Odd News
Meet Dr Moose – the therapy dog awarded honorary doctorate degree
Virginia Tech has awarded an honorary doctorate degree to one of its most beloved staffers: a therapy dog named Moose.
Like most other universities, USA’s Virginia Tech celebrated the class of 2020 with a graduation ceremony conducted online amid the coronavirus pandemic.
During the virtual commencement ceremony on Friday, eight-year-old Moose was awarded an honorary doctorate in veterinary medicine.
In a statement released online, the university said it was recognising the work of Dr Moose Davis, who has “spent a career serving and supporting the university community.”
The Labrador Retriever has been with the university since 2014 and is one of four dogs serving at the Cook Counseling Center.
“The students here talk a lot about how Moose has broken down the stigma around mental health care on campus,” owner Trent Davis, a counselor and coordinator of the university’s Animal-Assisted Therapy program, told said.
“Veterinarians are unfortunately a very challenged population. They have high rates of suicide, and this profession can be quite disturbing. He has really helped the students and staff at Virginia Tech and has gotten a lot of recognition for that.”
Dr Moose has been helping students and staff despite his own health problems – he was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, for which he has undergone radiation, chemotherapy, and other therapies.
His treatment is ongoing but he remains his usual cheerful self, said Moose’s owner.
Moose has aided in more than 7,500 counseling sessions and over 500 outreach events in his six years at Virginia Tech. When he is not at work, the pooch enjoys swimming, snacking and playing tug-of-war.
– ndtv.com
1. Q: What do you call a person who never farts in public?
A: A private tutor.
2. Q: Why is a baseball stadium always cold?
A: Because it’s full of fans!
3. Q: How do you get a tissue to dance?
A: You put a boogie in it.
4. Q: What has four wheels and flies?
A: A garbage truck.
5. Q: Why did the banana go to the hospital?
A: He was peeling really bad.
6. Q: What do you call a nosy pepper?
A: Jalapeno business!
7. Q: Why did the kid throw a stick of butter out the window?
A: To see butter-fly.
8. Q: Why didn’t the teddy bear eat dessert?
A: He was stuffed.
9. Q: What do you give a sick lemon?
A: A Lemon-aid.
Researchers in Barcelona conducted experiments with four zoo giraffes that indicate the animals might be capable of basic quantity tracking, or simple math.
The University of Barcelona, University of Leipzig and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology researchers, who published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports, presented four giraffes from the Barcelona Zoo with two containers containing different amounts of carrot pieces.
The researchers then covered the containers, and the animals watched as the humans added or subtracted more carrot pieces to them.
The giraffes then selected the containers with more carrot pieces 68 per cent of the time, which the researchers said exceeds the number that could be attributed to random chance.
Researchers said further tests controlling for whether the giraffes were using other methods of decision-making — such as choosing containers based on whether or not the researchers touched them — indicated two of the giraffes may have been using that method, but the other two continued to choose the containers with more carrots at the same rate.
They wrote the results of those two giraffes suggest “the potential use of more complex mental computations.”
The giraffes were less successful in trials where carrots were subtracted from the containers, choosing at a rate consistent with random chance.
The researchers said the giraffes are likely not performing math the same way as humans, but show a basic understanding of numbers that affect their decision-making.
News1 week agoOkyeame Kwame thanks Galaxy International School for co-parenting with his family to raise daughter
- News1 week ago
Police arrest four suspected drug peddlers, recover firearm, narcotic substances in Mankranso operation
- News1 day ago
DVLA denies losing GH¢308,000 in alleged theft involving service personnel
