…Animals, animals, animals

1. Alright, stop – cohabitate and listen.  I’m not really into cutesy stuff (I’m a bit suspicious of it, actually.  I even wonder, especially after reading this story in Vanity Fair, if western society’s obsession with cuteness is a reaction to this decade’s brand of popular fearmongering – or to Crocs).  However, even cynical ol’ Daley has come to realise that there is nothing – noth-ing – cuter than a friendship between an unlikely pair of animals.  A TV show I saw about it the other night had me in fits of “Aw, it’s a…!  With a…!  And they’re bestest buddies!  They’re walking and eating and sleeping side-by-side.  Awwww!!!”  
There’s an elephant and a dog who became such strong friends that the elephant ended up saving the dog’s life.  There was also an outcast lioness who kept befriending oryxes.  And then there was Owen and Mzee - the baby hippo who was separated from his family by a tsunami and wound up being guided through life by a 130-year-old tortoise.  Is there a more awesome friendship? 
All of Milo and Otis and Lilo and Stitch and, er, Fry and Bender combined have nothing on Owen and Mzee.  You just can’t write this sh!t.

2. Not a cat-person. 
I was at a rehearsal at someone’s place recently and their cat jumped on me (and did that weird clawing thing they do to a cushiony surface - time to start hitting the gym again I think).  I didn’t know what to do.  I know, I know - I’m a bit weird.  The cat’s owner said, “She always picks the people who don’t like cats”.  But it’s not that I don’t like animals, I’m just not familiar with them.  I grew up in a flat, so the only pets I ever had were goldfish – and headlice (It was one time!  And it was only ’cause the kids next door had just contracted them overseas).  The only dogs I knew best were Fluppy Dogs (I loved this movie as a kid and I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy that I tracked it down online just now).  The way people talk about their pets, I suspect I’ve missed some massive chunk of life experience.  But what I lacked in pets, I more than made up for in expertise with plasticine.

3. The Musical Menagerie.  Skylark, Nightingale, Black Dog, Eye of the Tiger, Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, Rock Lobster, Surfin’ Bird, T.U.R.T.L.E Power…  You could do a pretty long medley full of animal songs – FACT.