Can I Keep It?

The Zali Lama | A Dog Named Christmas

Here they are – the cutest pooches on the planet. We can’t decide which one’s cuter, so we need your help. Vote for your favorite. We'll announce the top 25 vote-getters – including a Grand Prize Winner – after the first of the year. Got a cuddly canine of your own? Just upload your favorite pic. But hurry, voting ends December 15, 2009.

via hhofdogcontest.com

Happy Eat Too Much Day

We're taking a little break at the blog this week while the Hudarosa prepares for the holidays.  So far, we have decorated six of the seven trees.  I've made some of the dips for Hud's birthday celebration on Sunday and for the opening of Winter Arts on Friday.  We'll be headed to our traditional brunch at the Peabody later today, after which I plan to look like this:

Photo credits: Grahm Jones / Columbus Zoo

Have a superty duperty Thanksgiving Day.  We're thankful you stopped by!  We'll get back to it tomorrow.

Random Acts of Photography

We have spent the last few days enjoying the lovely weather.

And napping after raking the copious and never-ending piles of leaves.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Our cat, Aida Velveeta was the guide to our blind mini-lop, Arnie in the waning years of his life.  She followed him around, warning me if he fell down the stairs or got trapped in the laundry.  It was a lovely caring relationship.

For the non-believers, here's more proof that the unholy union of my cat and rabbit were not a singular anomaly:

Friendship is a valuable commodity, even in the animal kingdom.  That being said, I'm off to take a friend to chemo.

~You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

-- Ralph Waldo

Game Time

Oh, I'd like to report that we watched the Rhodes game with great enthusiasm, hanging on every down and quarter, but...

Have you met Zali and Simone?  Their attention was rapt on the food tent.  Bud was making his famous gumbo and red beans and rice.  The players never had a chance.  Zali goes to kiss the women and snack.  He's snack pappy.

Of course, he wasn't the only one.  With food that great, who wouldn't be snarfing down the grub?

Bob.  Bob went straight for the health food.  A donut.  The man was cooking barbecue shrimp to order and he ate a donut.  Obviously, Bob has issues, is what I'm sayin'.

The Red Hots performed.  We got some lovely pictures of the squad dancing.

Several of the young ladies work for Hud.  But now why did we go to Rhodes on Saturday?  Cajun food, check.  Zali smooches the chicks, check.  Admire the Red Hots skills, check.  What am I missing?  It's on the tip of my tongue...

"Shreemp?  We were waiteeng on ze shreemp?"

"No, Zali, I mentioned that.  Here's a shot of me delivering the goods.  Let's see.  Oh, yeah, I remember now!  The game!"

Um, didn't get a picture of that.  They won.  Beat their rival Sewanee.  I have no idea what the score was.

"Eet was ze Zali's favoreete foozball game ever!"

Random Acts of Photography

What I did on my weekend...

 

...attended the Rhodes College/Sewanee Cajun Festival game!  Rhodes won!  Yay! 

We all ate shrimp!  Yay!

There Are Some Things in This Life...

...That are too sweet not to share.  This came in this week from www.zooborns.typepad.com :

Gentle Rhino Nuzzling at Busch Gardens

Posted: 12 Nov 2009 02:55 PM PST

Meet Busch Gardens Tampa Bay's newest little white rhino calf. Born this past Wednesday to mother Mlaleni and father Tambo, the baby girl is the third offspring of these busy parents since 2004. Even with skin that can reach a few centimeters thick, mother and baby bond with some muzzle to muzzle nuzzling. 

 

 

Photo credits: Matt Marriott / Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

Tipping the scales at an estimated 100 lbs., this calf may some day reach nearly 8,000 lbs. After elephants, white rhinoceroses are the largest land animal with the record holder weighing in at 10,000 lbs.

BUSCH GARDENS WELCOMES NEW BABY WHITE RHINO

The Adventure Park Announces Fourth Calf for Mlaleni and Tambo

TAMPA, Fla. (November 12, 2008) – Busch Gardens Tampa Bay welcomed a new baby white rhinoceros on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009. The female rhino was born in the night quarters adjacent to their 26-acre white rhino habitat on Busch Gardens’ Serengeti Plain.

Weighing in at an estimated 100 pounds, the newborn – who has yet to be named – is the third calf born to mother Mlaleni and father Tambo. The October 2004 birth of Mlaleni and Tambo’s first calf, Malaika, marked the first white rhino birth in the adventure park’s history. Their second calf, Dakari, was born in August 2006, and their third, Crash, was born in May 2008.

Busch Gardens participates in the American Zoological and Aquarium Association (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP) to ensure genetic diversification among threatened and endangered animals in zoological facilities. The birth brings the total white and black rhino population at the adventure park to 12. (white, 9 and 3 black)

Mlelani, Tambo and another female white rhino were airlifted from Kruger National Park in South Africa in 2001 through the efforts of the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of rhinos.  According to the IRF, just over 14,530 white rhinos remain in the wild, and fewer than 170 live in zoological facilities across North America.

In 2008, the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund donated $5,000 to Friends of Conservation, $15,000 to International Rhino Foundation, $10,000 to Rhino Fund Uganda and $10,000 to Tusk Trust to support rhino conservation efforts in the wild. The Fund was created in 2003 by the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks and is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable foundation dedicated to supporting environmental and wildlife conservation initiatives. Since its inception, the Fund has granted $5 million to more than 350 projects in the U.S. and around the world.

Welcome Home

Bye Bye Pie listed this link in her blog on Veteran's Day:  http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/40324 . It's a page of videos showing several dogs' excitement at having their soldiers return home.  Some of them can barely contain their joy.

We get that sort of shear unadulterated happiness every time we return to the Hudarosa.  There is yelping and jumping and the occasional peeing on the floor, but it is all just so joyful.  Who wouldn't want to hurry home for that?

Their enthusiasm isn't limited to us.  Open the front door and all are greeted with the same sense of delight.  Once we had a man come over to repair the constantly fritzed out refrigerator. Geeze, I hate that machine. But I digress...  The dogs were all over him, issuing hellos, kisses and Zoe nearly knocked him over with a stuffed bear.  I apologized profusely.  He looked at me with a certain sadness in his eyes and replied, "Actually, I kinda' like it.  I wish my own dog was this glad to see me."

Watch the videos.  Keep the Kleenex handy and enjoy the love.

Snoogums

A petition was raised last week for Puppy Number:  199287 to claim a name for him.  The puppy is now known as, "Justice".  All pound animals should have names and not just numbers.  It would go a long way to helping the workers humanize (animalize?) the furry charges in their care.

Zooborns needs your help naming another fresh soul.  Who couldn't love  a smile like that?  I think I'm in love...

Name the Baby Beluga at the Vancouver Aquarium

Posted: 09 Nov 2009 11:27 AM PST

Beautiful footage of the Vancouver Aquarium's baby beluga, which was born earlier this summer. Additionally, the Vancouver Aquarium is asking Canadians to help them pick a name for the little girl. Submit your suggestions here!

Don't you want to squeeze those cheeks?  Phhhhttt.  I vote Woogums.  Or Snoogums.  Or Mine!IWantIt!

Is there an Inuit word for that?

Random Acts of Photography

The last time we went to the Memphis Zoo, the pandas were in their "Meet and Greet" area, giving each other the sniffaroo.

We were all enchanted by their movements.  Normally, the bears are passed out looking like they just finished some Sonic cheeseburgers and are relaxing in front of TV with a beer in one paw and a remote in the other..