Photo: KATHARYN BOUDET/KNP
In the Telegraph, an article about a rescued Bassett Hound and an owl who watch tv together:
The pair have become inseparable since meeting at an animal refuge, and are quite happy to cuddle up together on an armchair.
Beryl the Basset Hound, who is a grand old dame at 16 years old, and four-year-old tawny owl Wol struck up a friendship when their owner realised they both loved watching television in the evenings.
(thanks, Cindy)
I’m hoping this is a good omen for 2009. It’s not exactly the lion lying down with the lamb, but it’s close enough for government work. Plus it’s just really pleasing to me on a level I can’t articulate.
Happy Sunday.
Nicola Griffith 
Dear Nicola: That's an adorable picture.(and, everytime i visit your site i hear the ricola cough drop song(?) in my head, only it's “NIC-O-LA!” instead of “RIC-O-LA!”) which is entirely beside the point, which is – is today the deadline for the “change publishing, change the world” challenge? I want to submit ideas, but am 2 lazy to go and find the post, so can i submit here?okay, good. First idea: select author & let them cast & direct the audiobook version of the title of an original work (or one they have audiorights to). This idea spurred by convo on Twitter with Tayari Jones, who said she'd grown to dislike audiobooks due to stereotyped readings of characters in audio versions of her work.Second idea: Marketing and publicity campaigns for any idea that ends up being put into the works — as this is my area of interest/expertise, I'd like to suggest a book marketing lab of sorts for whatever project is taken on. I can and will expound if/when it comes up, but oh do i have some ideas I'd love to try out with a willing subject.And, that's my cue to get back to work. I have sort of kind of horribly neglected that blog of mine (holidays seemed as good an excuse as any). Buenos Noches. ~ Kat
Kat, I love the book marketing lab idea. I want to learn! I’ll be your minion.
<>Plus it’s just really pleasing to me on a level I can’t articulate.<>Yes, this is such a pleasing image. I like birds that look furry, and owls do. Dogs that seem they’re too lazy to bark make good TV-watching companions. And they are color coordinated. And friends. Wow, life is good.
kat, I'm going to move your comment to the deadline post so everything is in one place. (And, oh, that Ri-cola commercial was the bane of my &*^%$# life when I first lived in this country…)karina, yes, on both counts :)
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I am going to upload a picture of a squirrel that I feed. By hand. I have been doing this for two years and I wondered the other day when did it learn to trust me? There is no fear. In fact, it seeks me out.Scary moment the other day. I saw the squirrel sitting on my patio table looking intently in the direction of my patio doors. I froze when I saw sitting on the very branch from which I usually feed it, a large Red Tail Hawk! I feared that if I banged the door the squirrel would run and the hawk would have an easy “lunch”.I softly opened the door and told the Hawk it could not have this squirrel and it needed to leave. It did. I still,however, see it trolling early in the morning.Nature is a wonderful and brutal thing. I loved the photo of the bassett and owl(it would make a great children’s story). I also wondered how that connection was made and how they came to trust one another so completely…there is a lesson there.
Linda, I like your story and the picture of the squirrel. I hope it stays safe from predators. How did the owl and the hound learn to trust each other? Beryl likes to get her back scratched, and Wol enjoys being perched and king of the couch. Intelligent, largish birds usually get respect from domestic mammals when they figure out how tame they’ve become. An ex-girlfriend took a sick crow home one day, and at first the cat tried to hunt it down. Oh, but the crow managed to scare Tosca. So the crow began to have fun chasing the cat around the house. Eventually, they became playground buddies.
linda, I think the lesson is one of plenty: beasties eat one another when they’re hungry. Sometimes they don’t if they’re not. There again, sometimes they do…
Doesn’t the lion lying down with the lamb mean the world is over? Not that I’m complaining, I’m just sayin.
Isn’t it lovely when we find something so simple that gives us such a profound joy? I love it!!