A Real News Story

"Much of life can never be explained only witnessed." Rachael Naomi Remen, MD
A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a male century old tortoise in an animal sanctuary in the port city of Mombasa.
The hippopotamus named Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down the Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when the 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 very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Larfarge 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 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 away to walk the path together."