Have you saved an alien today?

I saved one a couple of weeks ago. Of course, I haven’t checked on or visited it since. Typical imperialist.

Here it is, safely quartered at Antarctica [click for larger image]:

Its name is Za. The website tells me I should give it a human name, but this seems arrogant to me. Isn’t its real, alien name good enough?

I used to help a friend with her Dell computer by making all the calls to Dell support, where young men with musical Indian voices would tell me their name was Brad. Of course, maybe I wouldn’t be able to pronounce their real names. Which is worse, to adopt a name suitable for another language, or to hear your own name garbled in the mouth of  . . .  an alien?

Za may not be pronounced at all like I think it is.

I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this alien and its pet slightly resemble me and mine. Hell, let’s just quit fretting about Terran- mammalian- centricity, and call it she.

[Wait. Maybe the pet-like thing IS Za, and what I thought was Za is the pet?]

She has relatives that still need saving. Sadly, I do believe you must belong to Facebook in order to save aliens. This is what those of us with nothing more significant to do join Facebook for.