My Tramping View | World News, Reviews and More Interesting Stuffs

Some schools sell candy to raise money, but at Trapnell Elementary School in Plant City, Fla., they kiss a pig - an honor that goes to the staff member who raises the most money for cancer research.

Second grade teacher Laura Carter puckered up Friday and kissed a potbellied pig to the thunderous applause of more than 500 students - her reward for raising $1,167.60 for the American Cancer Society's upcoming Relay for Life in Plant City.

Lest anyone think she faked it, she hammed it up before the smooch by donning hot pink lipstick - and left a sizeable smudge on the tea-cup potbellied pig's snout.

"It was real slimy," Carter said after kissing the 65-pound porker.

In all, the school and its 85 staff members raised $2,180 with its third annual kiss a pig fundraiser. They raised cash through collection jars and such money-makers as bake sales.

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A pet parrot has been honored as a hero after helping to save the life of a choking girl.

Willie, a Quaker parrot, has been given the Animal Lifesaver Award by the Red Cross chapter in Denver, Colorado.

In November, Willie's owner, Megan Howard, was baby-sitting for a toddler. Howard left the room and the little girl, named Hannah, started to choke on her breakfast.

The feathered protector repeatedly shouted "Mama, baby" and flapped his wings, and Howard returned in time to find the girl already turning blue.

Howard saved Hannah by performing the Heimlich maneuver but said Willie "is the real hero."

Hannah's mother Samantha Kuusk told KCNC-TV: "The part where she turned blue is always when my heart drops no matter how many times I've heard it. My heart drops in my stomach and I get all teary eyed."

Willie got his award during a Breakfast of Champions event Friday attended by Colorado governor Bill Ritter and Denver mayor John Hickenlooper.

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Other animal stuff to read:

• Swearing parrot tells kid 'I'm going to rip your head off'
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Technorati tags: Animal

A mother was left furious after a toy parrot she bought for her child started squawking swear words.

According to The Times, Tina Banks bought the cuddly bird from a store in her home town of Brighton for her 11-month-old daughter Roxy.

However, when she pulled the toy's cord she was outraged to hear the phrase: "Oi! What are you looking at ****hole."

Other phrases programmed into the brightly-coloured toy included "I'm going to rip your head off and **** down your neck", "Sod off, sod off", "Oi! Bugger off" and "What are you staring at ****hole?"

Mrs Banks, who lives in Brighton, said that the parrot's swearing had caused her a great deal of embarrassment.

"I bought it because Roxy was throwing a paddy in her pram and I thought the parrot might keep her a little bit quiet," she explained.

"But when we got outside and I handed it to her, it came out with these swear words. The worse thing was there was a man in front of us who thought it was aimed at him.

"I went ten shades of red and have never been so embarrassed in my life. When I bought it I didn’t realise it spoke, I just thought it was a cuddly toy.

"But it has got a cord coming out of its backside that, when you pull it, comes out with all this bad language. It's shocking to think this was being sold in a toy section."

Hussein Lalani, commercial director of the 99p stores, apologised and said the toy should not have been in the toy section.

He said: "I will be speaking to the manager to make sure he puts the toy into the correct section.

"It is quite clearly labelled that the product is not suitable for children and none of the toys we have are suitable for kids under three-years-old."

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Technorati tags: Animal Weird news

Two frogs got married in Hengrabari, in the northwestern Indian state of Assam, in a ritual to please rain gods.

More than 2,000 wedding guests attended the ceremony as frog bride Bijuli, which means 'Thunder', and groom Barun, 'Wind', tied the knot.

The amphibians were then fed a special celebratory lunch of flies and mosquitoes.

After the ceremony, the happy couple were sent on their honeymoon - by being released into a nearby stream, along with two stand-by couples.

The "wedding" was held in order to invoke the rain-god as a dry spell over the past couple of months has hit most parts of Assam, which has led to severe water shortages.

"It's a traditional belief that when a frog marriage is performed, the Barun Devata (the rain-god) is pleased and the rain comes," former councillor Bijoy Das told The Hindu newspaper.

A spokesman for local authorities said: "The marriage went off very well.

"We hope that now the rains will finally come. The region is absolutely parched and we need rain. We didn't know what else to do."

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Technorati tags: Animal Funny news Weird news

A nine-month-old duck has become a local celebrity in Dorset with her dog-emulating behavior.

Essy the duck wags her tail, tries to bark, and competes for treats with her canine companions – two Staffordshire cross dogs, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The Cherry Valley duck came from the same duck farm in Cadnam as the famous four-legged Stumpy.

Owners Steph, 25, and Tony Tufft, 35, adopted the confused duck when she was only 8 weeks old.

Tony, a boat builder, said their unusual pet has been amusing people by acting like a dog since her arrival at their home in the Charminster area of the town.

He said: "We are known throughout Charminster. People come out of bars to see her. They love it.

"She doesn't know she's a duck. She must think she's a dog.

"She goes up to other dogs. People can't understand it and the dogs are really confused as well.

"We even had to buy Essy her own lead, after getting strange looks from people who thought we were duck-napping."

His wife Steph added: "It's as if Brad Pitt was walking on the lead, the amount of people that come out."

The couple said their dogs are very protective of Essy and walk on either side of her when they go out for walks.

And although Essy has a bedroom of her own in the airing cupboard of the couple's home, she prefers to sleep with the dogs.

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Technorati tags: Animal Funny

A German shepherd named Astro who has been missing from his family for more than nine years is finally home.

The Geary family was shocked when they got a call from an animal control officer in Tennessee contacted them nearly three weeks ago to say Astro had been found.

According to TCPalm.co, Astro vanished nine years ago while the Gearys were living in Port St. Lucie, Fla. They posted signs and called shelters but never found the dog. After a year, the family adopted a new dog.

"It's still a real shock that he is actually here," said Linda Geary, who now lives with her family in Louisville, Ky.

"We are getting use to the fact that we don't know where he has been or who had him, but he's our dog and has always been our dog."

Astro was found running loose in a neighborhood in St. Bethlehem, Tenn, and animal control officers tracked down the Geary family through a microchip implanted when they adopted the dog from the Treasure Coast Humane Society.

Officers went online to locate Dennis Geary and found two names with Florida connections to call, one at the Louisville address and the other a Tennessee farmer who said the dog wasn’t his. The officers left a message on the Gearys’ answering machine the first week in February.

That following weekend, Dennis and his stepson made the three-hour drive to Tennessee to bring Astro home.

When the two members of the Geary family arrived at the shelter and staff brought out Astro, the reunion was sweet and wet.

"They brought him out and he just sat down and licked both me and my oldest stepson," he said. "He was like, where have you been?"

Throughout the nine years Dennis said he never forgot Astro. He still has the dog’s picture in his wallet from when he first adopted him nine years ago in Port St. Lucie.

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Technorati tags: Animal

A businessman who lost his phone on a beach was stunned when it was returned after being found inside the belly of a massive cod.

Andrew Cheatle thought his Nokia handset had been lost at sea after it slipped from his pocket.

Andrew, 45, told The Sun: "I was messing about with my dog and my phone must have fallen out and been swept out in the swell.

"I kept calling it but I gave up hope after a couple of days."

But a week later his girlfriend’s mobile rang and it was fisherman Glen Kerley who said he had found the phone in a 25lb cod.

She told him: "Your old mobile number is calling my phone."

Andrew continued: "She said some guy was going on about my phone and a cod so she handed it over to me and he told me where he had found it.

"I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he had caught a cod that morning and was gutting it for his fish stall and that my Nokia was inside it — a bit worse for wear.

"I didn’t believe him but went to meet him and found it was my phone — a bit smelly and battered — but incredibly it still worked after I let it dry out."

Trawlerman Glen, 45, had tried to use the phone but it didn’t work. So he took out the SIM card and put it in his handset to try to trace the owner.

Glen said: "Cod are greedy fish — they’ll eat anything. They have big heads and big mouths.

"I’ve found plastic cups, stones, teaspoons, batteries and I’ve also heard of someone finding false teeth in one.

"This fish was about 25lbs and about 4ft long — not unusual but bigger than average.

"I know what it’s like to lose your phone. It can be really frustrating. So I thought I may as well make a few calls to see if I could get it back to him.

"It was a bit smelly but I was glad to return it."

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Technorati tags: Weird news Funny Animal

An Indian nationalist movement is taking healthy living to the extreme with plans to release a fizzy drink made from cow urine.

The Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, has announced that development has almost finished on the beverage, which is called 'gau jal', meaning 'cow water.'

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said that the drink is undergoing final laboratory tests and should be on the market by the end of the year.

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times.

"Its USP (Ultimate Selling Point) will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."

The movement is hoping that the drink will help promote the ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness, which includes revering cows as objects of worship.

Many Hindus believe cow's urine to have medicinal properties and it is often drunk at religious festivals.

It might not sound appetising to non-Hindus, but it is claimed the fizzy beverage will help fight a number of diseases, including cancer.

Prakash added: "Cow urine offers a cure for around 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes. All are curable by cow urine.

"It is useful for the whole country and the world as well."

Discussing other drink manufacturers, Prakash said: "We're going to give them good competition as our drink is good for mankind. We may also think of exporting it."

In the past, the RSS group has campaigned against foreign imports such as Pepsi and Coca Cola, considering them a tool of Western imperialism.

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Technorati tags: Weird news Animal

A Dalmatian dog in Leicestershire, Britain, named Button has given birth to what may be a record-breaking litter of 18 puppies, one year after birthing a litter of 16.

The British Dalmatian Club believes the litter is a UK record.

"We were shocked when 18 were born and they were all alive and healthy," said owners Adam Morley. "We feed all the pups several times a day because Button can't feed them all constantly. We all take it in turns -- mine's at 3 o'clock in the morning."

The puppies were delivered by Caesarean section by veterinarian Con Hassett on 23 December.

"I never heard of any breed of dog giving birth to 18," Hassett said. "The real miracle is that they've survived this long because it's so hard to rear that many pups."

Button is the daughter of a dog who starred as Dipstick in the Disney sequel film 102 Dalmatians.

Guinness World Book of Records said it did not have details for individual breeds, but the current record for a dog was 24 pups when a Mastiff called Tia gave birth to the two dozen puppies in 2004.

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Technorati tags: Weird news Animal

A two-foot long crocodile has been found living in a bath in Peckham, London.

Pest controller Steve North discovered the killer beast while on a routine call advertising the local council's services.

A resident invited him in and sid he had a 'problem' in his bathroom and asked Steve to take a look at it.

Steve said: "I followed him in. What I didn't expect was to be eyeballed by a 2ft long crocodile, happily lounging in the bath."

The man, a tenant who was renting the flat, said he was looking after the crocodile for a friend.

A team of animal control experts had to be brought in to remove the crocodile and take it away.

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Technorati tags: Weird news Animal

The credit crunch has forced us all to cut back on life's luxuries.

But this shepherd may have tightened his purse strings a little too much in the face of the recession.

Farmer Du Hebing couldn't afford another sheepdog after his old one died, so he learned how to control his flock using just a poster of a wolf after seeing one in a local wildlife park.

Du told Huashang Daily that he shot the picture by chance.

"After visiting Qinling Wild Animal Park, on the way home I saw a group of sheep walking along the road with a man holding a picture following behind them.

"The man was using the wolf picture to scare the sheep and drive them ahead - it was a really funny scene.

"But I noticed that the sheep never went near it.

"People laugh and point but it works - and the poster eats a lot less than any sheepdog."

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A walrus has become a star attraction with visitors at a zoo by learning to play the saxophone under the guidance of her trainer.

Under the direction of her Russian trainer Sergiy, Sara the Walrus grips the brass instrument between her flippers and rocks out to a powerful sax solo at the newly-opened Istanbul Dolphinarium in Istanbul, Turkey

Sara is particularly clever as she can strike a nonchalant pose, leaning on a worktop with one flipper under her chin and looking bored.

Her skills at mimicking humans extend to dressing up as a railway conductor and blowing a whistle.

She can lie down and catch a rose when it is thrown to her, and has become adept at games with balls and hoops.

Sara certainly has a much more exciting life than her wild counterparts, which spend most of their lives on sea ice and seeking out molluscs to eat.

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Technorati tags: animal funny video

An underwater camera at an oil and gas drilling site off the coast of Texas has captured a rare sight: an alien-like, long-armed, and "elbowed" Magnapinna squid.

The creature, caught on video by a remote-controlled device owned by the Shell Oil Company, was spotted last November roughly a mile and a half below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Footage of the rare squid had been circulating among oil industry employees for months, but became public after a recent report in National Geographic.

"Perdido ROV Visitor, What Is It?" the email's subject line read — Perdido being the name of a Shell-owned drilling site which is located about 200 miles off Houston, Texas.

Despite the squid's apparent unflappability on camera, Magnapinna, or "big fin," squid remain largely a mystery to science.

First identified ten years ago, Magnapinna, or "big fin," has ten tentacles of equal length (as opposed to other squid species, which normally have eight short and two long tentacles), and those tentacles seem to have a visible "elbow" at a short distance from the main body.

Adult squids of this type can range from 1.5 m to 7 m in size.

Scientists are still unsure what function the elbows serve, with some suggesting they help prevent the tentacles from getting tangled when trawling for food.

The Magnapinna squid has never been filmed at a drilling site before, and has only been caught on camera a few times.

The discovery indicates how little we know about life in the Earth's largest ecosystem.

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A kitten with two faces was born on Wednesday near Perth, Western Australia.

It was delivered at the Swan Veterinary Clinic after its mother had endured complications during the birth.

The feline can only use one of its two faces to eat because of a cleft palate, but both of its mouths can miaow at the same time.

The grey and white cat was one of three born in the litter, but its siblings were born without deformities.

Nurse Louisa Burgess, who successfully delivered the remarkable cat with veterinarian George Huber, said that in her 12-year career' she had never seen a two-faced cat.

"I have seen cats with two tails and extra legs, but not this," she said.

And despite its irregular birth, Burgess said the cat appeared healthy.

"It has a full tummy and it survived the night so that is a good sign," she added. "It seems content, it meows and purrs.

"This is the result of a congenital deformity. Something has gone wrong in the early embryonic development."

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Technorati tags: Weird news Animal

A puppy has survived being hit by a car at 70 mph after clinging to the car's grille.

The one-year-old stray dog was hit by Marco Menozzi's Peugeot 207 at such speed that it became embedded in the grille under the bonnet of his car as it drove a further 15 miles.

Miraculously, the pup survived the ordeal, escaping with just a broken leg and bruising.

Menozzi admitted that he did not consider stopping when he clashed with the pooch.

The dog is now in a police kennel looking for a new owner.

A police spokesman said: "He's a very lucky boy. He was saved because he was hit so hard.

"Any softer and he would have bounced off the car and been crushed under the wheels."

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Technorati tags: Animal

Jason Harschbarger heard a horse making noises on the hill above his home Pullman, West Virginia, and found a horse resembed the image of Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in the honey tree.

The young filly was unable to free itself and needed to be freed from the tree with a chainsaw.

Harschbarger, who was able to take a few photographs before cutting the tree, said she escaped with just a few minor injuries.

He said: "She has a few cuts on her face and ear. Last I heard her jaw was a little dislocated but I think it is healing up and she can eat on her own again."

It remains unclear why Gracie, as the horse is called, put her head into the gap.

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Technorati tags: Animals

This parrot is headbanging on Backstreet Boys' song! How cool is that! LOL

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Technorati tags: animal funny video

OMG this chimp is awesome! It plays Pacman really really well!

However, this ape is not a usual chimpanzee like Anjani.

This is Bonobo, an endangered chimpanzee species found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to Wikipedia, the Bonobo is the closest relative to Humans. So I guess that explain why this primate can play Pacman.

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Other animal stuff to read:

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Aww, is that cute!

Here is a two-year-old chimpanzee, Anjana, who has been helping to raise 23-day-old cubs Mitra and Shiva at T.I.G.E.R.S. (The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species), South Carolina.

Anjana and the cubs have been inseparable ever since the cubs' birth 3 weeks ago.

The chimp took on the surrogate role after the cubs were separated from their mother.

T.I.G.E.R.S. founder Dr Bhagavan Antle said: "Anjana has acted as a surrogate mother to leopards, lions and orangutans and has done the same with these baby white tigers. She gives them a bottle and lies with them — she is a great assistant."



Image courtesy of Barcroft Media via The Sun

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African grey parrots are not known for bad language but this one is telling the zoo visitors to "f*** off."

The foul-mouthed parrot was donated by his previous owner, after he was sick of with his language.

Peter Hansom, zoo keeper at South Park birdhouse in Darlington, blamed local schoolchildren for teaching him the filthy language.

The Sun quoted him as saying: "I hold my breath when parents stand with small children at his cage. Sometimes he will just say 'hello' or 'bye' but as often as not it's 'f*** off'. His favourite trick is to stick his head in a tin cup in his cage and then swear. He seems to know it makes a louder sound."

The five-year-old bird also mimics car alarms, and mobile phone ring tones.


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