Very sad news...our baby dolphin, Harley, died on Saturday. I am just going to post a news clip about it below from WCCO. I was there, so if you want to hear a personal account, just call and ask. It's been strange since you have a routine at work that involves Harley. Then this happens. I found myself wanting to get his fish ready, get the palm pilot downstairs so I can record if he nurses, etc. Those are the moments that are terribly sad. I am doing ok. I guess that's all I can ask for right now.

This is a pretty accurate news story:

WCCO) Apple Valley, Minn. Harley, a baby dolphin at the Minnesota Zoo, died Saturday in what zoo officials are calling a freak accident.

Harley was training to "channel," or swim between pools, with his mother when he apparently struck his head on the side of a pool, zoo officials said.

The baby dolphin jumped completely out of the water, and trainers immediately put him back.

Zoo officials said Harley swam a few strokes with his mother, Rio, before they realized he was badly injured.

Divers brought Harley to the surface when he did not breathe and said there was nothing they could have done to save him.

Harley died around 2:45 p.m. from complications associated with severe head trauma and a fractured skull, zoo officials said.

Rio called for Harley a few times after the accident, but officials said she was doing better Saturday night.

Harley was 5-1/2 feet long and 120 pounds at the time of his death. He was born last June 21 and was Rio's fourth calf.

Minnesota Zoo Director of Biological Programs Kevin Willis said the zoo's staff had been looking forward seeing Harley make his public debut and was having a hard time dealing with the accident.

"This is a sad day here," Willis said. "This is hard. This is a baby that was really healthy and really doing well."

Zoo officials said it was unclear why Harley swam into the side of the pool.

The Minnesota Zoo will be open Sunday, but all dolphin shows have been canceled. Zoo officials said they were unsure how much trauma Harley's death was causing for the other dolphins.

The zoo is not planning on replacing Harley. The dolphin was scheduled to go to another zoo after he matured, in about 10 or 11 years.

Zoo officials said this was the first dolphin death of its kind at the Minnesota Zoo.

In the past seven years, two other Minnesota Zoo dolphins have died. In 2000, a dolphin died of a mysterious illness and in 1999, another dolphin died of old age.

Rio and four other dolphins -- Ayla, Spree, Chinook and Semo

Happy New Year, everyone! 2006...where does the time go. My New Year's Eve and Day was spent working at the zoo. During the evening of new year's eve we went to a friend of the family's house where we played cards, watched a movie and ate a lot of food. At about 12:03 I headed back home to go to bed since I had to work in the morning. After work on Jan 1 Ryan and I headed to my mom's house in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had Mon-Fri. off so it was a nice stay. On Monday we had Christmas with mom, Josh, Amy, and their stinker dog, Gracie, who decided to run away for a few hours that day. On Wednesday we had Christmas out at my dad's. Ryan and I also got massages...WONDERFUL! I was able to visit with a few others as well...my friend, Courtney, my grandpa, my step-mom, and my old babysitter, Janis. It's always nice to see people when you head home, but then again, it never feels much like a vacation when you have to run around all over. We brought our kitties on the trip which was fun. They were awesome in the car for 7 hours and seemed to have a lot of fun at mom's house. Now we are back in the Twin Cities, and some of my clothes smell like mom's house and it makes me miss her. (I miss you, mom)

Two nights ago we got home from church and Obi had thrown up, was sneezing a lot, sneezing out this brown substance, was making a scary wheezing/dry heaving noise, drooling a lot. I was freaking out so we brought him to the emergency vet at midnight. They couldn't really figure out what was wrong. They figured he ate something and was having a reaction to that. The next day I brought both cats to the regular vet because they were supposed to be declawed. Because of Obi's episode, they postponed the declawing and just did bloodwork on both, which needs to be done before the declawing, and checked over Obi. When I picked them up after work, they were playing around and then Triton threw up! I think he just ate too much too fast because they were off feed since the night before because of the surgery. It was my fault for giving him too much food. Seconds after he went right back to playing and flying around the house. Obi still made that strange wheezing/dry heaving sound twice last night, but today I haven't heard it at all. Hopefully my babies will be ok.