Pigs huddle together in a pen in Peralillo, Chile, Dec. 28.

Capt. Blaine Van Gansbeke, 26, of the 36th Engineer Group Construction, gets a lick from his dog Thelma at a deployment ceremony on Jan. 7 at Fort Benning, Ga. Approximately 80

soldiers from the 36th Engineer Group deployed to Iraq after the ceremony.

Marine biologists prepare to hoist a 30-year-old greenback turtle from a truck for its release into the sea about 80 miles north of the Thai resort island of Phuket on Jan. 10. The rare male turtle was swept inland near Phuket by the Dec. 26 tsunami that battered Thailand's southwestern coastline. The animal was recovered by soldiers and needed

treatment for an injured flipper.

Pumpkin the cat prepares to attack his reflection in a mirror during a garage sale along

U.S. Highway 301 in Belleview, Fla., Jan. 7. Pumpkin's owners, the Cole family, were holding the garage sale to help raise money for victims

of the Asian tsunami.

A sea bird known as a grebe catches a fish in the Adriatic Sea near Split,

Croatia, Dec. 15.

With the temperature hovering near 10 degrees below Fahrenheit, a frost-

coated horse stands in a field as the sun rises on Gore Hill near Great Falls,

Mont., Jan. 5

An elephant takes a moment to cool itself down while clearing debris Jan. 6 from an area destroyed by the tsunami

in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Chloee Toro, 5, enjoys the snowy weather with her dog Misty in Rockford, Ill., during a snowstorm Jan. 5.

A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami on the coast of Kenya snuggles up to its new best friend, a giant century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in Mombasa, Kenya, on Jan. 6.

The hippo, nicknamed Owen, weighs about 650 pounds. Owen was swept down Sabaki River

into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when the tsunami struck the Kenyan coast on

Dec. 26 .

A Lesser Flamingo twists its neck and fluffs its feathers to remove water from its body, Jan. 5 at Cameron Park Zoo in

Waco, Texas.

A newborn puppy rests Jan. 2 in the only building left standing after the tsunami struck

the surfing resort of Ullai Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka. A mother dog, one of the only living things on the resort island to survive, dug a

small shelter out of the destroyed bath house and gave birth.

A seagull leaves a trail through the snow Jan. 6 in Vancouver, Canada, after a cold front from Alaska left the lower

Canadian coast in an unusual deep freeze.

A bird feeds on insects from the face of a white rhinoceros at the Singapore Zoological Garden,

Dec. 14. Two white rhinos, classified as threatened with extinction, were recently born

at the zoo.

South African musher Lynton McLean drives his dog team along the trail of the Copper Basin

300 Sled Dog Race near Glennallen, Alaska, on Jan. 10. The competition is one of the qualifying

races for the Iditarod Trial Sled Dog Race.

A cat peers out from a pile of discarded lanterns at Aspen Hill Memorial Park, a pet cemetery in Silver

Spring, Md., that dates back to the 1920s. The statue in the foreground is one of many versions of St.

Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, found in the cemetery. The current owner of the park is beset with legal and financial problems and may have to

close it down.

Three of ten wolves released Dec. 16 in a wolf wildlife park in Saint-Martin-Vesubie, France, play with each other. The park, named 'Alpha

Center,' is to be inaugurated in April 2005. The ten newly released wolves come from the Czech

Republic.

Fozzy, a rehabilitated great horned owl, is shown Dec. 7 in Baker City, Ore. Fozzy is used

to help school children learn about wildlife.

Love blossoms between meerkats Marvin and Mara under some mistletoe

at the London Zoo on Dec. 22.

Two North American bison are framed by a frosty fence on Dec. 29, north of Cannon Ball,

N.D., after dense fog moved through the region.

Corrections Chief Scott Hassell holds the button as basset hound Fred drinks from a water

fountain Dec. 14 in the Etowah County Jail in Gadsden, Ala. Fred was nearing the end of his

training with inmates and was waiting for adoption.

A squirrel searches for food inside a coffee cup found blowing in the wind in Saginaw, Mich., on Dec.

21.