MASONVILLE, Colo. - Zoey is a Chihuahua, but when a rattlesnake lunged at her owners' 1-year-old grandson, she was a real bulldog.

Booker West was splashing his hands in a birdbath in his grandparents' northern Colorado back yard when the snake slithered up to the toddler, rattled and struck. Five-pound Zoey jumped in the way and took the bites.

"She got in between Booker and the snake, and that's when I heard her yipe," said Monty Long, the boy's grandfather.

The dog required treatment and for a time it appeared she might not survive. Now she prances about.

"These little bitty dogs, they just don't really get credit," Booker's grandma Denise Long told the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald.

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Gracie

Kenny

Matilda

Miss Kitty

Rocco

It's sleek, fast, cute — and pink.

A charter-boat captain from Lake Charles, La., photographed a rare pink dolphin a couple of weeks ago in Calcasieu Lake, an estuary just north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern Louisiana.

According to Calcasieu Charter Service's Web site, Capt. Erik Rue was on the lake June 24 with fishing customers when five dolphins came into view — four normal-looking gray ones, and a bright pink one that appeared to be an adolescent.

About 2 million years ago, in lowland tropical forests of what is now China, lived an ancestor of the giant panda that was very similar to the famed vegetarian bear except about half the size, scientists said.

Writing on Monday in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, the scientists described a complete skull and teeth of a pygmy-sized panda, shedding light on the origins of this unique, bamboo-munching bear.

The skull is about 60 percent of the size of a modern giant panda's and it has similar anatomical features, suggesting a similar lifestyle, they said..."It's basically a miniaturized version of the living panda," Ciochon said in a telephone interview.

JERUSALEM (AP) - A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."

Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.

Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

Today's report focuses on the Cannes Film Festival. I have some points to make, squirrelly and otherwise, about the people, the fashion, and the films. Here are a few photo highlights of what happened.

All the celebrities were at Cannes. Here is Sharon Stone hosting an auction for charity. She must stop vamping. She is not a gay man or even a gay squirrel. It does not look good on her. And I must ask, what is Ellen Barkin looking at?

Brangelina in their car looking very glamorous. They are promoting the movie they made about Daniel Pearl. With rumors of being unhappy and 'split up,' to this squirrel they looked very together.

The still creepy Mickey Roarke with a girl too young to know how creepy he is now compared to what he used to be like. When my squirrel hair looks like theirs, I know it's time to take a shower.

For a while I thought this was Bob Hope, but then I realized it was Tarantino. What do I know? I am just a Tiny Gay Squirrel.

The guest of French actor Gérard Depardieu appears to think he has had too many sauces. TGS agrees.

Helen Mirren, in my humble opinion, the most elegant of all.

It is sad when one could be mistaken for Joan Rivers, but one is Faye Dunaway (left). I do, however, love the shirt cuffs.

I am sure these people are famous, but all I can think of is that someone gave the men uneven bowl cuts five months ago. The girl? All I see is the silly hairclip.

I will close my report now with revealing the biggest star there--John Wayne. The French decided to show his film "Hondo" in 3-D to celebrate his 100th birthday. Yes, something has happened--a new pro-America French president and a John Wayne cowboy film at Cannes.

Reporting from Cannes, I am the Tiny Gay Squirrel.

Sadie Bruce & Sydney Bruce

This Welcome Note will always stay at the top of the blog, so please scroll down for new entries.

This is the blog dedicated to all animal news and commentary by us, Sadie and Sydney Bruce, the creatures who understand that special news the best.

We scour the news during the day looking for items that illustrate animal lives, courage and experiences around the world. We also highlight where our human friends contribute to our quality of life. There is so much bad news, but here on the S&S Blog, you will get only good animal news, which is always under-reported by the evil MSM. So there, and welcome aboard! Meow and Woof!

Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week.

The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop...The cat was nicknamed Macavity after the mystery cat in T.S Elliot's poem. He gets on the bus in front of a row of 1950s semi-detached houses and jumps off at a row of shops down the road which include a fish and chip shop.

Who says cats and dogs don’t get along?

Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat that has adopted a 6-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother...The tiny pup, named Charlie by Humane Society volunteers, nurses alongside a jumble of black and gray kittens recently born to Satin, who was taken to the shelter by an owner unable to care for her.

A dolphin at an aquarium in Japan has been given a new lease of life, after being fitted with an artificial fin.

Fuji's tail fin was attacked by a mystery disease and four years ago two thirds of her tail fin had to be amputated.

But thanks to an artificial fin developed by vets and a tyre manufacturer, Fuji is back in the water.

You can also search "Barbaro" in our search box in the left hand column and get our previous posts about Barbaro and his fight to recover from his accident.

A mini-baby boom last year has pushed up the number of pandas bred in captivity in China to 217, state media said Wednesday.

Some 34 pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 survived -- both record numbers for the endangered species, Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency.

Greg Pike's dog Booger, cat Kitty and white mouse Mousie, rest at the end of a day in Bisbee, Arizona, December 24, 2006. Picture taken December 24, 2006. REUTERS/Jeff Topping (UNITED STATES) ]]> tag:tammybruce.com,2006:/sadie_sydney//3.1822 2006-12-28T02:43:56Z 2006-12-28T03:45:11Z

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. - They've written Christmas carols for him. They've sent him "trees" made of baby organic carrots and green apples. Someone even gave him a Christmas stocking.

The devoted fans of Barbaro see the colt's recovery as a wonder that trumps even the "Miracle on 34th Street," and this holiday season they want to celebrate — no matter how much the colt's surgeon insists the recovery is all about science.

The fence that surrounds the sprawling New Bolton Center where the Kentucky Derby winner has been recovering since May from his breakdown at the Preakness has turned lately into a big Christmas shrine. Its theme: the miracle of Barbaro

"The Miracle is Barbaro's Spirit," reads one.