When I was reading the Ananova article about the German laughing man in trouble, I noticed the links on the left, one of which was irresistible. It has Quirky Animal Tales. Here are two:
Piglets in Training
This is from March 14, 2006.
Russian piglets are being trained for competition by personal coaches as a new craze of pig racing spreads across the country.
The training at the Sport Pig Centre in the Moscow region includes honing the piglet's skills in running, swimming, and 'pig-ball competitions'.
It comes ahead of a competition mid-April as part of the international animal show ZooRussia.
And the craze has not been limited just to Russia. Thousands of people came to watch pigs compete at various disciplines at last year's Pig Olympics in Shanghai, China.
Pigs have "disciplines"?
Attack Hare:
This is from February 22, 2006.
A "large and aggressive" hare has reportedly attacked a dogsled team in Norway.
Wenche Offerdal, who was driving the dogsled team, said she'd never seen anything like it.
"It was sitting 10 metres from the trail and I figured it would run off, and even that the dogs would go after it," Offerdal said. "I was wrong."
Instead, the hare came running towards the dogsled team, and jumped right into the middle of the dogs.
"The dogs were completely perplexed. The hare stared at them and they stared back, like they were all frozen."
Suddenly the hare leaped out of the ring, hitting a few of the dogs on their noses with its paws on its way.
Not much of an attack, really. It could have been a daydreaming hare that took a flying leap, looked around, saw the dogs, said "Uh-oh," then got the heck out of there.
But then again, maybe not. My officemate said that when she and her family were on vacation somewhere out in Nature, she heard one of her sons say, "Oh look. A bunny." Right after that, though, she heard alarm in his voice as he said, "Hey-hey-hey-hey-hey. Back off, bunny!" That's when she saw that it was a huge rabbit with rear legs like a small deer and ears the size of antlers. And it was looking at them and approaching them.
So just beware. Don't mess with big bunnies that aren't even afraid of sled dogs.
5 comments:
Well thanks, Sky Puppy. You know I have rabbit issues and yet you give me this to think about. A Christian woman would have at least posted a warning.
My rabbits are as big as Buicks, and when I walk across my yard they don't run away... they just give me a bad look. Now everytime I go to my garden I'll be weighing the possibility of a bunny-attack.
As a loyal fan who hangs on every word that proceedeth out of your keyboard... I expect more consideration.
I would whine more but I'm totally distracted this morning trying to figure out what ever pigball might be.
Chris,
As a Christian woman, I did you a favor. Now you know to wear your body armor when you do your gardening.
Your story about pig racing reminded me of something I heard about just recently. It's an act called Randall's High-Diving Pigs. I've included a press release from the Tacoma Boat Show detailing a little of what this involves:
--(BUSINESS WIRE)----Tacoma Dome Boat Show:
WHAT: Pigs of all shapes and sizes screech their way around a
specially-constructed race track, followed by an exhibition of
high-diving skills featuring the talents of "Randall's High Diving Racers."
It's a media preview of five days of appearances at the Tacoma
Dome Boat Show, opening Wednesday and running through Sunday.
VISUALS:
-- 40-lb pigs jump off of a 10-foot high board into a
1,200-gallon pool. Popular divers include "Hamu -- The Killer
Pig" and "Sweet Georgia Brown."
-- In addition to the diving pigs, the show features the racing
talents of "One Hung Too Low," and "Pork Chop" -- a relative
youngster who repeatedly cheats during races.
-- The Arkansas-based traveling show has been entertaining audiences for nearly 20 years and has appeared on CNN, Animal Planet, The Steve Harvey Show and other television programs. -- Website: www.tacomadomeboatshow.com.
Apparently, this has been going on for some time as I also found a column written by Dave Barry in 2003 that mentioned the same act.
Thanks for the laugh...hope the "visuals" included gave you a chuckle too.
Christina,
I never cease to be amazed at how many things there are out there that I never knew about.
Thanks for expanding my horizons even more! (shakes head in wonder)
Charlie,
In retrospect, I think that's one attack rabbit I might have liked. If he had just put President Carter out of commission (who was his VP?), the whole fabric of history might be different. The Shah's family might still be in power in Iran, and there might still be a couple of really tall buildings standing in Lower Manhattan.
If only...
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