For a few hours, Golden, Colorado, native Kameron Wolpert was like any other nine-year-old girl. She giggled when the dolphin nudged her chest with its snout, and at the dolphin trainer’s request, she gripped the tiny mackerel and fed it to Nuba. In return, the fish massaged her knees and legs, encouraging her to leave the fetal position and stretch out her slender white legs.

These exercises were an aberration for Kammie, who suffers from trisomy 18 (T-18), a terminal illness that causes severe handicaps such that the girl is unable to speak and nearly unable to use her limbs and muscles. Ninety percent of children with T-18 die before they reach one year old. When Jude and Bill Wolpert decided to carry through with Kammie’s birth, they also committed to years of time-consuming and costly therapy sessions with methods ranging from doctors to animals: horses, dogs … and dolphins, which many scientists now consider the smartest mammals alive.

The Wolpert family spent a week in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, in March with the Boulder-based dolphin therapy program Living from the Heart (www.livingfromtheheart.org), which rents pool space and dolphin time from the resort outfit Vallarta Adventures—one of hundreds of dolphin therapy locations in tropical climates around the world. In the largest pool at Vallarta Adventures, college kids on spring break cheered and clapped as dolphins performed tricks and jumps for them. And in a small pool next to the therapy sessions, which was roped off and covered by nylon curtains, National Geographic filmed a live human water birth assisted by dolphins, who would escort the newborn back to the waterline.

The Wolperts paid $700 for five 45-minute sessions with Nuba, a dolphin trainer and an assistant, and Kammie’s results were remarkable. In addition to using her otherwise dormant limbs, the handicapped girl’s attention span increased during the week, and though her mouth will never form words, Nuba helped her laugh with ease. Of course, Kammie wasn’t the only one affected by the dolphin’s presence. After taking turns holding Kammie and sharing the pool with Nuba, both Jude and Bill were overcome by extreme relaxation and an inner peace. They slept long and hard during the night in their beachside hotel on the Pacific.

Could it be the poolside relaxation, the lapping ocean waves, and the timeout from their lives back in wintry Colorado that put the Wolperts in a blissful state and helped Kammie perform physical feats otherwise impossible for her? Doubtful, more and more medical professionals are admitting. More than three decades of research and experience shows that dolphins use their advanced echolocation sonar to sense what physical or communicative skills, or emotions, are scrambled in one’s brain, and by rubbing up against the person or sticking their nose up to one’s solar plexus, the most intelligent mammals in the water can help us—at least in the short term—in a manner far superior to other forms of physical or animal-assisted therapy. Dolphins may never make Kammie walk or talk, but they can significantly improve her quality of life.

Dr. Betsy Smith, an educational anthropologist at Florida International University, is considered the founder of modern-day dolphin-assisted therapy. In 1971, while researching interactions between dolphins and humans, Smith let her mentally retarded brother wade into the water with two adolescent and rough dolphins, who immediately became gentle, as if they sensed they could help the boy. Since then organizations such as the Human/Dolphin Foundation and AquaThought have surfaced, devoted to studying how dolphins can help people. Over the last three decades the same echolocation sonar that dolphins in the wild use to locate a shark half a mile away, and determine whether its stomach is full or empty, has been used to help humans suffering from autism, the effects of Agent Orange, and even Alzheimer’s.

On the third day of observing Kammie’s interaction with Nuba, I entered the pool and experienced the powerful effects of her echolocation myself. The dolphin turned upside down and, with the help of the trainer’s steady arms, I lay on her belly just below the water level for a good five minutes. I listened to the sonar Nuba was emitting into my brain and my body—what sounded up close like a door creaking, and from further away like grains or pebbles settling back onto a riverbed after being stirred up. Afterward Nuba stuck her snout up to my solar plexus, and within seconds a deep calm overcame me. Ten minutes later, and for the rest of the day, my body felt as relaxed as if I’d been sitting in a sweat lodge, or perhaps performing Bikram Yoga, for 12 hours straight.

Before leaving the pool that day the trainer’s assistant, Brianna, who is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and has devoted her life to dolphin therapy ever since her autistic brother Kyle received therapy here two years ago, placed her forehead up against Nuba’s forehead, looked into the dolphin’s eyes, and cried. They meditated together for about five minutes, and Brianna whispered a few words to her. When I asked Brianna what compelled her to do this, she told me that a friend of hers in California had been murdered the week before, and she just needed “some healing time” with Nuba.

A female African elephant calf born at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park late this summer has been named Phakamile, which means “noble” in the African language of siSwati, zoo officials announced Monday.

The calf was born Sept. 19 to 17-year-old Umoya, becoming the third pachyderm born at the Wild Animal Park over the previous 12 months.

Park officials said the young elephant is doing well, learning her way around the African elephant yard and staying close to her mom.

Umoya, which means “spirit” in siSwati, was part of a herd rescued from culling at a Swaziland national park and brought to the 1,800-acre Wild Animal Park in 2003.

A DOG’S life has been saved by a blood donation from another pet.

Rosie, a 10-year-old bearded collie, received a life-saving transfusion hours before an emergency operation to remove her spleen after developing tumours.

Owner Lizzie Gault, from Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, said Rosie would not have survived the surgery without the blood donation as she was severely anaemic.

The operation was performed at Glasgow’s Small Animal Hospital, which arranged to get the blood through a new charity, Pet Blood Bank UK (PBBuk).

Show-dog Rosie’s life was saved by Kai, a German shepherd dog from Stirling.

Kai’s owner, Pauline Aitken, had taken her pet to give blood at a PBBuk drive in Stirling in November.

Ms Gault, a former dog breeder and a researcher at Glasgow University, said: “I took Rosie to the vet after realising her gums were really pale as I brushed her teeth.

“A blood test discovered she had very low haemoglobin and an ultrasound found tumours on her spleen.

“We knew she had to have her spleen out but she was too weak.

“The transfusion was truly wonderful because 10 years ago it wouldn’t have been possible and Rosie probably wouldn’t have made it.”

After the operation, Rosie even got a chance to meet Kai, the dog which saved her life, and they got on well.

Ms Aitken said: “I was delighted to meet Rosie, who made a great recovery, and see the positive impact of Kai’s donation.

“I’m a blood donor myself, so it was only natural for me to take Kai along to give blood to the Pet Blood Bank.”

Dr Ian Ramsay, director of Glasgow University’s Small Animal Hospital, said: “Without blood donations many animals would not make it through surgery, and we are grateful to all the owners who donate their pet’s blood.”

Ms Gault, who has two other bearded collies, said Rosie had now fully recovered from the surgery.

She added: “Rosie had her stitches out last week.

“Now she’s barking, eating, running about – she’s back to full fitness.

“It’s just been amazing.”

Since its launch in March, the Pet Blood Bank UK has received 300 donations, amounting to 800 units of blood.

The next Pet Blood Bank drive will take place in Stirling in February.

Donating dogs must be between one and eight years old, weigh over 25kg, never have travelled abroad and be in good health.

HERE’S a moggie with a look that’s straight from the catwalk.

He’s modelling the latest in pampered petware – a wig for your cat.

They’re available in a range of colours to suit their owner from a new American website.

And are bound to be a hit with dippy owners who already spend thousands every year on gifts for their animals.

Cat-mad Julie Jackson came up with the designs to spice up her cat’s wardrobe and give the animals a more exciting choice of outfit.

The designs – called The Kitty Wigs – are available in blue, silver, blonde and pink.

We recently told how a barking mad store had started flogging wigs for dogs on the web.

Cats probably prefer wearing them because they’re arti-fish-ial.

A cat is heading back home to St. Louis after he was found 700 miles away and missing for more than five years.

Some animal lovers tell News 4 that they are scratching their heads about this mystery trip.

Tracie Quackenbush found a long haired white cat in a tree and rescued him five years ago.

Quackenbush brought him into the Open Door Animal Sanctuary in Jefferson County where the cat, Hercules spent three months before he got adopted.

Quackenbush and animal leaders at the Open Door Animal Sanctuary thought Hercules was still with his adopted family until they found out the cat was in Fort Worth, Texas.

Thanks to a micro chip shelter leaders put in Hercules, animal lovers in Texas were able to track back to the shelter.

Apparently, the adopted family lost the cat, and never reported him missing.

Quackenbush is not sure what her furry friend’s been up to, but she says they’re welcoming him home with open arms.

Rarely is a regurgitated turkey gizzard the centerpiece of a charming story.

When you add such characters as the overeager Pomeranian and the intrepid schoolgirl, the tale is more easily swallowed.

Ten-year-old Tori Grimm’s family was cooking Thanksgiving dinner two weeks ago in their New Albany home. Five-year-old Gizmo peeked with interest over the dog gate in the doorway, until Tori’s grandmother tossed him a piece of turkey.

“He’s not used to getting scraps, so he just ate it whole. He just fell over and started gasping,” Tori recalled.

The family is still struck by how fast it happened, how instantly Gizmo was affected and unable to breathe. But luckily, Tori moved quickly, too.

“Everybody was yelling different stuff” — frantic suggestions for saving Gizmo, such as sticking a hand down his throat — “so I just gave him the Heimlich maneuver,” Tori said.

The Community Montessori fifth-grader learned the technique last spring in a seminar at school.

Tori wrapped her arms around the stricken dog’s trunk and applied pressure with her hands, three times in 30 seconds, until Gizmo coughed up the food and resumed breathing.

No discriminating diner, Gizmo reacted predictably.

“He just started chewing,” Tori said.

Tori’s experience impressed her teacher, Heather Wathen, who recalled Tori attended the Heimlich seminar after research into the subject sparked her interest.

“I think it’s awesome,” Wathen said. “She came in and told me, and I was just very proud that she knew enough to even try the Heimlich maneuver on her animal.”

Gizmo isn’t Tori’s only animal, though. He’s one of three dogs, dwarfing a Chihuahua and a Yorkshire terrier as well as the four cats and a rat.

Tori said she’s interested in becoming a veterinarian, having volunteered at the Floyd County Humane Society two years ago. She taught puppies to sit.

Gizmo has recovered from his misadventure, barking and wheezing himself into a frenzy Wednesday when two strangers from the newspaper visited his turf.

He’s overweight and has trouble breathing, but grandmother Margaret Tyler reported he seems to have learned a lesson.

“When I hand him his food now, he takes it a little slow,” Tyler said, chiding herself: “No more real food again, Nana broke the rules!”

Tyler, a diabetic, said she’s taught Tori basic medical techniques that could help her in an emergency.

But as for CPR, Tori said, “I don’t know it that well.” That’s bound to change, since her mother, Jill, is certified in the life-saving procedure.

Tori has set the bar high for herself and others looking to practically apply knowledge from Montessori seminars. But if a bizarre emergency calls for someone to skateboard and milk a goat, she’ll be ready.