Old man 2008 is heading out, vanishing never to return again. It was a nasty old man but it did bring some nice and funny things. Short recap:

1. German polar bear Knut took the worst hits of the year. First, he was taken down from the cutie throne and replaced by a newer, fluffier, and -some say- cuter polar bear named Flocke. Knut grew old, dark, dirty and even his human daddy left him to go tend to other polar bears in the sky. Now Knut is either on sale or sold because he’s too “expensive” to keep.

2. There was this crazy naked parrot on all the news programs. The bird thought he was cute and he danced and shook his featherless tail for all of us to see.

3. 2008 was great for a Bosnian bear who waited for years to be freed from abuser mobsters. He was rescued and transfered to a new caring place and he was also introduced to a female bear to live happily ever after.

4. Spaghetti Cat. Gosh! He didn’t do anything but show his face and everyone either laughed or fell in love. LOL

5. Puppy Cam. Live web cams are old things by now but somehow live streaming of a bunch of puppies was something that people couldn’t get enough of.

6. Election day. It was great to see that America got together and had the guts to take back what’s ours. We elected change! A change in the way others see us. A change in the way we see each other. New hope for the future. Hope for peace.

7. Roomba Cat. This cat never saw a recession or a crisis. He was living the good life riding on his Roomba Vac and he looked incredibly cute doing it.

8. Barney bit a reporter. Bush’s dog was so ticked off that he is leaving the White House that one day he just snapped and bit a reporter on the hand. Sorry Barney! Ciao!!!

9. One sad story was that of the many people across the country who either lost their homes to foreclosure or had to move to smaller cheaper apartments and because of this they had to abandon their animals, some on the street. Shelters were overcrowded and many dogs and cats were seen run over on the streets. Animals became too expensive to keep and many landlords had a “no pet” policy for apartments so people were caught in dilemas. Many dropped off their pets at shelters and had to say good bye to life-long friends.

10. Finally, I want to highlight the story of a street dog in Chile. One accustomed to being kicked around and abandoned. He was caught on camera trying to save another dog after the dog got hit by a car on the highway. This dog’s bravery made us feel warm and fuzzy inside. There’s still hope to do good things for others in this world.