Hangdog does not quite do justice to the mournful expression that seems to have put off potential owners from adopting Rottweiler-cross Bless.

The six-year-old has been waiting for someone to take her in for five months – making her the longest staying resident at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in south London.

And staff believe the lack of interest may be because of the doleful dog’s permanently sad expression.

Christmas cards already on shelves

Big-name British retailers are already putting Christmas cards on the shelves, even though the country is still in the middle of summer.

Clintons is just one high street name which at the start of the month decided to get the countdown to the festive period under way, even as the country was still basking in a heatwave.

While the UK’s recent battering by the remnants of Hurricane Bertha may have brought an unwelcome reminder of autumnal chills, shoppers could still be forgiven for thinking Christmas has come a little early.

Range Rover is choice of the stars

Footballers may favour certain formations on the field but when it comes to cars they go for 4x4s.

For the Range Rover has come out top as the vehicle of choice for Premier League players, according to Oracle Finance. The Range Rover Sport was third in the list, with the Bentley Continental GT in second place and the Audi Q7 fourth.

In fifth place was the BMW X5, with the Porsche Cayenne sixth, the Lamborghini Gallardo seventh, the Ferrari 458 eighth, the Maserati GranTurismo ninth and the Aston Martin DB9 in 10th place.

Conjoined dolphin goes missing

A marine biologist says that his university does not know the whereabouts of a dead two-headed dolphin photographed on a beach in western Turkey.

Mehmet Gokoglu said that, based on photos, the mammal appears to be conjoined dolphins. He denied media reports that his university in Antalya, southern Turkey, is studying the remains, but added that the university would like to display them if it can locate them.

The dolphin calf was discovered on a beach in Dikili, near the Aegean city of Izmir, last week by a sports teacher on holiday.

Short shorts attack at barbecue

A 25-year-old woman attacked another woman at a barbecue because she thought her shorts were too short, a US court heard.

Prosecutors say the woman confronted the other woman, telling her that her shorts were too short. Several minutes later the suspect attacked the victim, knocking her to the ground.

The victim suffered broken facial bones and bleeding in the left eye. The suspect is charged with assault.

Social realism mural discovered

A US family kept what they thought was an old piece of tarpaulin in a barn for decades. But when Tony Breckenridge recently pulled it out of a box to go camping he discovered it was a mural.

The family cannot read the signature and are trying to identify the artist. The mural was displayed over the weekend at the Skagit County Fair in Mount Vernon.

Fair organiser Brian Adams estimates the mural was painted in the 1940s. He says it appears to be in the style of social realism popular before the Second World War.

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