Paper Monitor
11:43 UK time, Friday, 18 March 2011
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Ahhh, animals. They're lovely. Much nicer than people really.
The newspapers' weakness for cute animal stories and pictures is well documented and today is no exception. Despite the nuclear and humanitarian crisis in Japan, it's the tale of two dogs in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that makes big news.
The Daily Mail - probably the biggest proponent of the media's isn't-it-cute animal strand - has the story of the "".
He was filmed fiercely guarding his injured canine friend in the wreckage of a village in north-east Japan. It's cute and both dogs were thankfully saved, but Paper Monitor personally finds tales like the one of a woman carrying her elderly mother on her back for miles to a hospital more symbolic of the bravery of the Japanese at the moment.
The Daily Express takes the animal love one step further, with a double-page spread on . The feature is about the man who runs the country's only first aid course for animals. Is he barking? Not if the pet-owners interviewed are anything to go by. "I would do anything for my dog," says one woman.
The Daily Telegraph answers a question that has been keeping Paper Monitor up at night. Who would win in a fight - a wildebeest and a leopard? As Harry Hill would say, there's only one way to find out.
It has pictures of the two animals in a stand-off in Kenya's Masai Mara national park. The one with spots wants to eat the one with the horns.
Who comes out on top? It's the wildebeest, who sent the leopard packing with the help of its horns. Praise be, now we can all sleep easy tonight.
The 
