TOKYO - When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor’s roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

 ”I’m Mr. Yosuke Nakamura,” the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

“We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we’ve found Yosuke,” Uemura said.

The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.

But Yosuke apparently wasn’t keen on opening up to police officials.

“I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me,” Uemura said.

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Instead of powering through the water with a flick of her tail, the bottlenose could barely waggle from side to side.

She had lost her tail in a crab trap at just two months old and was found floating in distress off the coast of Florida.

Rescuers got her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida where staff fought to save her life.

Winter survived but there was a problem … where her tail should have been there was only a stump.

Aquarium director David Yates said: “She had to learn how to swim without a tail, which no dolphin has ever done in captivity.

“We didn’t know if she could do that. But vets feared her waggling might damage her spine.

Their solution was an artificial tail and Kevin Carroll, who has designed prosthetics for dogs, an ostrich, and even a duck, offered his services.

“I came straight down, saw Winter and felt really sorry for her,” he said. “I said, ‘OK, we’ll fit her little tail. Not a big deal’.

“Little did I know it was going to take a year and a half. He added: “With a person, when we fit a socket we have one long, solid bone. We don’t have to have the socket moving in every direction.

With a dolphin, it needs to move along with her full spine. But the months of work were worth it.

When Winter was finally fitted with a 30in silicone and plastic tail she was a dolphin transformed.

She may never be the most elegant dolphin who ever swam but, as she splashes about in the aquarium, it is safe to say that she probably doesn’t care.

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Day night, I thought he was acting weird. We had made

plans to meet at a cafe to have some coffee. I was shopping with my friends

all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no

comment. Conversation wasn’t flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk, he agreed but

he kept quiet and absent.

I asked him what was wrong - he said, ‘Nothing’ I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.

On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving. I can’t explain his behavior; I don’t know why he didn’t say, ‘I love u too’. When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there and watched TV.

He seemed distant and absent. Finally I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed. I decided that I could not

take it anymore, so I decided to confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep. I started crying and cried until I too fell asleep.

I don’t know what to do. I’m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else.

My life is a disaster.

(more…)

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Emergency room doctors apologized to the 42-year-old woman who had come in for treatment for staring at her in disbelief. It wasn’t every day — in fact, it was never — that they saw somebody with a large-caliber gunshot wound between the eyes who not only was alive, but wasn’t even unconscious or seriously injured. Call it Marie’s Miracle. As reported for TODAY by NBC’s Martin Savidge, it happened late last Saturday night, when Marie, who does not want to reveal her last name for fear of retaliation, her boyfriend and her 22-year-old daughter were driving through Tampa on their way home to Riverview, Fla., after a night out….

Full story:  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23914454/

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