Friendship is great. Animals are great. Animal friendship? You guessed it – it's great. This list is for those wonderful animal friends who look beyond each others' (often considerable) differences and see the wonderful souls beneath the surface.

 When their life isn't a struggle to survive (which often is the case in captivity), some predators can even potentially look at prey animals as friends, not as food.

Here’s an adorable look at the most unlikely of friends — from inseparable interspecies pals to surprising bonds between predator and prey — that will leave you wondering, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Whatever the reason may be, unusual friendships like these show that animals may be far more emotionally complex than many of us believe. Maybe these friendships aren’t so unusual after all!

Over 12 years the American photographer Robin Schwartz has depicted her daughter, Amelia, apparently at ease with a series of often wild animals

'I was once complaining because I had zebra hair all over me,’ 15-year-old Amelia Forman says. ‘My friends looked at me and said, “Wow, you have such great problems to complain about.” ’

Being photographed with exotic animals is all in a day’s work for Amelia, who since the age of three has been posing feeding a tiger cub or being lifted up on the trunk of an elephant for photographs taken by her mother, Robin Schwartz. Amelia and the Animals is the resulting project, spanning more than a decade of Amelia’s life, and featuring photographs of Amelia interacting with animals normally seen only in zoos or on television.

The first image in the book is of a three-year-old Amelia with Ricky, a young chimpanzee. ‘It’s weird how memory works,’ Amelia tells me from her home in New Jersey when we speak over Skype (she has just got back from an Eminem concert and is wearing a concert T-shirt). ‘I remember my mum talking to Ricky’s owner beforehand but I don’t remember the actual shoot. It’s something that’s happened all my life, so it’s hard to pinpoint the first memory of it.’
Source

The cycle of life for the woman is the baby, girl, woman, and grandmother. These are the four directions of life. She has been given by natural laws, the ability to reproduce life. The most sacred of all things is life. Therefore, all men should treat her with dignity and respect. Never was it our way to harm her mentally or physically. Indian men were never abusers. We always treated our women with respect and understanding. So from now on:

I will treat women in a sacred manner. The Creator gave women the responsibility for bringing new life into the world. Life is sacred, so I will look upon the women in a sacred manner.

In our traditional ways, the woman is the foundation of the family. I will work with her to create a home atmosphere of respect, security and harmony.

I will refrain from any form of emotional or physical abuse. If I have these feelings, I will talk to the Creator for guidance.


I will treat all women as if they were my own female relatives. This is my vow. - Native American Elders

2- Treat every woman from the tiniest child to the oldest one with respect at all times. Always treat a woman with honor and consideration.


3- The Old Ones say the Native American women will lead the healing among the tribes. Inside them are the powers of love and strength given by the Moon and the Earth. When everyone else gives up, it is the women who sings the songs of strength. She is the backbone of the people. So, to our women we say, sing your songs of strength; pray for your special powers; keep our people strong; be respectful, gentle, and modest. -Village Wise Man, Lakota


4- The honor of the people lies in the moccasin tracks of the woman.

5- "A people is not defeated until the hearts of its women are on the ground."– Cheyenne saying

6- "Always do what your mother asks!"

7- The Elders say the men should look at women in a sacred way. The men should never put women down or shame them in any way. When we have problems, we should seek their counsel. We should share with them openly. A woman has intuitive thought. She has access to another system of knowledge that few men develop. She can help us understand. We must treat her in a good way.


8- A spear is a big responsibility. I am one with the Earth. All around me my land is beauty. Navajo (Dine) Chants

9- A man who looks first to a woman's outer beauty will never know her beauty divine, for there is dust upon his eyes and he is blind. But a man who sees in a woman the spirit of the Great One and sees her beauty first in spirit and truth, that man will know "Divinity" in that woman. - White Buffalo Calf Woman

10- All women in the world are like the different colored flowers of one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the Creator, giver of life and source of all human life they must all be respected.

11- The hurt of one woman is the hurt of all women, the honor of one woman is the honor of all women. Show honor and esteem for all women! Consider and treat them with deference or courtesy

The United Tribes of Michigan (comprising 12 recognized Indian tribes in the northern part of the state) recently adopted a resolution opposing removal of federal protections for wolves and calling on people to recognize the historical and ecological significance of wolves.

It’s a message closely aligned with that of The HSUS, and we are glad to stand with these tribes and so many others who live with wolves and don’t want to see them slaughtered for no good reason. In November, Michigan voters trounced two wolf hunting and trapping ballot measures, and explicitly decided not to cede control of hunting and trapping decisions to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission.

Michigan and Wisconsin wildlife agencies have now officially appealed a December 2014 ruling by a U.S. District Court that restored federal protection for wolves. That’s no surprise, since these state agencies prematurely conducted wolf-killing programs and provided a primary impetus for the court’s action with their reckless actions. The killing programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin showed a special ruthlessness and cruelty. Among the hundreds of animals killed for sport this year alone, 60 percent of the animals were killed with the aid of steel-jawed leghold traps. Wisconsin earned the distinction of even allowing hound hunting of wolves – a circumstance that almost invariably led to an animal fighting situation between the wolves and the hunting dogs.

While we believe the American public is decidedly against the sport killing of the small populations of wolves in the Great Lakes and the Northern Rockies, we have tried to offer a constructive solution that bridges the political and cultural divide on the issue. To that end, we recently petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to downlist wolves from endangered to threatened everywhere in the lower 48 states except the Southwest. This will maintain important federal protections for wolves, but it will give the federal government, and therefore the states, more latitude in conducting control programs, including lethal ones, for wolves causing a problem for ranchers or other private property owners.


Unfortunately, several lawmakers, mainly from the wolf range states, want Congress to remove federal protections for wolves. They are seeking to nullify the judicial branch’s careful examination of the unwarranted delisting actions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In short, these lawmakers don’t like the court ruling, so they are trying to overturn it. That’s not the way our system should work, and it’s a threat to every endangered species when Congress, for purely political reasons, takes this sort of heavy-handed approach. The judicial branch is co-equal, not subservient.

We’ll work with the Indian tribes, environmentalists, business owners, scientists, and others in opposing this overreaching action. If the November votes in Michigan are a good indicator of where the public is – and I believe they are – the public is not with these lawmakers and they won’t want anything to do with their killing and cruelty.

The United Tribes of Michigan speaks for so many of us when it declares that “we recognize the wolf has a great significance to our community and has an important place in our culture.”
 Source

This week, millions of Americans are recognizing Rare Disease Day, and one local family wants the world to know about a rare disease affecting their 10-year-old daughter, and a huge new helper by her side.

Bella Burton is just 10 years old, but already, she's faced more challenges than most. She suffers from a condition called Morquio A.

"I can't walk as good or anything," she said.

"Morquio Type A is a rare disease that is due to the fact the body is missing an essential enzyme," said Children's Hospital Dr. Catherine Nowak.


The disease is so rare that only 3,000 people are living with the condition worldwide


"At school it's so hard that she feels so different," said Bella's mom Rachel Burton. "She would love to play on the playground like the kids do, jump off the slide like the kids do, run and play tag like the kids do but those are things she can't do."
 Source
Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Maternal instinct: Moving images showing mother animals carrying their young in their mouths. Love is all they need.

Cats, squirrels, rodents, and some other mammals carry newborns by grasping skin at the nape of their necks in their mouths. While being carried, the young become passive and assume a compact posture, with hind legs drawn to the body.

A human mother rocking a baby in her arms and a cat carrying her kitten by the scruff of its neck have the same physiological effect on both young animals and probably stem from the same maternal instinct to protect their young.

Animals carry their young in their mouths when they are newborns to move them from place to place, and to protect them because they are fragile.

They soon stop because the baby needs to grow on its own and learn to thrive for itself.

The stars of the various Star Treks are so burned into our minds as their respective characters that it's sometimes hard to imagine them as anything else. 

But they've all had careers both before and after donning Starfleet colors, including some well-known roles and some a little off the beaten path. On Gunsmoke, Leonard Nimoy shows a level of animation and emotional involvement as a Native American.

"Find out what it is that touches you most deeply. Pursue it, learn about it, explore it, expand on it. Live with it and nurture it." Leonard Nimoy in a 2014 interview with MIT

 Born in Boston in 1931, Nimoy was the son of Ukrainian immigrants. Encouraged by his grandfather, he started acting as an amateur in community theater at the age of 8.


 He took on the life-changing role of Spock in 1965, at the age of 34 — by which point he'd been a professional actor for 15 years.

Snow Wolf Family and Me, review: 'authentic and thrilling'

A new BBC film, Snow Wolf Family and Me, explores the lives and habits of arctic wolves, revealing the family secrets of one of our most feared predators.

Ellesmere Island is one of the most remote and beautiful places on Earth. This is the only place in the world where wolves are naive to man and have no fear. It allowed wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan and scientists an unparalleled opportunity to form bonds with a wild wolf family, revealing the remarkable story of their relationships and behaviour.

Here series producer Ted Oakes talks about some of the highlights and challenges of being accepted by a wild wolf pack.


The cutest sequence showed three pups practising howling. Each would hesitatingly raise its snout skywards before essaying a mournful cry, a baby Wolf of Wail Street.
Source

Llama drama! Escaped animals run amok in Arizona streets

 A pair of confused llamas wreaked havoc in Sun City, Arizona, this afternoon as they ran through the streets while being chased by police.

The llamas were being shown to residents at an assisted-living community before they broke loose, according to Tina Ortega, an employee who called 911.

"We were showing llamas to our residents who have gotten loose and we've been out here for an hour trying to capture them," Ortega told the 911 dispatcher. "We're wondering if we could get some help."


Live streams of the chase and cable news breakouts captivated viewers and the best responses to the stressful chase appeared on Twitter.
Source

Radmilla Cody performs her hauntingly personal song "A Beautiful Dawn" from her album Spirit of a Woman.

 Radmilla A. Cody is a Navajo model, award-winning singer, and anti-domestic violence activist who was the 46th Miss Navajo from 1997 to 1998.

Cody was born into the Tłʼááshchíʼí clan of the Navajo Nation to a Navajo Native American mother. Her father is African-American. She was raised in the rural areas of the Navajo Nation by her maternal grandmother, speaking Navajo.

In 1997, Cody participated in and won the Miss Navajo contest, an event for which extensive knowledge of Navajo traditions and fluency in the Navajo language are required,[6] rather than the ideals of beauty promoted by Western beauty pageants. After her tenure, she began a career as recording artist.


In 2002, Cody sang the Navajo version of The Star-Spangled Banner at the Kennedy Space Center as John Herrington became the first enrolled member of a Native American nation to fly into space.