Touching Internet Stories

[~*~Kit_The_Kat~*~]

Here's a thread for everyone to be able to post a touching or moving story you've received via email or read on the internet. Please feel free to share your stories or what you've received.

[TrustNo1SM]

I don't know if this is really touching but I wanted to post it.


OSLO, Norway - For kids, Keiko the killer whale was the charming hero of "Free Willy." For biologists, he was the focus of fierce debate on whether captive animals could be returned to the wild. Keiko, who died of pneumonia this week, never strayed far from humans, keeping company with them in a Norwegian fjord to the end.

Keiko's apparent love of human company - and his popularity - frustrated handlers' dreams that he would one day leave them in search of food on his own. Millions of dollars were spent trying to teach him to survive, but he didn't bond with other whales, apparently feared swimming under ice and died less than two years after he was freed.

Keiko's handlers noticed on Thursday he had become listless, and the six-ton orca died Friday afternoon despite veterinarians' efforts to save him.

"It was pretty sudden," his animal care specialist, Dane Richards, told The Associated Press. He said Keiko's handlers went out to check on him during a late afternoon blizzard and he was still alive. Two hours later, he had died.

Keiko, which means "Lucky One" in Japanese, was born in 1977 or 1978 off Iceland, and was caught for the aquarium industry in 1979.

Known for his distinctive, droopy dorsal fin, he gained fame as the star of the 1993 film "Free Willy," in which a boy befriends a captive killer whale and coaxes him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom. Two sequels featured animatronic models, film of wild orcas and leftover footage of Keiko, according to the president of the Oregon aquarium where he lived from 1996-1998.


that is just so sad isn't it. I found that on another board someone had posted it.

[~*~Kit_The_Kat~*~]

Thanks for sharing that story Ash. I was not familiar with Keiko the killer whale's history...... now I know..... Thanks ;D

[TrustNo1SM]

your welcome Kit.

I like Keiko. It's really sad that he died. Poor Whale