A springer spaniel (above) has been reunited with his owners after spending more than a week trapped by the sea.

Sprig was rescued after an RNLI crew spotted him on a rocky ledge at the foot of the highest sea cliffs in England.

The nine-year-old had disappeared during a walk with his owners, Mark and Susie Sanders, at Foreland Point in north Devon on August 22.

Time stands still in pigeon tribute

Time came to a standstill to mark 100 years since the death of the last passenger pigeon and the extinction of what was once the world’s most abundant bird.

Martha died in Cincinnati Zoo, in the US, on September 1, 1914. To recognise the occasion, birdkeepers stopped the clock on the tower outside the Victorian bird house at ZSL London Zoo.

In the 19th century, the passenger pigeon was the world’s most populous bird, with flocks of more than a hundred million regularly darkening the sky, conservationists said.

But a huge surge in hunting and deforestation drove them to extinction in just a few decades, one of the most dramatic losses of a species due to humans ever witnessed.

Family had measure of giant ’gator

A gigantic alligator caught by a family in Alabama earlier this month has set a world record.

A pair of master measurers from Safari Club International examined the 71.4 stone beast, determining a total length of 15ft 9in. That is 13 inches longer than the organisation’s previous world record American alligator, which had been killed in Texas.

The Alabama alligator was caught by the Stokes family after battling with it for more than five hours. It was hooked in a creek about 80 miles west of Montgomery, Alabama.

Japan’s shake, rattle and toilet roll

Japan is urging people to stock up on toilet paper, because more than 40 per cent of the nation’s supply comes from a high-risk earthquake zone.

The Trade and Industry Ministry is promoting special paper for emergency use, marking national disaster prevention day today. Officials say people immediately think of food and water as relief goods, but easily forget toilet paper.

Forty-one per cent of the country’s supply comes from Shizuoka, in central Japan, one of the most earthquake-prone areas.

Love is... washing laundry for free

Over the long months that Victoria Mitchell lived in her car with her baby daughter, there was one bright spot in her life: doing laundry.

Every month, she travelled to a local laundromat in southern California to take advantage of Laundry Love, a growing faith-driven movement that helps people in need by washing their dirty clothes free of charge.

Volunteers befriend patrons and often find ways to help that go beyond free soap and quarters. Experts say Laundry Love has grown because it is a simple way to give something necessary to people who do not have the means to do it themselves.

‘Amazon’ fun up in the tree tops

The man who helped researchers gain access to the highest canopy of the Amazon rainforest has now created the UK’s first treetop trampoline adventure park.

With bridges, slides, giant trampolines, walkways and tunnels, Treetop Nets allows daredevils to explore the trees while up to 30 feet off the ground.

The aerial attraction, set in the beautiful oak woodland of Brockhole near Windermere in Cumbria, is the 16th net adventure park to open in the world.

The course, which spans over 1,200 square metres, is made of ropes and nets traditionally used in sailing.

Participants are surrounded by three metre-high walls of netting and do not require a harness. Treetop Net was constructed by Cedric Chauvaud, one of the world’s best sailor and rope experts, and his team of seven ex-fishermen and sailors.