TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State parks officials are assessing the impact of large-scale, blue-green algae blooms at Kansas lakes and reservoirs that kept people and animals out of the lakes this summer. Dangerous levels of the toxic algae prompted Kansas health officials to post advisories and warnings since May. Ron Kaufman, spokesman for the Kansas Department ...

INTERIOR, S.D. (AP) — As the cage door opened, black-footed ferret No. 7505 tentatively peeked his head out, looked hesitantly at the prairie dog burrow offered before him, and then rushed inside, disappearing beneath the earth of western South Dakota's badlands. His freedom had been months in the making, but in less than a minute — ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — The little injured dolphin they called Winter couldn't have come along at a better time for the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a rustic sea life rescue center occupying the city's old sewage treatment plant. The nonprofit public aquarium was about ready to go belly-up at the end of 2005 when the baby bottlenose ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Guide dogs and their handlers have always undergone intense training on dealing with distractions from squirrels to skateboarders. But today's guide dogs have a whole new generation of things to worry about: quiet cars, button-activated walk signals, stroller traffic on handicapped curb-cuts, and a greater likelihood of interacting with other dogs. "It ...

NEW YORK (AP) — A calico cat named Willow, who disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains five years ago, was found Wednesday on a Manhattan street and will soon be returned to a family in which two of the three kids and one of the two dogs may remember her. How she got to ...