Raven Thorogood III makes a pretty good living as an actor. You might know him as the chimpanzee from Babe: Pig In The City. So, like many Americans with enough time on their hands to scratch themselves and ponder life's mysteries, Raven took the plunge into the stock market. Roland Perry, editor of the Internet Stock Review, chose Raven to pick stocks for him by tossing darts, giving him a portfolio of 10 stocks that he hoped would make big bananas for him. His returns over two months would leave the average money-manager blushing. All told, his portfolio was up almost 60 percent, with one of his choices soaring more than 330 percent.

BABIES OF THE LOWLAND

Like any new mom with twins, Kokomo has her hands full. But her twins are truly unusual -- they're gorillas. Kokamo is a Western low-land gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Only seven sets of gorilla twins have been born in captivity.

HELLO MUDDAH, HELLO FADDAH

Dogs who enjoy swimming, canoeing and socializing can now escape endless days of sleeping and gnawing bones by taking a trip through the Canadian wilderness at an exclusive summer camp for pooches. A pet-sitting company called Dog Day Adventures is offering summer camping for dogs in the lush Algonquin park and Georgian Bay regions, north of Toronto. "We recognize that dogs need a lot more than just a walk," says company founder Denise Wilson-Woodside.

MEEP MEEP

It sounded like an April Fool's joke - Wile E. Coyote loose in Central Park. But the four-legged fugitive turned out to be real. Tourists, joggers, dog walkers and park workers watched in amazement as police armed with rifles and dart guns tried to corral a robust-looking coyote that had somehow been roaming the park for about two days. After a half-hour pursuit, Officer Steve Collins finally zapped the animal with a dart from about 10 feet away. Still not done, the quicksilver quadruped escaped by swimming across a pond, passing skaters at Wollman rink and racing eight blocks north before going to sleep in a grassy area. The animal was sent to the Bronx Zoo for an overnight rest, and then let go in the wild.

GOT A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE?

Pennsylvania high school student Melissa Bartolucci thinks she's invented a better mouse trap. At least it's better for the mouse. The Allentown ninth-grader calls her creation the Automatic Harmless Mousetrap. The battery-operated device captures the mouse in a clear plastic box, allowing it to be released outside the house. Melissa says it's not right to kill an animal just because it's in your home. Her invention was one of the finalists in the Duracell-National Science Teachers Association Scholarship Competition.

ROCKET MAN

When Dink Finchum fired bottle rockets to scare ducks away from hunters lurking near his home, the hunters fought back. Finchum was brought before Sevier County, Tennessee General Sessions Judge Dwight Stokes on charges he violated the state's Hunter Protection Act. He was accused of firing fireworks each time he and his 10-year-old son Daniel heard a hunter's call. Stokes dismissed the case, saying both hunters and residents have rights - but hunters can't be permitted to shoot into subdivisions.

SURVIVOR

A dog survived 24 hours buried under an avalanche in which seven people perished, including the dog's German owners, in the Tyrolean village of Valzur. Jack - a fluffy mongrel of Alsatian and Labrador stock - crawled out from a heap of wreckage after a snow excavator exposed the cavity, one day after the avalanche struck. A soldier at the scene offered to take in the dog, who was in good condition despite the experience.

A HERO TO THE MAX

Max the Gorilla at the Johannesburg Zoo has become a folk hero. A gun-wielding man wanted on 11 felony charges was running from police and jumped into Max's living space. The normally peaceful lowland gorilla swung the crook around in the air to disarm him, then held him until police could take him into custody.

ST. BERNARD TO THE RESCUE

It wasn't a keg of brandy around Percy the St. Bernard's neck that saved his owner's life. But when Melanie Horne of Seattle at a diabetic seizure, she couldn't make it to the phone, so she asked Percy to fetch it. Percy saved the day, and Horne was able to summon 911.

FINS TO THE LEFT, FINS TO THE RIGHT

Two Colombian stowaways were thrown to the sharks in the Caribbean after they were found hiding on a fishing vessel. Until their rescue 36 hours later, the pair says that dolphins protected them from the sharks. The Dolphins would swim around them in circles whenever sharks approached them.

LOCKED MESS MONSTER

Two Florida boaters met a real sea monster when their craft was dragged for hours by a powerful undersea creature. The Coast Guard sent a rescue boat to investigate and it found the motorboat being dragged in circles by something beneath the Atlantic Ocean's surface. After the Coast Guard's 41-foot boat pulled on the anchor line for several minutes, a giant manta ray measuring 18 feet in width and weighing at least 300 pounds came to the surface, freed itself, and swam off.

DOES HER VCR HAVE A "PAWS" BUTTON?

One of the employees at Country Home Video in Clovis, California works like a dog. Customers don't have to get out of their cars to return videos, thanks to Niki, a Rottweiler-Labrador mix. Niki goes out to the curb in front of the video store to pick up the tapes. The dog also carries customers' video selections to the counter for check-out. Owners Don and Peggy Lake say Niki got started by fetching things around the house, before they ever thought of taking her to work. The Lakes say their four-legged helper is very gentle with the videos and never slobbers on the tapes.

HALF-BRAINED IDEA NOT SO BAD

Apart from their ability to fly, birds have another enviable ability - they can sleep with one eye open and half of their brain awake. It's called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS) and it allows birds to detect approaching predators while still getting a bit of shut-eye. "They are able to make behavioral decisions about whether they keep one half of the brain awake or allow both halves of it to sleep,'' says Niles Rattenborg, a behavioral neurophysiologist at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. Dolphins, seals and manatees also have USWS which allows them to sleep and swim to the surface to breathe, but Rattenborg said birds seem to be able to use it at will.

THIS LITTLE PIGGY SAVED MOM

Lulu, a 150-pound potbellied pig who saved her owners' life, has received a Trooper Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for going above and beyond the call of the wild. Lulu ran into the street outside her owners' mobile vacation home on Lake Erie and fetched a passing motorist to rescue her owner, JoAnn Altsman, who was having a heart attack. Lulu was among several animals that received Trooper Awards. Other animals feted were Abner - a former shelter dog from Long Island which saved his family from a fire - and Aspen - an Urban Search and Rescue dog which has rescued hundreds of disaster victims.

911 FOR A DOLPHIN

A Florida paramedic suspended for using his ambulance to transport an injured baby dolphin found himself a cause celebre as the public rallied to protest his punishment. A local radio station discussed Roy Longo's situation on the air and offered to pay his salary while he served a two-shift suspension. And some local residents offered to set up a fund for contributions to make up his lost wages. Longo's action may have saved the life of the sick creature nicknamed Little Orphan Annie. The dolphin, which was almost one year old, was taken to the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute for treatment and recovery after the rescue.

PET TRICKS NOT SO STUPID

A producer from The Late Show With David Letterman say he auditions pets for Letterman's Stupid Pet Tricks segment 14 times a year, and he gets to see a lot of smart animals. Bill Langworthy says only a thirtieth of those who audition make it to the final cut. At a recent audition, Langworthy watched a dog eat corn row by row as his owners held the cob by the ends. A schnauzer grabbed tissues from a box and brought them to his owner when she sneezed. A goldfish jumped a foot-and-a-half out of its bowl to grab food from its owner's hands. "These are not dumb animals," says Langworthy.

PARDONED

Buddy the hero-dog is off death row. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kenab, Utah has rescued the mixed-breed dog that was slated for euthanasia because he's a biter. Buddy is credited with comforting and keeping warm a woman who had slipped into an abandoned well near Greensboro, North Carolina in December, 1998.

SO THAT'S WHY THE CAT HAS THE REMOTE CONTROL

A pet food manufacturer in England wants peoples' cats glued to the TV. The latest Whiskas commercial has been tested to attract kitties, with pictures of fish, mice birds and a ball of string accompanied by the sounds of meows, tweets and rodent squeaks.

NO SEPARATION

Darby, a sweet, gentle 2-year-old Akita, would go berserk when left alone, breaking through plate glass windows and chewing through thick wooden doors. As a result, she couldn't keep a home. But the Grand Forks, North Dakota Humane Society found a perfect solution. Darby has become a companion to patients at Deaconess Northwood Hospital's Alzheimer's unit...where she's never alone.

BOOZED-UP BIRDS

Animal Safety officers have found out why robins were falling out of the trees in santa Rosa, California. They've been on a drunken binge - unknowingly eating fermented privet berries. The trees - which had their berries stay in place and rot due to unusual weather - have had their berries removed by volunteers, so the red robins can keep on bob-bob-bobbin' along without weaving.

PROTECTING THE DOGS WHO PROTECT

It was a solemn ceremony followed by lots of bone-chewing. 48 police dogs from throughout New Jersey were presented with bullet-proof jackets. Cancer patient Theresa Murphy helped raise money for the Associated Humane Societies' program, motivated by the death of a K-9 dog named Solo, who died in the line of duty.

SMILE! YOU'RE ON DOGGIE CAMERA

Why would someone in Seattle send their dog to day care in Los Angeles while they undergo an operation? It's the "pet-cam". Barbara Waldare's Doggie View Day Care Center offers internet surveilliance. Dog owners can use their computers at work to bring up a camera on the internet and watch their pets.

"CHECKING OUT" WILDLIFE

In Telluride, Colorado, a library card will let you take home Vermin the Rat. Wildlife rehabiliatator Lissa Margetts has formed the Pet Lending Library, which lets kids and their parents check out Atilla the Tarantula, Millie the Millipede, Sammy the Boa Constrictor and about 25 other animals. The program helps them determine if they really want such a pet. After 20 successful weeks of animal care, the borrower gets to keep the critter.

CAT ACROSS THE WATER

Katie the Cat vanished in London, only to be found 3000 miles away in Montreal. The cat sneaked into her human's luggage and crossed the Atlantic in the cargo hold of a British Airways jetliner. The lucky cat survived freezing temperatures by wrapping up in John Pearson's sweater, and jumped out of his bag when he opened it in his hotel room.

WHALE OF A CATFISH

The big one didn't get away from James Laster of Flint, Texas. He caught a Texas-sized catfish: 98½ pounds! Laster turned the big fish over to Texas Parks & Wildlife, who reintroduced it to its home pond.

GHOST OF GROUNDHOGS PAST

A rare albino groundhog has become the mascot of a Roanoke, Virginia golf course. Due to its unusual color, "Whitey the Woodchuck" is considered an attraction rather than a pest by groundskeepers at Blue Hills.

ROBO DEER CATCH SITTING DUCKS

The sight of a deer right by the highway is a little too tempting for some hunters in Indiana. But instead of bagging a buck, the hunter is the one who is bagged. Conservation officers are using mechanical deer to catch people who are illegally hunting. The deer looks so real, it moves. Authorities say the hunters often fire right from their cars or trucks, which is dangerous and illegal. Violators not only face fines, they have have pay for the robo deer, too.

A TINY POOL IN EVERY ROOM

If you're lonely at the Hotel Monaco in Chicago, ask the desk to send up a companion for night. Sound fishy? You're right. The hotel offers its guests a pet goldfish during their stay. Hotel officials say fish are perfect company, they're relaxing and quiet.

"CAT OF THE YEAR" IS NOT A CAT

A 10-year-old pet named Ginny won the New York Cat of the Year award, but wasn't purring about it later. That's because Ginny is a dog. The honor handed out at the Westchester Cat Show goes annually to "a cat who displays unusual courage, determination, will to live or other quality not taken into account in the judging rings." Ginny, a part-schnauzer, part-Siberian husky "prefers cats to dogs," says her owner. Ginny goes out and rescues strays, bringing them back to share her Long Island home.

PAINTED BY TRUNK

Ruby the painting pachyderm has passed on, but she may prove to be merely the first in a long line of artistic elephants. Ruby's success on canvass - her paintings produced more than $200,000 for the Phoenix Zoo - has inspired a pair of New York artists to open three elephant art schools in Thailand, where a logging lull has left hundreds of domesticated elephants unemployed. Ruby became a media star by learning to paint a decade ago after zookeepers spotted her doodling in the sand with a stick. Holding a brush in her trunk, she would select colors from a palette and apply them to canvasses.

FEET FOR FOOTSIE

Life hasn't been easy for Footsie. The German Shepherd-mix was born without hind paws, making it hard just to get around. He was found malnourished and dehydrated in a Buffalo, New York apartment. Now, with help from the SPCA, Footsie is back on his feet. Thomas Everett of Everett Prosthetics, Inc., in West Seneca, made two prosthetic hind legs for Footsie. Everett, who has an artificial leg himself, has more than 35 years of experience fitting human patients. This was his first dog.

CATS! HERE COMES THE JUDGE!

Juliana Keiser said she was willing to go to jail for cats. Her tough stand won over a judge - and City Hall. Keiser was cited for feeding stray cats, which violated a year-old law in Junction City, Oregon. She told a judge the law - which allowed police to ``dispose of trapped or captured cats'' - inhumane and shortsighted. The judge suspended a $45 fine. Cat lovers called her a hero. They packed the court and even set up pickets at City Hall. The campaign worked. City council members have lifted the feeding ban and have authorized a group of cat lovers to have the animals inoculated, spayed or neutered, and then released.

RATS! HERE COME THE SNAKES!

Hundreds of snakes are helping out Thai rice farmers in northern Ayutthaya province by eating hordes of rats that have invaded their fields and ravaged grain. A government-owned snake farm released about 450 non-venomous snakes into the fields following pleas from area farmers to help them get rid of the rats. The farmers claim millions of rodents in the fields have eaten nearly half of their paddy production.

YUPPIE PUPPY SUPPERS

It's a repast for Rover: ''Scottie Scones,'' "Corgi Crumpets,'' "German Shepherd's Pie,'' "Labrador Lasagna'' — more than 50 homemade, all-natural recipes in a new cookbook for dogs. Andrews McMeel Publishing says the owners of a take-out food shop for dogs called the Three Dog Bakery have come up with a book compiling their favorite selections. They run from "yappetizers" like "Cheese Please Hound Rounds" and "Poochie Pleasin' Pretzels" to main courses featuring turkey burgers, pizza and meatloaf, as well as baked goods and deserts. Fido's leftovers can go to the table since the creations are all safe for human consumption.

A NUTTY BREAK-IN

A man feared the worst when he got to his cottage near Midland, Ontario. The place was a mess and he thought a burglar was still inside, so he called police for help. After searching the cottage officers found the perpetrator, but they won't be pressing charges. It turns out the bad guy was just a wayward squirrel.

TV CAN BE SUCH A YAWN

The owner of a house in Chandigarh, India thought her 4-year-old son was referring to the TV when he came into the kitchen and said there was a "tiger" in his room. But when she peeked into the room she was horrified to see a very large leopard sprawled out on her son's bed. Apparently, the big cat crawled in through a window, and after watching some TV, got bored and fell asleep. Animal control officers tranquilized the snoring leopard and took it to a local zoo.

BIG BIRD STALKS FARMER

A 6-foot-tall, 150-pound emu that fell head over heels in love with an Alabama man and stalked him for days was turned loose on a farm populated by her own species. It was mating season and she took a fond liking to him, according to Diane Roberts, director of the Mobile, Alabama, Animal Rescue Foundation. The giant bird showed up at the farm house of Ed and Ann Stuardi, drinking from a bird bath and eating berries in their yard. They fed it dog food. Eventually, it was making noises deep in its throat, a mating call Stuardi failed to recognize as the bird approached him. Shorter than than the bird, he held it off with a boat paddle. She had her heart set on this man,'' said Roberts.

DOG RESCUES KITTY

Some dogs chase cats. Samson saves them. The 100-pound, Rottweiler-Saint Bernard mix saved a year-old cat named Baby from a hawk that tried to scoop up the tiny animal with its talons. The 5-year-old dog has been friends with Baby since she was adopted by his owner, Jerry Krueger of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Samson took preventative measures when he saw the hawk eying Baby from afar. "How he knew that hawk was there, I don't know," Krueger said. Neighbor Roger Hanneman said he witnessed the incident, watching from his yard as the hawk dove for the cat. His hackles raised, Samson barked and ran to Baby, knocking her off her feet with his nose. Hanneman said the big dog then placed his body over the cat to protect her, and the hawk flew away.

YOU CAN'T EAT 'EM IN FRONT OF 'EM

The menu for seafood lovers sounded tempting: Maine crab cakes, grilled yellowfin tuna, savory clam chowder and breaded haddock. But many visitors to the restaurant at the New England Aquarium don't want to eat the creatures at which they've just marveled. One mother who brought her four children solved the problem by ordering nachos.

WILL THAT BE KITTY'S COMP OR DOGGIE'S DEDUCTIBLES?

Rewards Plus of America, a company that puts together benefits packages that companies offer workers, added a new product to its lineup: pet insurance. Agents thought the Baltimore-based company was going to the dogs - and cats - when they first read memos about the new package. But pet medical insurance has rapidly become the company's second-most requested voluntary benefit. The premiums are deducted from workers' paychecks.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE SHOES

A truck driver spotted a 3-foot alligator sunning itself on a road near Milford, Michigan, 40 miles northwest of Detroit. The trucker called police, who upon seeing the size of the gator, dispatched Animal Control. The alligator, believed to be an escaped or abandoned pet, snapped once before Animal Control arrived. "He didn't like one of our officers," an officer said. "It probably had something to do with his shoes. Maybe he thought he was looking at a relative."

THERE ARE RATS IN HER HOUSE

Don't call anyone a dirty rat in June Harding's home. That would insult her pets. "They're actually very clean," Harding said as two of her eight pet rats scurried up and down her arms and neck. "They can live in dirty surroundings, but they keep themselves very clean and they're sweet and they're not vicious." They're also intelligent and affectionate, she said. Harding says she has never been bitten. She has eight Norway rats with names like Zorro, Velvet, Molli, Elizabeth and Little Bit. "They know their names, and they're like kids; they come when they want to," Harding said. She breeds rats, but only sells to people who want them as pets. "I make sure they're not snake food," she said.

LUCKY DUCKS

St. Cloud, Minnesota sixth-grader Amy Saupe is crazy about ducks. Her bedroom is stuffed with stuffed ducks. She has duck socks, a duck that holds her P-J's, a duck T-shirt and even a duck watch. So it's not surprising that Amy went to bat for some real ducks. She's gotten the City Council concerned about the ducks at a city-owned lake near a busy street. Amy was worried the ducklings might be hit by a car. She wrote a letter to the council, complete with a drawing of a mother duck and her babies. Amy also pleaded her case in person. Now, things are just ducky. The council voted unanimously to post duck-crossing signs near the lake.

TURTLE EXPRESS

The Galapagos islands' giant turtles get evacuated from the archipelago's largest island, Isabela, to get them out of the way of lava from a volcano. "We evacuate them as a precaution, as the flow of lava from Cerro Azul volcano could affect some giant turtles," says Juan Chavez, head of the park's technical team.

THE PENTAGON'S NEW DEFENSE

There are some new recruits guarding the Pentagon...the Defense Department's first permanent Pentagon K-9 corps. The dogs sniff incoming packages, people and vehicles. The K-9s are graduates of a military police dog training school in Texas. Marine Sergeant Vance Dunlap says the dogs are starting their military careers at the bottom. He says, "They're privates right now."

UP ON THE WOOF

Roofer Ben Miles' best friend goes to work him everyday. If you look up in North Platte, Nebraska, you may spot Miles and his puppy Patches patching roofs. Miles says Patches follows him everywhere, including up ladders to rooftops. But Patches isn't much help on the job. Miles says the pup usually sacks out on a bundle of shingles. While Patches is good at scampering up the ladders, the dog hasn't mastered the other part. Miles says he has to carry the puppy down.

YO QUIERO MS. DREAM

Ms. Dream, a 9-pound, 6-inch pet pooch, has been crowned the world's fastest Chihuahua. Owned by Katie Freehan, she beat out a pack of 64 to take the Chihuahua World Cup at Gulf Greyhound Park.

HANG ON SLOOPY

There wasn't a high jump or discus throw, no one ran with a torch and pictures of the winners probably won't end up on a cereal box. Still, competition was ferocious at the Ferret Olympics. Nearly 200 ferret owners came out to the Grand Prairie Community Center near Dallas to see which furry creatures would take home awards for tipping over the most plastic cups or holding the longest kiss with their owners. Holly Chant's ferret Sloopy was a big winner, taking first place in the paper sack escape event and placing second in the cup tip. "They're great," said Janet Kniep. She and her husband, Terry, and 10-year-old daughter, Kaylie, entered their ferret, Ferris, in the Olympics. ``It's like having a kitten that refuses to grow up.''

GIVE 'EM THE BIRD