A dog which had been abandoned on the balcony of a Madrid flat for the past two weeks has been rescued by the Civil Guard, firemen, and members of the animal protection group, El Refugio.

Eighteen-month old Aruk, a cross-breed dog, was kept alive by neighbours putting food over the balcony.

They also managed to use a hosepipe to keep him supplied with water.

He was left there when, according to neighbours, his owners entered prison.

An 8-pound Chihuahua named Chico, who was rescued from a New Jersey humane society, is about to make his New York stage debut in Legally Blonde.

The underdog himself is playing Bruiser in the musical version of the story of sorority girl turned Harvard graduate, Elle Woods, played by Laura Bell Bundy, The New York Post reported.

The little dog is introduced in the first scene of the show when Elle’s Delta Nu sisters are looking for her. When they can’t find her, they consult the one source left: her dog.

They ask Bruiser questions, and he barks a response to each one like a canine oracle.

Chico’s real life story has its own elements of drama as well. Veteran Broadway animal trainer William Berloni adopted him even though he was a timid shy dog who may have been abused.

In fact, Berloni finds and adopts all his performing pets from animal shelters, and he said Chico is one of the best dogs I’ve ever trained.

Legally Blonde begins preview performances Tuesday.

A puppy who broke away from her owners and jumped into New York’s Hudson River over the weekend was rescued by veteran firefighters.

The New York Post reported on Bubba, the 15-month-old bull terrier who pulled away from her owners as they walked along the pier.

The firefighters were finishing a drill on a neighboring pier when the emergency occurred, the report said. One of them donned a rescue suit and swam from the team’s rapid response boat to the dog, who had gotten trapped under the pier.

The owners, who did not want to be identified, were grateful for the rescue.

Tusko, the Oregon Zoo elephant, is finally tuskless.

The big 35-year-old bull elephant broke both his tusks during the late 1970s. His right tusk was removed when he was a young elephant. But his left one remained, and was a source of infections. It could have been a source of more. “Bacteria build up in the wound and may enter the bloodstream”, according to lead veterinarian Mitch Finnegan. “This can cause heart problems.”

On February 17th, surgeons set about removing that broken, rotting tusk. The delicate, all-day operation succeeded in removing most, but not all of it.

Sunday, a four-hour operation finished the job. Surgeons used new drills and chisels, and the tusk is gone. Tusko has been awakend from his anaesthesia, and is expected to fully recover, though slowly; the entire recovery process could take up to a year. Zookeepers point out, however, that Tusko’s overall condition should continue improving as that wound heals and fills in.

Conservationists are crossing their fingers that birds will once again alight at Lake Martin after mysteriously abandoning the popular rookery last year.

The birds have begun returning this year to the St. Martin Parish lake, but the test will be if the egrets and herons stay long enough to raise a brood of fledglings.

Last year, many of the birds did not.

The reason they took flight is not clear, but most theories suggest a major disturbance _ raccoons invading nests, tour boats pushing too far into rookery, bullfrog hunters shining bright lights into the area at night.

“There have been a number of different theories. If you are going to be truly objective about it, I don’t think anyone could say what the reason was,” said Richard Martin, director of conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana, the group that owns the rookery.

Still, Martin suspects boat traffic, which is prohibited in the rookery during nesting season, played a role in the birds departure.

The Nature Conservancy has taken several steps this year to keep trespassers out. Martin said the group has hung thick metal cables to block boat trails that had been carved into the rookery, installed surveillance cameras and hired someone to monitor the area.

Signs along the road skirting the rookery warn that the area is under video surveillance.

“We have been monitoring the inside fairly heavily,” Martin said. “It looks like we have been fairly effective.”

This year, an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 pairs of great egrets and great blue herons have arrived at the rookery since late January.

“The numbers look fairly good for this time of year,” Martin said.

The birds arrived as usual last year, too, but then large numbers left in late March. Only about 1,300 nesting pairs remained after the abandonment, far less that the 10,000 pairs at the rookery in recent years.

Most of the remaining birds nested far from the lake’s edge, making it difficult for tourists and bird watchers to catch a glimpse.

Wildlife enthusiasts who frequent Lake Martin have sounded an alarm, and a group of about 20 people met this month to discuss what could be done to help.

Most solutions focused on being vigilant and reporting any instance of rookery disturbance to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Nature Conservancy, said Charles Bush, a Houma nature photographer who organized the meeting.

“At least it’s a start,” Bush said. “Hopefully, we can get this thing under control.”

There are several other rookeries in southwest Louisiana, but most are far more isolated than Lake Martin, where in past years thousands of birds could easily be seen from the road around the lake.

“The really attractive thing about Lake Martin is that it is one of the most accessible large rookeries in the United States,” said University of Louisiana at Lafayette biology professor Paul Leberg.

Leberg conducted a study last year for Wildlife and Fisheries to determine the effect of the 2005 hurricanes on rookeries in the state. He found that other rookeries were abandoned last year, though he could not say for certain whether the rookery failures were linked to the saltwater flooding or habitat destruction caused by hurricanes.

Regardless, he said, Lake Martin was not in the direct path of the storms.

Both Leberg and Martin said last year’s drought could have affected Lake Martin by reducing the number of acres devoted to farming crawfish and rice, two important food sources.

“These birds have to find adequate forage within 20 miles of the rookery,” Leberg said.

Leberg also said rookery populations can vary naturally from year to year, and it is not unheard of for birds to visit a rookery briefly and then leave, but rarely after they have begun building nests.

Martin said the hope this year is for about 5,000 pairs of wading birds to breed at the rookery, including the great egrets and great blue herons already there and the roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets and little blue herons that generally arrive later in the season.

At just a hair over 17 inches tall, the miniature horse is more inclined to walk under fences than jump them.

And her owners have sheltered the mare from ever gaining “circus-sideshow” or “one-trick-pony” status.

As the world’s smallest horse, 5-year-old Thumbelina, weighing in at 57 pounds, has a bigger mission: to raise $1 million for children’s charities this year.

Handler Michael Goessling, son of miniature horse farmers Kay and Paul Goessling, says Thumbelina is the ideal child advocate. Her name comes from the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of a woman the size of a thumb.

“When kids meet her in person, they want to talk to her and know what she likes and dislikes,” Goessling said. “It’s amazing because she is so loving with people. She craves attention.”

In the months after being named “World’s Smallest Living Horse” by Guinness World Records last summer, Thumbelina has certainly not been short on attention.

She’s been showered with praise on the television talk-show circuit. The flow of schoolchildren who visit her is constant, and many leave with coloring books dedicated to the Goessling family pet.

“I’ll have her out for hours. She’s so mild mannered, everything just seems to brush off her shoulders. There have been 100 kids around petting her and she’ll take a nap,” Goessling said.

When Thumbelina travels the country this year, she’ll do so in style - in a recreational vehicle that’s her converted stable on wheels. Goessling calls it the Thumby Mobile.

An upcoming “Thumbelina Children’s Tour” is expected to include stops in all 50 states at children’s hospitals, schools, summer camps, fairs, horse shows and charitable fundraisers.

At Goose Creek Farms, the Goesslings breed miniatures for sale and for horse show competitions, a hobby that’s brought them numerous ribbons for more than a decade.

But Thumbelina’s special. “We don’t want to make a penny off of her,” Michael Goessling said. “We never have. There will never be another Thumbelina.”

Most of her days are spent playing with like-size farm dogs. She even sleeps in a dog house.

The family calls her a “miniature-miniature” and genetically she’s a dwarf. Rules of nature say it’s a bad idea for her to reproduce, Goessling said.

Thumbelina often avoids the company of her taller, but still unusually small counterparts. Of the 40 or so miniature horses stabled on the ranch, most are more than a foot taller than Thumbelina.

The tiny horse and her charitable foundation have helped raise about $10,000 for children’s charities since she gained World record status as the smallest horse ever recorded, at 17 1/2 inches at the withers.

When a Guinness official came from London to certify the record, a photograph was taken of Thumbelina and the world’s largest living horse, Radar, a Belgium Draft horse from Texas standing at 6-foot-7 - about 40 times larger than Thumbelina.

She wasn’t intimidated.

“I got the impression that Thumbelina wasn’t so keen on sharing the limelight with the tallest horse at all,” said Michael Whitty, who’s in charge of Guinness’ Picture Media.

The picture will appear in the 2008 World Record book to be released this fall.

How did a stray kitten from remote Easter Island, a 5½-hour plane ride from Chile, end up living in La Jolla?

The stray kitty, about 3 weeks old and starving, was befriended in late January at an Easter Island hotel by San Diego tourists Mary and Hudson Drake, the former head of Teledyne-Ryan Aeronautical.

Mary found out that the gray and white tabby had been hanging around for days, with no sign of its mother. So she started feeding it and gave it the name Pascua (Spanish for Easter).

Each day when the Drakes returned to their hotel and called her name, Pascua came running to greet them. When the hotel owner said he was going to have to get rid of the kitty because some hotel guests disliked cats, Mary reminded him that she was a paying guest and would be heartbroken if the kitty “disappeared.”

A couple days later, Pascua didn’t come running when called, so Mary feared the worst. But when the Drakes entered their room, they found her curled up on a chair. The kitten had sneaked in with the housekeeper.

On the day before their departure, Mary took Pascua by taxi to the only veterinarian on Easter Island for treatment. Then she arranged for Pascua to be inoculated when she was old enough and flown to the United States – a 23-hour flight plus an overnight layover in Santiago, Chile.

On Wednesday, Pascua arrived in Los Angeles. Mary picked her up, and the readjustment was instant.

“Pascua is now around 10 weeks old, healthy, playful and a love,” says Mary. “We can not save them all, but if we can save one, it feels great.”

A dog show may be the chance for enthusiasts to showcase their canines and talents, but a few Coshocton residents recently made it a family event.

The United Kennel Club Performance Pack Nationals were held March 9-11 in Coatsville, Ind. Roy Pasmore of Coshocton attended the event with his two grandchildren, Cayla Wood, 13, and Dallas Wood, 10.

“I’ve handled and run dogs for years in competitions and local clubs (club hunts), and to make it to nationals, it’s an accomplishment,” Pasmore said. “This year my grandchildren got involved, and now they’re saying, ‘When are we going again Grandpa?’”
The trio took two dogs to the show, Britney Spice of Life and Pasmore’s Hunter, 4-year-old Beagle brothers co-owned by Pasmore and Fred Haun.

Cayla, who has attended a few other dog shows, handled Pasmore’s Hunter. She took fifth place overall with 89 dogs in the class, receiving a trophy. She said she would like to attend more shows in the future. “I liked going,” she said. “It was fun and exciting winning the trophy.”

Dallas handled Britney Spice of Life for his first trip to a dog show. He took first place in the same class as his sister and was handsomely rewarded with two trophies and other prizes. “It was exciting winning those,” he said. “I had a good time, and I want to go to more. It was a whole lot of fun.”

Pasmore also took notice of their eager reactions. “They ran for three days, Friday through Sunday, and they kept winning and made it to the finals,” he said. “This was the first one for Dallas, and he was really enthused. They were both really excited and having a ball.”

He said competitors came from all over, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Mexico. “There was a man from Mississippi, and Cayla just loved him because of his southern drawl,” he said.

Not only was it a pleasant experience for Cayla and Dallas, but their grandfather was happy about it, too. “I thoroughly enjoyed it and being there with my grandchildren,” he said. “It was time well-spent.”