2006 Ends With Wacky Animal News Stories

by Courtney Mroch | More from this Blogger

27 Dec 2006 09:53 PM

Okay, is it me, or have there been some really wild animal stories lately?

Who Stole the Little Piggies?: One of the more bizarre stories has been about the parents in Benton, Louisiana, who were arrested after their baby daughter's toes were gnawed off. (There's a lot wrong with such a statement, isn't there?) It gets better: the mom insists the family's ferret did it; the dad blames their pit bull puppy.

The baby went to the hospital, the parents went to jail, and the animals got quarantined. The baby is now in state custody, the parents are still in jail, and the animals are out of quarantine, but will stay in the animal shelter until the court case is over. (The parents were charged with child desertion and criminal negligence and don't have the means to post the $50,000 bond per the each of them.)

We'll have to wait and see how this story plays out.

(From here on the stories get happier, but still stay slightly odd.)

Cloned Cat Becomes a Mom: Copy Cat, or CC as her people call her, is the world's first cloned cat. Researchers at Texas A&M University cloned her in 2001. In September of this year, she had three kittens. Researchers decided in December it was finally time to let the public know about the cutie kitties.

CC wasn't created naturally, but her cats were. A male named Smokey, a regular ol' non-cloned tabby, was brought in to mate with CC. Two of the kittens are white and gray like their mom; the other is gray like his dad. It is said mom and her babies are healthy and happy.

Reptilian Immaculate Conception: Just in time for Christmas, Flora the Komodo dragon experiences a Christmas miracle. The dragon, a virgin, suddenly became pregnant. That's right, "suddenly." As in with no male assistance.

Flora lives at the Chester Zoo in northern England. Komodo dragons aren't noted for virginal conceptions, also known as asexual reproduction, or a process called parthenogenesis. About 70 other reptile species reproduce this way, though, but for her group Flora's only the second documented case. (Another one happened earlier this year in London, to a Komodo named Sungai.)

Flora laid about 25 eggs, which wasn't all that unusual. Even without a male around female Komodos do lay eggs. Handlers removed the eggs anyway, just to be sure, and that's when they realized about half were viable with embryos inside. (And that Flora had fertilized them herself, which is typically the male's job.) Now they're estimating about seven of them will make it. But as Kevin Buley, a reptile expert at the Chester Zoo, said, "...we certainly won't be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus."

Death-Defying Derby Winner: You might have heard of Barbaro the race horse. He fractured his leg in the Preakness earlier this year. Normally when that happens more than the horse's career ends ... so does its life.

Not Barbaro's. Irrespective of all his winner's circle appearances, this horse is the personification of a champ. He just refuses to give up. He underwent surgery, which was considered a long shot by most, and responded well to it. He underwent therapy, was looking good, better than expected in fact, and then was struck by something else. His left leg, which had been bearing all the pressure due to his injured one, became infected with laminitis, a severe hoof disease.

This was more than a setback. The disease is often fatal in horses. (It's what did in the fabled Secretariat, who's deemed the "Muhammad Ali of racehorses" for all of his wins, records, and earnings.)

Barbaro's prognosis tumbled from hopeful to poor. But guess what? Barbaro hadn't let a fractured leg do him in, and it seems he's not going to let laminitis do it either. His determination spurred on his doctors, who now cautiously hope he'll make a good enough recovery to live out the rest of his days on a stud farm. His owners are hoping for the same. They'd like to see him meet a lot of nice mares and hopefully sire some more spunky champs.

Learn more about Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a wife, a proud pet parent, and a writer. She's been with her husband, high school sweetheart Wayne Pryor, over 20 years, married 11 of those. She's "mom" to Mr. Meow, a.k.

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