For two weeks Lightning has been sending Patricia Fisher, the woman who nursed her back to health, a wordless message.

It’s time to let her go.

Lightning, a bald eagle, was severely injured in June of 2005 when the tree holding her nest in Waushara County was struck by lightning and started on fire. Lightning and another young eagle dubbed Thunder were badly burned.

Thunder was released a year ago. Lightning will be released late Saturday morning at the Petenwell Dam east of Neceda on the Wisconsin River.

It’s a day of mixed emotion for Fisher, who at 71, has been a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator for 21 years. Her Feather Rehabilitation and Education center in New London tends to about 100 birds each year. Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources license the center.

“It’s a sad day and a good day. When you care for them you become part of who they are,” Fisher said.

DNR Warden Dave Algrem in Wautoma found one of the eagles on the ground. The second one came down with the nest after firefighters chopped the tree down to put out the blaze. Algrem placed them in a box and took them to Fisher.

“They were a mess when they came to me. Their feathers were absolutely annihilated. You could see the exit wounds on their feet where the lightning left their bodies,” Fisher said.

The first two weeks of rehab were intense as Fisher applied medication and bandaged their feet. After that she purposefully had minimal contact with the birds. That improves their chances of surviving in the wild once the rehab is complete, Fisher said.

After the wounds healed it was simply a waiting game to see if the feathers would grow in. It turned out to be a long wait for Thunder who was released a year ago. She lived only three months. She died of a spinal injury, but she was found 75 miles from where she’d been released and had gained two pounds.
Fisher was not sad.

“She died outside doing what eagles do,” she said.

Lightning’s wait for freedom has been longer. She’s finally ready.

Throughout the rehab Fisher has kept an eagle eye on Lightning.

“She’s on camera. I’ve been watching her. The last two weeks she’s been flying continually. She’s been telling me ‘You’ve got to get me out of here,’” Fisher said.

Several volunteers will accompany Fisher to the Petenwell Dam this morning. They expect to arrive between 11 a.m. and noon. Lightning will be released where there is a food source and other eagles.

One of the volunteers will toss her skyward.

“The rest is up to her,” Fisher said.

A drunk Cambodian man became embroiled in an unfortunate genital incident when, as he was urinating through a fence, a happy little puppy on the other side bit onto his penis.

News reports in Phnom Penh said that Kann Veasna was relieving himself through a hole in the fence after a hard day drinking wine when the incident occurred.

The Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper suggested that the puppy may have thought Veasna’s penis was toy.

A cat that had been missing since its owners’ home was leveled by a natural gas explosion has been found alive, according to a local newspaper.

David and Valerie Fitzgerald’s other cat, Oscar, was found shortly after the blast at 44 Willowdale St. on Tuesday.

Lilly emerged from the rubble as crews cleared charred debris on Wednesday morning, the town’s Dog Officer Sue Hogan told the Lowell Sun. She said the cat was singed, but appeared OK otherwise.

The blast was blamed on KeySpan subcontractors, who investigators said didn’t check where the gas line was or if the line was in the wrong place.

Cat and mouse may never be the same. Japanese scientists say they‘ve used genetic engineering to create mice that show no fear of felines, a development that may shed new light on mammal behavior and the nature of fear itself.

“Mice are naturally terrified of cats, and usually panic or flee at the smell of one. But mice with certain nasal cells removed through genetic engineering didn‘t display any fear,” said research team leader Ko Kobayakawa.

Kobayakawa said his findings, published in the science magazine Nature last month, should help researchers shed further light on how the brain processes information about the outside world.

“People have thought mice are fearful of cats because cats prey on them, but that‘s not the case,” Kim said.

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.

Having something stuck in your teeth is nobody’s idea of sexy — that is unless you’re a dolphin.

In a new study, researchers say they believe some male dolphins try to impress females by carrying weeds, sticks or lumps of clay in their mouths.

Scientists have long observed dolphins toting objects with their teeth but thought they were merely playing.

However, observations of some 200 fresh-water river dolphin groups in the isolated Brazilian Amazon suggest it’s a sexual display, says Tony Martin of the British Antarctic Survey.

If the behavior was just goofing off, Martin says, females and juveniles would do it — but they don’t.

How this turns on females is unclear. But it appears to be a social behavior taught by one generation to another, Martin told New Scientist magazine.

Some argue that this evidence of learned behavior builds a case that dolphins should be classified as members of the “culture club” like humans and chimpanzees. Only primates use object-carrying in a sexual context, according to New Scientist.

Randall Wells, a Brookfield Zoo conservation biologist and dolphin researcher based in Sarasota, Fla., said there are more than 30 different species of dolphins. The dolphins on display at Brookfield are bottlenose dolphins.

Wells said he has not seen male bottlenose dolphins carrying objects for sexual attraction but a close relative has been seen touting sponges.

Other dolphin acts of “cultural transmission of knowledge” taught from generation to generation include “fish whacking,” in which the animals strike fish prey with their tails to stun them, said Wells.

Dolphins also teach young calves “kerplunking” — driving their tails through the water to create bubbles that stir fish up and makes them more visible so they are easier to catch, he said.

Martin’s dolphin study has sparked some discussion among his colleagues. Writing on the Nature Web site, one opined that perhaps the weed bouquets aren’t directly tied to wooing.

“Maybe girl dolphins like aggressive boy dolphins and aggressive boy dolphins like sticks,” the writer offered.

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.