Please vote for one of the following five stories by (1) sending an e-mail to jgerber@ideastream.org or (2) calling the WCLV Contest Line at 1-800-343-WCLV (9258) and leaving a message if I don’t answer. The winner will be announced on WCLV Monday, Apr. 4 at 7:20 a.m. EDT and posted here. The Candidates:
- The pink grasshopper discovered by an Ohio man working in East Texas. The pink color is due to a rare condition called erythrism, caused by a recessive gene. The man has named his new pet grasshopper “Pinky”;
- The mother duck that hatched 10 ducklings in the courtyard of the maternity section of a hospital in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.;
- Annie Rose, a 4-year-old goldendoodle therapy dog from Ohio who earned the most votes in the Cadbury online contest to find this year’s “Clucking Easter Bunny,” beating out other dogs, a cat, a llama, a horse, a hedgehog, a bearded dragon, a parrotlet (the smallest species of parrot) and a sugar glider. Annie Rose will star in Cadbury’s annual Easter commercial and her owner was awarded a $5,000 prize;
- Ollie, the Chihuahua who was stolen 10 years ago while he was being walked in London. Ollie, who is now 12, was recently found about 20 miles away, identified by his microchip, and returned to his family, which now includes a Dachshund named Chili;
- No. 492, one of two African flamingos that escaped from a Wichita, Kan., zoo during a storm 17 years ago and which has recently been spotted on the Texas coast. It has also been spotted in Wisconsin and Louisiana. The zoo said it had no plans to recapture the flamingo.