Atlanta Zebra

Hey Silverhorners! How is it today?

Do you like that? I am trying to come up with a new opening for my posts. So I am thinking "How is it today?" might be pretty good, it kind of engages you to answer, and at the same time forces you to read on to see what "it" is....which gets you into the very breadth and depth of my writing, which of course is enthralling......so....let's try this again, "How is it today?"

Animals In the News
It's been awhile since we've had an 'animals in the news' feature, perhaps because the animals have been keeping their heads down and staying out of the news. However, all that is changing, leading me to believe that as I wrote about before, there is something going on in the animal world....something strange....something scary.....a change in their behavior, which will likely be blamed on global warming...

Take for instance the report from the Associated Press, apparently a Zebra screwed up the rush hour traffic in Atlanta recently when he ran along a busy section of highway, looking rather eye-catching in his striped suit, forcing some Atlantaians to think it was a very big escaped convict in a striped prision suit...however, eventually someone figured out it was indeed a zebra, an animal that is....well...rather rare on the streets of Atlanta. In a sense they were right, the zebra on the lamb had just made a break from the circus which was in town....the circus is in town/ Can we go ? can we go??.....sorry...I digress.....and no, the zebra was not "riding on a lamb" that is a figure of speech meaning he had escaped....c'mon a zebra riding a lamb down an interstate in Atlanta would just be too weird....even for us....

Fortunately, the Atlanta police, perhaps fans of the "Animal Kingdom" or Daktari used their own cruisers valiantly herd the escapee to the shoulder of the road, and did what all good cops do, "called it in."

A spokesperson said that the zebra wasn't free for very long, but it was rather 'inconvenient' for him to have made his dash for freedom at rush hour when the roads are already quite busy....I suppose that is true, but wow, wouldn't that be entertaining...you're stuck in traffic and a zebra goes by chased by police cars, I think that would alleviate some of the boredom, maybe even stop some of the drivers from texting.

But here is where this gets interesting.....yes interesting....not that the above part wasn't interesting, but this....this next part is even more interesting.....read on.....

The Interesting Part
This is the second time a zebra has been on the loose in downtown Atlanta....yup.....there is something about Atlanta that makes zebras wanna bust and run! It seems that in 2008 an unfortunate 2-3 month old zebra was found injured on Interstate 75. It's "assumed" he had fallen from a truck and was run over by a car....now imagine that. You are driving the interstate in Atlanta....minding your own business, listening to your favorite Chubby Checker CD...singing along....when suddenly you run over a zebra!!! Do you report it to the police? Or do you just turn up the volume as Chubby launches into the disco version of "The Twist"

I'm thinking that might be one you keep to yourself....excusseee....me....is this 911? I think I just ran over a zebra on the interstate....probably that will result in a roadblock being set up somewhere in front of you. I think that might be a good question for the written driver test...what do you do if you run over a  zebra?

However, not too worry, there is a happy ending to the run over baby zebra story, he was saved  and operated on by the zebra vets at Auburn University in nearby Alabama, and now lives happily ever after in the Noah's Ark rescue centre in Locust Grove, Georgia.

So...there ya go....animals in the news...but that isn't the end....sometimes the stuff you can find on the internet is just frigging unbelievable......speaking of zebras in traffic.....and weird......


You can read the real story, Here


For those of you too young to remember, Daktari was a television show from the 1960's about the work of a veterinarian running an animal study center in Africa. "Daktari" means doctor. He was always rescuing animals from evil poachers...drove a jeep painted up with zebra stripes...really cool.....wish I had the nerve to do that with my jeep..... We do the research......

OK...so maybe "How is it today?"  isn't going to be my new opening line.....