Roy, Silo and Tango made news in 1999 as the first known “modern penguin family”. Roy and Silo were male chinstrap penguins. They lived at New York City's Central Park Zoo. In 1998 the zoo staff saw them performing mating rituals together. In 1999 they attempted to hatch a rock as if it were an egg.

The zoo keepers took away the rock and gave them a viable egg. The egg had come from a straight pair of penguins who could not hatch it. The egg was carefully attended to by Roy and Silo. This resulted in the hatching of a chick. The zoo keepers named the female chick Tango.

As far as I was concerned, there could have been no finer creature than Buster. He was the best dog in the world. He was a personality more charming than Alf. He was my shadow, my pride, the sponge of all my free time. And I was to him, the finest owner a dog could ever have. His loving gaze and infinite patience in waiting for me for hours clearly indicated his feelings. Our bond was as strong as Gorilla Glue. Whenever we had the choice we would be together.

One February I was taking a walk on Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It's a long beach with high sand dunes behind the beach. As I approached the end of the beach I saw something white partially buried in the sand. At first I thought it was going to be a plastic shopping bag but as I got closer I could tell that the white was feathery. I assumed I was about to see the remains of a gull. However to my surprise it turned out to be a snowy owl.

This is a special Monday's Beast. Roo Roo was a well loved rooster I owned until he died a few years ago in a hawk attack. That day, in my sadness and confusion, I took him to the transfer station, carefully wrapped in plastic. That was a mistake that I will always regret. He deserved better. I should have a least thought to bury him. I did however write an obituary for him the day he died and sent it off to all the friends I could think of who might have known him or at least cared to know that I had lost someone important to me. Now I have finally done him one better and made him a little creative tribute. This painting is really a tribute card of Roo Roo made for my new group art project called BeastField.Com.
You too can remember an animal friend and place them in the BeastField of well loved and carefully remembered animals friends. Please check out the BeastField.Com website and learn how to submit an entry of your own to the BeastField.

To read Roo Roo's obituary click here or scroll down.

A well loved rooster and important member of the Blue Sky Farm animal familydied suddenly when he was struck down by a hawk around lunch time on the 3rd of January 2013. While coming to the aid of his chickens, Roo Roo was attacked from the air by a hawk and suffered a broken neck. Death was surmised to be instantaneous.

He was a great bird, beautiful in both body and spirit. Roo Roo was a real looker, probably a show quality example of the Blue Cochin Chicken Breed. He weighed in at around 10 or 11 lbs. He was very kind, helpful, respectful and watchful over his flock of hens. Roo Roo was always gentle and compliant with his human handlers.

He is proceeded in death by Missing Chicken and Stricken Chicken, and survived by Chicken Chicken, Sister Chicken, Fricken Chicken, Beauty Chicken and Ugly Chicken.

There will be no service or memorial of any kind...his body, while still warm was wrapped carefully in plastic and he was taken to the transfer station by his tearful owner. He will be greatly missed by his avian lovers and human friends at Blue Sky Farm.

"May you rest in peace Roo Roo in a land of corn and millet and whatever else you fancy.”

Unsinkable Sam was a legend, a good story and perhaps a true cat. The little black cat with the white nose was down a few lives when he finally died of old age in 1955 in the Belfast “Home for Sailors”.