Well, the moose and gorilla are not together, but THAT would be a story, eh?  Anyway, I know that a gorilla story and a moose story are not horse stories, but they are animal stories which I hoped would be OK on this rainy Sunday.

SANDBOX, THE HORSE

I was inspired by the Facebook rescue of Sandbox horse that I wrote about this week.  (Here is the link, Sandbox’s story is at the bottom of the Stormy the Wonder Horse page.) If you missed it, basically, a very well trained kids mare was taken from a well attended in a good area horse show in Stephensville, TX.  Her name is Sandbox and she is a very non distinct looking mare with a heart of gold that the family children adored. (Here is a pic of her homecoming with the kids.)

So, Sandbox was stolen out of a stall, three barns in and totally in the middle of the shedrow… odd, if you know what I mean.  The kids’ father theorized that the thief had seen the kids riding the horse all day so he stole her to make a quick buck on a great kids horse.

Anyway, the Mom, Micah, immediately put up a Facebook page and got on the tomtoms.  She asked all of her friends to pass the page forward.  Within two days, there were 3500 “likes” on the page.  The local news got a hold of the story and several well-wishing equine companies set a reward of $8000.  With all of this uproar, the thief knew he had a hot-potato.

Luckily, the mare was found on Wednesday, roaming around some acreage in Stephensville.  Mom came and got her, bawling.

So, a job well done by the Internet.  You can read the full story here.

PETE THE MOOSE

Anyway, that got me thinking about the Internet’s facility in helping the animals.  As I was perusing about, looking for other horse stories on Facebook, I fell upon a Moose story.

As an aside, I pondered the plural of moose.  Was it moosen?  Meese?  Moosi?  Luckily, I found this answer, in case you wondered, too:  The word “moose” came to us from Algonquian Indians. Consequently its plural, instead of being “mooses” or “meese”, is the same as the singular. That is true of most Indian names whether of a tribe, such as the Winnebago and Potawatomi, or of an object such as papoose. It is also true of many wildlife names not of Indian origin — for example: deer, mink and grouse.

OK, here is the story.  In Vermont, just over a year ago, passerbys noticed a baby moose (5 days old) that had been mauled by a dog.  The do-gooders brought the baby to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Dept and they suggested the little moose be left to die.  Nuh uh, they said, and brought the moose to a man named David.

David, an older gentleman, nursed the moose back to life and they have a tremendous bond, as you might surmise.  As Pete grew, David knew he had to find a home for the giant being.  Doug, a Game Reserve owner, ironically, offered his 600 acre ranch for Pete to live.  That worked out well since David could still visit Pete often.  Pete loves people (the reason he cannot be released back into the wild) and takes bananas and apples and the occasional Snickers bar from all of his fans. (I think it is funny that he dislikes Milky Ways…)  The townsfolk just love him!

Recently, the Vermont Fish and Game Dept reared its head.  It seems that several other moose and deer have made their way into the Game Reserve through the fences that are supposed to keep them out.  According to the VFGD, this is very bad.  Since the animals on the reserve are fed animal chow, so to speak, the wild deer and moose are exposed to a disease that they could get from the feed.  (This seems odd to me and I wonder if I have the story correct…).  Anyway, the VFGD wanted to euth all the wild deer and moose so they wouldn’t contract and spread “Chronic Wasting Disease” to wild animals outside the game reserve.  There are no signs of the disease right now…

Well, the outraged towns people got together and created a FaceBook page for the 14 month old Pete.  Right now, there are 4253 followers.  That was enough to get a Governor’s reprieve!  Yup, the VT Gov said that Pete would be spared as long as the fence was maintained.  This is very good news because Pete has a wife who is expecting another little Petey any time now. If you go to his FB page, they are now asking that people put pressure on the Gov to put Pete’s reprieve in writing!  They the Gov to put his money where his mouth sits.

So, again, the power of the Internet helps a fuzzy one.  Oh, here is the webpage for Pete which is really quite beautiful and a nice complement to his FB page.  I just love stories like this…

QUEEBIE THE GORILLA

So today, on MSNBC, I saw this story.  Did you?  It is about a man from the UK, Damien, whose family has a history of animal preservation and rehabilitation.  Damien raised a gorilla named, Queebie (sp?) until the gorilla was 5 years old.  He then brought Queebie to Africa for release.  (Here is a baby pic of Queebie.)

Five years later, while Damien was releasing a batch of three baby gorillas, he decided to go up and down the river where he thought Queebie lived.  Damien called out to Queebie.  This seems ridiculous since it had been 5 years and it was a long river… But, the gorilla returned to the river bank and looked right at Damien.

Damien was a bit apprehensive as there stood a massive, full grown gorilla.  But, as soon as Damien heard the gurgles of gorilla love, he knew he would be OK.  Here is the video of their reunion.  (so sweet!).

Damien talks of how they were “drunk with love” upon seeing each other.  They grasped and chatted for a very long time.  Queebie brought his wives over to meet Damien — which was actually a brave thing for Damien to endure because any one of them could have gone wild on him out of jealousy.  But, it all worked out.

In fact, Damien went back to the river the next morning to swim and Queebie was there.  How sweet is that!

When the Daily Show asked Damien if it was hard to leave Queebie, Damien responded that it is just like leaving any friend who lives far away…  you hope that you will be in touch… but you know you live in each others hearts.

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