The Wisdom From Our Animal Friends.

Hello Friends of a Hermes...

My old roommie Nona sent me this. While not usually one to forward email stories (I like to find my own absurdities in life...), I loved this story and the closing message about the path. And having life define your family. Beautiful.

enjoy.
cgh

*_*_*_*_*_*_

There is much to be learned from our animal brethren. Life without prejudice, presumption or filters, a life lived in the present, meaningful and with love.

Hippopotamus and the Tortoise

'Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed.'- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong
bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki
River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on
December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

'It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to
be very happy with being a 'mother',' ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

'After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.
Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.'

'They swim, eat and sleep together,' the ecologist added.

'The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes
aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,' Kahumbu added.

'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their
mothers for four years,' he explained.

'Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.'

This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another.

We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God,

'Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.'

Save the Earth... it's the only planet with chocolate...