Iggy Has Two Pops

Is it my imagination, or was this a big week for news from the animal kingdom

First up is the iguana who needs sexual healing:

Mozart, an iguana with an erection that has lasted for over a week, will have his penis amputated in the next couple of days.

Veterinarians at Antwerp’s Aquatopia had sought to treat the animal’s problem, but decided removal was the only solution because of the risk of infection. The good news for Mozart and his mates is that male iguanas have two penises.

Mozart, sitting on the shoulders of his keeper as camera crews focused on his red, swollen erection, seemed unperturbed by the news.

“It doesn’t bother him. He doesn’t know what amputation means,” said vet Luc Lambrecht, adding that Mozart’s sexual activity should be undimmed by the operation.”I don’t think so. That’s all in his head.”

Then there’s the prodigal golden retriever:

Cujo was a frisky 7-year-old when he sneaked out of his owners’ south St. Louis yard in July 2000. Now, thinner and grayer and with a tale that would be fascinating if only he could tell it, the golden retriever is back with the Barczewski family.

“It’s a miracle,” Noreen Barczewski, 41, said at Friday’s reunion. “We found him!”

Six years and a side trip to Columbia can do a lot to a dog, but it was unmistakably Cujo. There was the heart-shaped patch of white on his forehead, the white fur on his toes, his manner of greeting people by rubbing against them cat-style.

Cujo’s homecoming was orchestrated by Dirk’s Fund, a golden retriever rescue group that has found homes for more than 900 dogs in the past decade.

Finally, there was this nightmarish catfight last week. The woman in the photo, 65-year-old Nell Hamm, fought off a female mountain lion that was mauling her 70-year-old husband:

A normal hike in a California state park turned near fatal when a 70 year-old man was attacked by a mountain lion. What saved him from certain death? A pen, a branch, and his feisty, 65 year-old wife.

Jim Hamm of Fortuna, CA, and his wife, Nell, were enjoying a hike at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park near the California north coast when a female mountain lion suddenly pounced on him. His wife, walking ahead of him was unaware of the attack at first until she heard him call for help. Nell Hamm quickly attacked the lion with whatever she could get her hands on as Jim’s head was in the lion’s mouth.

Nell first grabbed a branch and began to beat the mountain lion, but it wouldn’t let Jim go. Jim told her, “I’ve got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye,’” she said. “So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn’t want to go in as easy as I thought it would.”

When the pen failed to work, Nell picked up the log and began to beat the lion again. The mountain lion released its grip, stared at Nell, and slowly walked away as she screamed at it.

The man isn’t doing well; he just had more surgery at a different hospital. Turns out, animal attacks are more dangerous than other types of trauma, even when the actual damage is similar:

Hamm is taking antibiotics to prevent an infection, but his doctors remained concerned about bacteria entering his body from the cat’s claws and mouth.

“Infection — that’s our biggest concern,” Ayotte said. “You can have exactly the same injuries in a traffic accident or in a wild animal attack, but your chances of infection with a wild animal accident are far greater.”

The lioness, meanwhile, paid the ultimate price for picking on an old man. If only she could’ve been a male iguana, with no concerns beyond softening the wood on one of two reproductive organs.

Tags: Tags: science