For Smitty the cat, Monday night was exciting, terrifying and unusual. Warren Animal Control Officer Heidi Garrity found the animal on a roof next to Warren Town Hall, and with the help of the Warren Fire Department, Smitty, formerly known at the Warren Animal Shelter as “Cookie Dough,” was rescued.

“There were some dogs in the parking lot barking beforehand,” Ms. Garrity said. “I don’t know how he got up there. He must have been chased up the tree. That’s the only way I could figure he got up there.”

At around 6:30 p.m., Ms. Garrity was walking into the Warren police station when a call came in about a cat atop a home directly next to town hall. Ms. Garrity ran across the parking lot to her truck, got some dried cat food, and began tossing it at the orange cat who was lying in a gutter on the roof. It was a tough reach, though, as the cat was at least 20 feet away.

After tracking down a volunteer fireman, Ms. Garrity was able to climb onto the town hall fire escape in an attempt to lure the cat over to her by throwing more food, this time tuna.

Below, onlookers watched as Smitty lay in the gutter meowing. Curiosity seekers included Warren Planning Board members and town officials on their way to a meeting.

“What’s going on?” was the common question they all asked, but they kept moving figuring the cat would get down on his own.

Unfortunately, he didn’t.

Ms. Garrity could not get Smitty to move, so she called in the big guns. Around 7:30 p.m., Warren’s ladder truck showed up and volunteer firemen Nick Garakop scaled the roof and rescued the cat. Ms. Garrity said Smitty had no injuries, and his owner, Damien Gemma, was relieved to have him on the ground.

Fire volunteers “pulled up right in front of the house and got the cat and handed him off to me [on the fire escape],” said Ms. Garrity. “I went through the town hall with him and gave him back to the owner who agreed to have his nails clipped for me. He had a real good grip on me.”

“Oh he was just fine,” Ms. Garrity said.

Warren Fire Chief Al Galinelli said most town fire departments don’t rescue cats out of trees or off roofs, but Warren still does.

“I know the old theory ‘You never see a cat skeleton in a tree,’ but when you have a young child crying and looking up at his cat, you want to get it for him.”

A bizarre mix of horse and rabbit blood is keeping a schoolgirl alive.

Antibodies drawn from the animals’ blood are giving 14-year-old Cara Heaney a chance of survival as she fights bone marrow failure.

Pioneering doctors are hoping to kick-start the youngster’s immune system and cure the rare illness, known as aplastic anaemia, which affects only one in 200,000 people.

“Without this treatment Cara would not be alive today,’ said Cara’s 41-yearold mother, Miriam. ‘She gets very down but never moans.’

As well as receiving horse antibodies, known as immunoglobulins, and rabbit-blood products over the next few months, Cara must also have at least one blood transfusion every fortnight plus platelet replacements every week.

Cara, of Killingworth, North Tyneside, who has been left in a wheelchair by the illness, said she had ‘tried to be brave’.

Tomorrow the youngster’s courage will be recognised when she is presented with a Brave Hearts award – given to children who have shown great strength in overcoming illnesses.

There was a time when Emma-Jayne Wilson dreamt little girl dreams.

She dreamt of being a jockey and of winning races such as the Queen’s Plate and even of being famous.

Race tracks are full of dreamers, of course, but Wilson never stopped believing, working and driving herself not just to make it, but to make it big.

If you watched her patient, powerful and precise steer of Mike Fox to win the 148th running of Canada’s most famous race yesterday, you saw a superstar of her sport.

In a race that was sullied by as sleepy a group of horses you’ve ever seen chase a $1- million purse, Wilson’s performance stood out.

That she became the first woman to win the opening jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown will enshrine Wilson, but it won’t define her. It will confirm only what racing fans have seen here the past 2 /12 years — a clever, hard-riding jockey who won’t give an inch to her male counterparts.

Six years ago, Wilson vowed to make it happen and put it down in writing for future reference. That she stumbled upon that promise on Saturday night, mere hours before her biggest win, was part-omen, part-inspiration for yesterday.

“It was dated Sept. 14, 2001, and it said: ‘On this day, I Emma-Jayne Wilson promise to make it as a jockey,’ ” she said after fighting her way through an adoring crowd among the throngs at Woodbine.

DREAMS CAME TRUE

“As far as I’m concerned, my dreams did come true when I won my first race. That was glory for me.

“But this is history. Girl power, go for it. First female rider (to win the Plate). I’m just so glad it’s the last time it will ever be said.”

That’s another thing you need to know about Wilson. She’s proud to be a woman and is touched by the little girls who look up to her.

But she doesn’t want to be known as the best woman jockey, just the best.

The 25-year-old native of Bramalea certainly outsmarted some of Woodbine’s best. Breaking sharply from the outside Mike Fox, owned by D. Morgan Firestone and trained by Ian Black, was settled nicely, sitting off the frontrunners in the early going.

In the drive for the wire, Wilson angled her mount from the rail and split between frontrunner Alezzandro and heavily favoured Jiggs Coz.

Working feverishly, her arms pumping Mike Fox’ neck, she made the lead just three jumps before the wire, finishing in 2:05.45.

Since she rocked her way on to the Ontario scene in 2005 winning 175 races and $7.4 million in purse earnings, Wilson has been Woodbine’s leading rider. So the shock value wasn’t that she won, though at odds of 15-1 she helped light up the toteboard quite nicely.

The shock was more that heavily favoured Jiggs Coz could be so listless in the late-going. Or that the field came home in an achingly slow 28 seconds. Or that only eight horses — equalling the smallest field in history — were entered in 1o-mile race.

None of that will be remembered. Horse power is nice, but girl power works just fine.

Three nests of the rare Kirtland’s warbler have been discovered in the state, which wildlife authorities say shows recovery efforts for the endangered species are working.

“It’s a historic moment not only for the conservation of species,” said Sumner Matteson, an avian ecologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, “but a historic moment in the history of ornithology.”

About two weeks ago, a bird watcher in central Wisconsin reported seeing a nest, indicating that a breeding pair now calls the state home.

Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said two more nests have been found.

The bird, one of the rarest members of the wood warbler family, typically makes its home in the northern part of lower Michigan, nesting in stands of young jack pines.

Officials say this marks the first time nests have been found outside Michigan since the 1940s, when nests were discovered in Ontario.

Females have been observed near the nests, which confirms the birds as a breeding species in the state, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Matteson said surveys were done as far back as 30 years ago until the 1980s and males were found in western and northwestern Wisconsin. But Matteson said there had not been any documented females until this year.

Breeding season generally lasts for several weeks in June. The birds winter in the Bahamas and return to the Upper Midwest during the warmer months.

Kirtland’s warblers settle only in young jack pine forests of more than 80 acres. They nest on the ground beneath the branches of trees from 4 to 20 years old.

But they’re finding it more difficult to find suitable habitats because of forest fire prevention, which is keeping jack pines alive longer. Since fewer new treats are growing, Kirtland’s warblers find their natural nesting area possibilities reduced, meaning their numbers are declining.

To offset this, Michigan plants or seeds about 3,000 acres of new jack pine trees a year.

Louise Clemency, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Green Bay, said success found in Wisconsin shows Michigan’s efforts are working.

“It’s great to see that years of intensive protection efforts by the state and federal partners in Michigan are paying off as the growing population there rebounds and spreads out around the region,” Clemency said.

Kirtland’s warblers have been on the endangered species list since 1967. Their population hit a low of 201 males in 1971, dropping from 432 singing males in 1951.

But their numbers now are among the highest recorded, 1,486 males in 2006.

Each male has a distinct song to mark his territory, so male numbers are counted and then often doubled to include females.

The exact locations of the nests are not being released so the birds’ habitat is not disturbed.

But authorities did say the nests were found on property belonging to the Plum Creek Timber Co., which is helping develop conservation efforts in Wisconsin and Michigan for the warblers.

The company is also one of 40 partners with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the DNR to protect the endangered Karner blue butterfly.

The company is always looking to show endangered species can coexist with land and timber companies, said Rob Olszewski, Plum Creek’s vice president of environmental affairs.

The Wisconsin DNR said it hopes to work with landowners to survey more breeding habitat for the birds.
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Nature serves as an inspiration for many technologies, and researchers in the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University are taking their inspiration for a micro air vehicle (MAV) design from the hummingbird.

The researchers are using a scale model that can mimic the wing motion of an actual hummingbird, allowing accurate measurements and observations of how air flows around the wings as they flap.

MAVs can be used in a wide range of important surveillance and tactical reconnaissance functions. However, vehicles measuring 10 centimeters or less might have a problem with hovering and vertical flight in windy conditions. This has led to research on how animals like hummingbirds fly and hover.

The principal investigator for the project is James Allen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. The co-investigators are Banavara Shashikanth, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Paulo Ferreira de Sousa, a postdoctoral fellow in the mechanical engineering department.

Master’s candidate Jeremy Peña is working on the project as well. Another master’s candidate, Scott Hightower, was on the research team until his graduation in the spring. The three-year project is being funded by the Air Force

Teenagers have online cliques at MySpace, students star in Facebook, LinkedIn is an internet networking stage for professionals, and dogs and their human counterparts run with the pack at Dogster.

San Francisco-based Dogster is a flourishing social networking website for canines, referred to as “animal companions” instead of “pets” in the politically correct City by the Bay.

Among the furry friends featured on the website is Annie, an 11-month-old female beagle from the US state of Tennessee.

Annie loves carrots, belongs to a group called “Beagles R Us” and is humbly described as “nice with large ears”.

Her roster of friends includes Tank, a Shar Pei in South Africa; a New York City golden retriever named Copper, and Beanie, a poodle living in Malaysia.

Annie has a blog, an online journal, to share her thoughts and adventures with friends.

She is among more than 290,000 dogs worldwide with internet personas portrayed in profile pages on Dogster.

Felines have a kindred website, Catster, which is purring along with more than 121,000 members.

Dogster founder Ted Rheingold credits the birth of the pooch-oriented website in January of 2004 to a simple observation.

“I realised there was nowhere to make a webpage for your dog, or more importantly, there was nowhere to share photos and stories about your dog,” Rheingold said.

“You could see photos online, but you couldn’t see their names - who’s this dog, what’s this dog’s favorite treat, or what’s this dog’s character.”

Dogster and Catster communities have grown to more than 500,000 members, and quickly extended beyond US borders.

Countries with the most active members are Australia, Britain, Canada, the Philippines, Singapore and the United States.

And a few other facts give a picture of its success. In May alone, the company made more than $US250,000 ($A295,176) dollars, had a healthy 22 million page views for both sites, and now has 15 full-time and three part-time employees, according to a Dogster spokesman John Vars.

Labradors, Chihuahuas, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are top dogs in Dogster demographics.

Along with sharing a beloved creature with the world via the internet, Dogster and Catster members share tips about pet care or animal behaviour.

“If you have any questions about your dog changing with age, or getting another dog or cat, all these people are online at the same time so can give you advice,” Rheingold said.

The websites grew from places for exchanging pictures and anecdotes to including features such as private message boards and lists of pets seeking homes in places around the world.

Catster and Dogster members also use the websites to form breed-specific clubs in cities.

A recently added feature lets people find local pet services such as veterinarians, groomers, trainers or dog walkers and learn how they are rated by peers.

“If you do a search right now for a veterinarian you’ll find names, addresses, how far they are from you, and read reviews of what other dogs’ owners think of this vet or groomer,” Rheingold said.

While thriving on user-generated content in a way similar to other Web 2.0 social networking websites, Dogster and Catster are being built to outlast trends, according to their founder.

“We want to be here for a long time,” Rheingold said.

“Dogster is not just a business, and we don’t want just to sell it or make a lot of money. We pick what’s best for our users, what they want us to do, no matter if it’s the latest sexy technology or not.”

Rheingold has also resisted entreaties from animal lovers to become an online version of a Biblical Noah, launching websites for species galore.

“Everyday, we get requests for horses, birds, fish, farm animals, lizards, or ‘Please, make this, because I want to show off my spider’,” Rheingold said.

“We don’t have immediate plans to launch other pet sites, but we’d like to. We really want to make sure we get Dogster and Catster right. It may not take long. But we’ll probably stick to mainstream animals.”

Rev. Rick Burgess doesn’t typically dole out plastic bags at church services.

But it was anything but a typical service at St. James-Rosemount United Church yesterday, as Burgess offered the annual Blessing of the Animals.

Lawn chairs and blankets took the place of pews under the shade of a tree beside the Sherwood Avenue church for the outdoor service.

Congregation members were offered the plastic bags, along with a gentle reminder to please clean up after their special guests.

Close to 20 dogs and one brave cat attended along with about 80 humans.

During the service, Burgess called on the congregation to raise their hands to the sky to receive God’s blessing and then to lay their hands on the animals. Later, he offered individual blessings to pets.

Burgess said the church started the annual blessing five years ago at the suggestion of a congregation member.

“She had a cat who was very dear to her and came to us with the idea,” he said.

Burgess added that the service aims to give thanks for the joy pets bring to their owners. Burgess’ own dog, Cookie, came to the service but his cat, Schooner, stayed at home.

“If we brought her, it would be too traumatic for her and it would be too traumatic for us,” he said with a laugh.

Golden retriever puppies Blue and Bear were among the pets Burgess personally blessed after the service.

Their owner, Pat Bellamy, said she wanted to bring the pair to the service because she recently had to give another dog away after it became too aggressive.

She’s hoping the blessing–along with strict training–will help the puppies become good-natured dogs.

Burgess said he believes animals are worthy of blessing because they are, after all, God’s creatures.

“Pet owners seem to agree that your pet gives more to you than you do to them and isn’t that a reflection of the nature of God?”

Everybody watching chuckled.

The 6-year-old passed the reins of her horse to the judge so she could scratch her head.

Though it was an uncommon practice, she still got a fourth-place ribbon after she showed her 29 year-old mare, Taz, at the Huachuca Saddle Club Open Horse Show held Sunday at the Rockin’ JP Ranch in Miracle Valley.

Her mom, Marion, won second place and reserve champion with another mare, Miss Sunny Go Rose, and her cousin Jasmine Newton, 12, from Tucson, won third place with RM Friendly Tyler.

It was Newton’s first time in the show ring and she has been spending a lot of time helping her Aunt Marion and working with Tyler getting ready for the show.

It’s a family affair. Marion, who also competes in women’s roping, has been raising quarter-horses and paints for the past six years and has been showing horses for over 20 years.

“These are just brood mares. They had been saddle broke, but not much was done with them over the years. They hadn’t even been brushed,” said Marion. “I wanted something gentle for the girls and they have been just wonderful horses.”

Her suggestion for anyone starting out in the horse ring is to find a breeder or trainer with good horse sense and a horse that’s good and gentle.

A beautiful black stallion said to be “90 percent Arabian, 10 percent Polish” by his owner Carol Shields, of Hereford, had put up a bit of a fuss in the ring, doing what stallions do best — show-off a little and act like a scamp a little. He strutted in front of the judges with head and tail perked, then reared front hooves off the ground, mane and tailing flowing in the wind. The judges still liked him and gave him the Blue Ribbon and Grand Champion Stallion of the show.

“The judges don’t have to award ribbons,” she commented. “Even if your horse is the only one in the ring, you can come away empty-handed.”

In this instance, she and Fahiim were the only entry in the class.

“I waited for 52 years to have a horse like this,” said Shields. “I read ‘The Black Stallion’ when I was growing up and made up my mind, someday I was going to have a black Arabian stallion.”

She’s been working with the 10-year-old named JRW Bikr Fahiim, since last August and noted that he “wasn’t too good at anything.” He was used for stud and had not even been ridden.

“The first time I got on him, he was a dream,” she said.

She said in training a horse to saddle, it’s best to take a lot of time and patience, and lunge the horse a few times, building the gear up from bridle to saddle, before you put a foot in the stirrup.

“You just put one foot in the stirrup and kind of hang there. You don’t commit to getting up in the saddle. It’s easier to kick out of one stirrup and fall back. It’s less distance to the ground.”

She kept working with him and has gotten him into the ring several times now on a lead rope. Her pride in him shows as she says they’ll be in the Scottsdale show in the fall.

Shields’ love of horses began at an early age, but was put on hold after she joined the Marine Corps. She spent 18 years serving her country, many of those years spent at Fort Huachuca.

“They sent me here, then forgot about me, I guess,” she said with a laugh. “But, this is where I met my husband, so I’m happy with how it worked out.”

One thing you probably would not expect to see at a horse show is a mule, but there she was.

LT Bit O’ Honey was taking in her first show in the ring.

Terri Barrett, Hereford, had bought the 15-year-old mule for her boyfriend, who rides and packs, but couldn’t resist taking her in the ring in the Western Pleasure class.

The day held many events for riders of all ages and levels of experience.

Brenda Allen, organizer and president of the 50-plus-year-old club, said the show had done better than she expected, even with the heat, as she bustled about getting everything up to the judging booth. The front compartment of her horse trailer has been turned into the club’s mobile office.

“I like to show, but I can’t run the show and be in the show. It makes for cranky horses,” she joked.

Several members of the board participate in helping with the shows and it does take a lot of work.

“We’re all volunteers,” she noted.

A rider came out of the ring and rode up to the registration table to make a complaint. Seems the judges had set a figure-eight course up with themselves at the nexus. On top of that, they both had plastic bags blowing in the wind, which was stressing some of the horses and the young riders participating with this particular rider.

Allen simply said, “I’ll take care of it.”

She entered the ring, informed the judges and walked away with the two trash bags. Just another day at the show.

The Center for Biological Diversity released a report today showing the bald eagle population in the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia is 11,040 pairs in 2007. This is a nearly 1,300-pair increase from the 2006 estimate of 9,789 pairs. Just 417 pairs remained in 1963.

“The bald eagle’s recovery from the edge of extinction is one of the world’s great conservation success stories,” said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The eagle has returned to every single state in the lower 48, though it has yet to successfully fledge a nestling in Vermont.”

Half a million bald eagles inhabited the United States when the pilgrims arrived. Though the bird was made the U.S. national symbol on June 20, 1782, it suffered terrible abuses due to the mistaken belief that it was a dangerous predator. It was fed to hogs in Maine, shot from airplanes in California, poisoned in South Dakota, and hunted under a 50-cent bounty in Alaska. One hundred thousand eagles were killed in Alaska alone between 1917 and 1950. The state of Georgia declared that eagles, like the “hawk, owl, crow, sparrow, and meadow-lark, are considered to do more harm than good and may be shot at any time.”

These impacts declined somewhat with the passage of the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, but everywhere eagle habitat continued to be logged, grazed, bulldozed and converted to farmland and housing. Eagles declined throughout the lower 48 and were extirpated from many states long before DDT became prevalent. The small populations that survived to the 1950s and 60s suffered catastrophic reproductive failure due to the thinning of their eggshells by DDT. All this began to change when the bald eagle was placed on the first national endangered species list in 1967. The listing (and that of the brown pelican and peregrine falcon) was a major factor in convincing Congress to ban most outdoor uses of DDT in 1972.

Eagle populations rebounded in response to the banning of DDT, protection from killing, habitat protection and restoration, artificial incubation of eggs, fostering of chicks, and reintroduction of eaglets. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the bald eagle’s status from endangered to threatened in 1995 and is expected to remove it from the threatened list by June 29, 2007.

Fifteen White-tailed Sea Eagle chicks are to be released in Ireland’s Killarney National Park as part of a five-year breeding experiment to re-introduce eagles to the Irish countryside.

The chicks will be reared with minimum human contact and monitored closely by a team of experts.

The White-Tailed Sea Eagle was once common in Ireland but died out after being trapped and shot in the 19th and 20th centuries. International researchers identified Co Kerry as the best place in Ireland to re-introduce the birds because of the unique rugged coastline habitat.

The Sea Eagle can grow up to 100cm (40 inches) long with a 250cm (100 inch) wingspan. It preys on fish, birds, carrion and occasionally small mammals. The adult is mainly brown but has a distinctive white tail.

The five-year project in Co Kerry will generate local tourism revenue. In Scotland, Sea Eagles attract thousands of visitors and are worth up to three million euro a year to the economy of Mull island.

In Co Donegal, a project to re-introduce the Golden Eagle is now in its sixth year.

The White-Tailed Sea Eagle project will also help Ireland fulfil its commitment to maintain and enhance native wildlife under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

The initiative is managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Golden Eagle Trust and others.