From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

Seattle Slew, 28, who won the horseracing Triple Crown in
1977 and was the last living horse to have won all three events,
died on May 7 at the Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm near Lexington, Kentucky,
25 years to the day after he won the Kentucky Derby in the first leg
of his rush to fame. “We have a black Labrador, eight months old,
named Chet, after my father,” owner Mickey Taylor told The New York
Times. “Chet went into his stall, and Slew licked Chet’s face, and
Chet licked Slew’s face. Then Slew looked up at me and said, ‘Get
on with your life. I have to go.'”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

Jason Trotman, DVM, 48, of Atlanta, Georgia, stayed an
extra five hours at the Southern Crescent Animal Emergency Clinic on
Sunday, March 31, to assist another veterinarian with a surgery.
He was killed at a stoplight on his way home at about 11 p.m., when
his vehicle was hit by the getaway car used by twin brothers Melvin
and Marvin Mitchell, 22, who had allegedly just robbed a grocery
store of $6,500 and were under police pursuit. The Mitchells were
charged with felony murder, armed robbery, and reckless driving.
Trotman left his wife and three children.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

A.J., a 21-month-old male dolphin, died on March 22 at the
Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. He fell ill
soon after the late February death of his half-sister Jasmine. Their
causes of death are unknown. A.J., Jasmine, and Allie, a
half-sister of both, were sired by Albert, the longtime Gulf World
star attraction. More than 40 years old, and unsuccessful in 30
years of breeding attempts, Albert suddenly fathered the three young
dolphins, by three different mothers, just before his death in 1999.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

Inky, 5, a black Labrador retriever trained for Craig
Steven Miller, 41, by Leader Dogs for the Blind, was allegedly
kicked to death by Miller on February 8 in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
Miller, who ran for mayor of Lansdale in November 2001, but was
defeated, was charged with cruelty. On February 11 his wife Brenda
obtained a protective order against him on behalf of herself and
their children, while Miller was undergoing psychiatric evaluation
at Norristown State Hospital.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2002:

Amy Nichols, 18, a British student employed by the Taita
Discovery Centre in Kenya, was killed on March 8 by a Madagascar
dwarf crocodile during a swim with friends in Lake Challa, along the
Kenyan border with Tanzania, below Mt. Kilimanjaro. Madagascar
dwarf crocodiles were introduced to Lake Challa in the 1930s by
British adventurer Ewart Grogan, best known for walking from Cape
Town to Cairo in 1898. The dwarf crocs were thought to have been
exterminated circa 1990 by fishers who were tired of having their
nets torn.

Karl Mattson, 60, of Foxboro, Massachusetts, drowned on
March 8 while trying to rescue his poodle mix from thin ice on Lake
Sebago, Maine.

Chantal Vincelli, 38, a longtime cat rescuer first in
Montreal and later in New York City, was killed on September 11,
2001, while setting up a trade show at the World Trade Center.
Friends found homes for all of the 17 cats she left behind.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

Sirius, 4, the yellow Labrador bomb-sniffing dog of Port
Authority police officer David Lim, was found on January 23 in the
rubble of the World Trade Center. Sirius’ remains received the same
ceremonious removal as those of human police and firefighters. Lim
left Sirius in the basement kennel of Tower II on September 11 while
he climbed to the 44th floor to assist with the evacuation. He was
carrying a woman down from the fifth floor when the building
collapsed, but was rescued after six hours in the flaming debris.
Lim is now training a new bomb-sniffing dog, a black Lab named Sprig.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

Phil Caidin, 77, died of cancer on February 17 in New York
City. An air gunner in World War II, Caidin worked in sales for
many years at Gimbels, but discovered his true calling as “The
Birdman of Central Park,” as the National Enquirer called him, when
in 1957 his first bird, a white albino parakeet, flew out an open
window into Riverside Park. During the next 40 years Caidin rescued
more than 100 parakeets, “dozens” of lovebirds, and seven parrots
who were at large in New York City parks, along with a Peking duck
and countless dogs and cats. The duck made headlines in 1983, as
Caidin waded into freezing ponds in midwinter day after day to feed
and befriend him. A 23-day pursuit of a 20-inch-tall conure and a
yellow-headed Amazon parrot made The New York Times in 1994.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2002:

Astrid Lindgren, 94, died on January 28 in her sleep after
a brief viral illness, at home in Stockholm, Sweden. Born Astrid
Ericsson, the daughter of a farmer in Smaaland, Lindgren at age 19
scandalized her home town of Vimmerby by becoming pregnant out of
wedlock, and fled to Stockholm, where she gave birth to a son,
Lars, who died in 1986. She supported herself at office work,
married Sture Lindgren in 1931, and in 1934 birthed her daughter,
Karen Nyman, for whom she invented the storybook character Pippi
Longstocking. Described as “the strongest girl in the world,” who
feared nothing, Longstocking lived with a horse named Alfonso and a
monkey named Mr. Nilsson. She had no parents at home, but kept a
stash of gold coins left by her sea captain father, and defied the
conventions of children’s literary role models in almost every way.

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