer. In Kenya there’s a remarkable man called Lekupania, he’s an animal whisperer, the most respected and successful one. He’s helped rehabilitate many animals back into the wild, ranging from wart hogs to zebras. He’s working as an animal keeper in a conservation park. One of the animals he rescued was a giraffe. He rescued the giraffe called Fupi from a ditch he fell in.
He helped Fupi to get better and to return to the wild. Every day Fupi comes to visit Lekupania with all the other rescued giraffes. Fupi embraces him and then goes on his way. What a wonder man Lekupania is. In my opinion he should feature in our news bulletins.
A cute little hippo Charlie, was rescued after he was abandoned, he was taken to live with some rescued rhinos, as there were no other hippos in the area. Charlie behaved like the rhinos and didn’t like going into water. This was very detrimental to his health as hippos need to spend long parts of the day in water. Consequently his skin kept getting burnt. Fortunately the keepers found another hippo, and travelled hundreds of miles to collect Moomin the hippo to assist in Charlie’s rehabilitation. Charlie and Moomin hit it off and Charlie quickly learnt hippo behaviour and he’s now happy to spend time in the water. His journey back to the wild can begin. Charlie is cute isn’t he?
In another part of the world Australia, an amazing discovery was made, a cane toad enormous in size. He was nicknamed Toadzilla he’s going to be entered into the Guinness book of records. Not such a cutie.
Take care bloggers, keep warm over and out London.




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Sleepless Elephants

Hope all is well with you. Here in London we are back to rain, rain and yet more rain. I need to invest in an umbrella, that doesn’t blow inside out rendering it useless. I am pleased to tell you that inspite of all the rain I’m beginning to see the tiniest shoots of spring appearing.
I read an inspiring article about an amazing vet from India. The vet Panjit Basumatary works for the International Fund of Welfare for Animals. Two baby elephants Rupa and Asahi eleven months had become separated from their mothers, and they were being reared at the centre. They had a problem sleeping as they missed the comfort of their mothers, subsequently they were exhausted. Panjit created sleeping suits that were heavy and on their bodies, kept them warm and provided a sense of security. They are both being rehabilitated at the centre and will return to the wild. Don’t they look cosy.
I also discovered that there are some animals that appear not to sleep. The bullfrog being one of them. Zoologist studied the behaviour of the bullfrog and they discovered they were always alert and reacted to stimuli. As the zoologists can not study their brain activity they might have another way of resting.
Globally there are many different ways of parents putting their children to bed. In Guatemala children are given worry dolls. In Norway and Sweden children are encouraged to sleep outside in the winter to keep them healthy. Certainly not for me I like to go to bed with a hot water bottle.
So bloggers I wish you a good week over and out London.

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PELE The King of Football

So here we are 2023 I wish you peace and happiness and good health. Well today it’s stopped raining relief as we’ve been able to turn the lights off.
I was very sad to hear about the death of Pele. Pele is said to be the greatest footballer in the world. He was a striker, and he was active in the game for twenty years. He was in the team that won the World Cup three times.
He was a remarkable man on and off the pitch. He grew up in a very poor community, he played football with a rag ball. He was a victim of racism on and off the pitch; he was called monkey and many other terrible names.
He was a friend of Muhammad Ali, who was also subjected to racist abuse. Pele and Ali tackled racist abuse in different ways. Ali was very outspoken whilst Pele was less so. Pele made it his mission to use his footballing skills to fight racism. He wanted to inspire people from ethnic communities to play and be proud of their blackness. Ali came to the celebration of the end of Peles career and said to him
“ I accept that football is more beautiful than boxing, but I’m more beautiful than you.”
Pele was also a great friend of Nelson Mandela, as a young player he wasn’t allowed to play in South Africa due to the racist government. He vowed he’d only return when the government was no longer. He did when Nelson Mandela became president. Pele stood for the idea that intolerance should not lessen the joy of life. He said “Football is joy. It’s a dance. We will not allow racism to stop us smiling.”
He was buried in a vertical cemetery called the Memorial Necropole Eucumenica less than a kilometre away from the stadium he made his first appearance as a footballer.
What a beautiful man he was both as a footballer and campaigner.
Have a good week bloggers keep warm over and out London.




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