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

This is so true. I was overwhelmed when I saw the photos and read the email today, from my niece. First, I thought that I will just 'forward' it to my friends. But on second thoughts, I wanted to write about the love which is seen in the eyes of the animals in these photos.

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 hippo, nicknamed Owen, weighing about 300 Kgs. was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian ocean, then forced back to the shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan Coast on Dec. 26th, 2004, before the wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A less than a year old hippo has adopted a male tortoise and the tortoise too seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'. After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatised. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a bond. They swim, eat and sleep together!", says, Ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of the Lafarge Park.

This looks like 'the mother taking the child to school'!

"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its real mother. If somebody approached the tortoise, the hippo became aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother", she added.

Proud 'mother' with the half asleep baby!

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left alone at a tender age and by nature, the hippos are social animals that like to stay with their moms for 4 years.", Paula says.

The tortoise is lifting himself up to say that he is the 'mother' and bigger! I love this photograph!

'Mother' is sleeping and the baby is peeping to check!

'Mother' and son expressing their love to each other! Lovely picture!

Isn't this 'the best'?!

This is a real story that shows that our differences do not matter much when we need the comfort of another being.
I googled for more news on this 'mother/father and son' duo and have added more pictures of them from this link.

Are the monkeys, son's friends?!

'Mother' and son are sleeping and the friendly deer is keeping an eye on the peeping toms!

The monkeys, the deer...all are friends here, no enemies at all, unlike us, human beings! All of us humans look alike, still the people from one state are not tolerating people from other states of the same country. We can learn some lessons from these creatures of god, who has created us too.


P.S.: This link says that as of 2005, the hippo Owen and Mzee, the tortoise, are still together and the zoo officials are planning to introduce Owen to a 13 year old female hippo, who had been alone for more than 10 years...(the baby hippo is growing up, his 'mother' can be 'prroud' of him! Let me check if he is having a family now!).

No, I couldn't find any latest news about them but we can see a few more pictures of them in this video...enjoy!




Many of you might have seen these pictures, still, enjoy watching them once more!


Edited to add : Happy Friendship Day to all my friends!