That gull probably just didn't have a girlfriend or a mate or anything, Del, and he wanted to hang out with another guy!!! And then it was time to migrate, and so he flew off in the other direction, hoping this year he would get lucky!!!
Oh, well, it's as good an explanation as any other. My cat watches nature programs too. I bet Butterscotch and Bullseye would like each other. Butterscotch likes the ones about birds and huge cats and monkeys the best. Did you know you can actually buy videos for cats, so they can watch them when you are not home and they get lonely?? Close-ups of birds, mice, all the hunting scenes and animal noises that cats enjoy. My other cat, Lizzie, is much too smart to watch any sort of video, realizing it is not real and will not result in a juicy dying bird in her mouth, feathers flying everywhere.
I am not totally radical about medical research. What I said is that I think it is wrong to do research on primates and the other very feeling and bright animals like elephants, and I don't believe in interspecies transplants. I believe that research done on rats and mice and small animals should be done without any cruelty. I have a rat, and he is very sensitive and smart. The other day I read about a University of Pennsylvania researcher who is doing research with pigs. They have learned to enjoy video games, which they play by moving a giant joy stick with their snouts. The researcher is hoping to see what they respond to in order to develop some sort of way of communicating with them, to see exactly how smart they are. He believes that we will be able to "talk" back and forth with them. He makes the observation that since they are animals who are constantly rutting and searching for food, they are very clever and alert.
My husband's best friend was telling him about a nature program he saw which was about the long-term results of communicating with chimps, teaching them sign language, and then releasing them back into the jungle. Apparently a researcher encountered an animal he had had a close relationship with, five years, earlier, but had not seen since and the animal signed to him "I need you, daddy!" More tears in male eyes!!
Incidentally, did you see the program about the Chinese farming tigers in Harbin to satisfy Asians who still believe tiger parts bring power to people? It really made me feel angry. |
