Random acts of animal kindness

The monkeys in this photo prompted a conversation at the zoo about how cool it is to watch animals socializing and caring for one another. Immediately before this shot was taken, the monkey at the front left seated himself on the platform and began to cough. That's when the monkey you see next to him ran up beside him, leaned over, and looked him in the face, checking to make sure he was okay. You can see that the monkey on the platform above them was also showing concern.

My dogs and granddogs, though normally trying to outsmart each other to get the best treat or the best spot on the sofa, are themselves capable of showing compassion on occasion. Butch, my blind dog, was first on the scene when my daughter's little Yorkie, Winston, fell off the back of the futon and let out a frightening "EEE-YI-YI-YIIIII." Even though Butch has barely tolerated Winston in the past, he stood over him and sniffed him from one end to the other until his people came to the rescue.

Kadi, my female Lab, keeps an eye on Butch. For example, if Kadi sees that Butch is about to run into the doorframe, she'll quickly wedge her body in beside him, essentially steering him away from the doorframe and through the open door.

My younger daughter has a little inside dog, BeBe, and a big outside dog, Jez. BeBe has recently developed a routine, all on her own, that shows she's thinking and planning ahead about Jez. When the door is opened for BeBe to go outside for the first time each morning, she detours past her food dish, picks up one piece of food, then runs out the door and drops the food right in front of Jez. We're very curious about BeBe's motivation on that one. We don't know whether (a) BeBe is sharing food out of the goodness of her heart, (b) BeBe is taunting Jez by showing that she gets the premium dog food, or (c) Jez is in the mob and is making BeBe pay for protection before letting her into the yard.