If cats have nine lives, Bart the black and white feline from Tampa, Florida, has certainly used up one.
When Bart was hit by a car earlier this month, owner Ellis Hutson was so distraught he could not stand the thought of burying his pet, so he asked neighbour Dusty Albritton to dig a shallow grave. But Bart refused to go quietly and turned up five days after his burial, bedraggled and meowing for food.
Mr Hutson is hoping to raise the costs of surgery to remove one of Bart’s eyes, wire his jaw shut and insert a feeding tube. Bart should recover in about six weeks and can then go home with his relieved owner.
A stranger’s generous ‘credit’ note
A generous stranger who left a young mother a handwritten note describing her as a “credit to her generation” has been reunited with her.
Sammie Welch, 23, was travelling with her three-year-old son on a busy First Great Western train from Birmingham to Plymouth on January 22.
She was handed £5 and the note by a mystery passenger, signed “Man on train at table with glasses and hat”, as he got off at Bristol.
Seniors still enjoying their sex lives
Senior citizens are still enjoying active sex lives, according to the first major study of sexual health in the over-80s.
And more than half of men (54 per cent) and almost a third of women (31 per cent) over the age of 70 said they were still sexually active, with a third of those having “frequent” sex of at least twice a month.
More than 7,000 older people took part in the research for the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (Elsa), led by Dr David Lee, an Age UK Research Fellow at the University of Manchester’s School of Social Sciences.
Advert for hated pram goes viral
A buggy listed for sale by a father who said it signified the end of his “happy carefree low-cost child-free life” has sold for £325.
Joel Andresier, 39, put the Phil and Teds buggy for sale on eBay, saying it had had “pretty much every bodily fluid known to science (and several that have yet to be discovered) chucked over it by my children. It’s also absorbed its own weight in Ella’s Kitchen meals, and mud”.
The advertisement went viral, with bidding going over £154,000 at one stage.
Chilled milk after cow ice rescue
Firefighters in Colorado kept their cool as they rescued two cows which had plunged through the ice on a frozen pond.
Fountain Fire Chief Darin Anstine said a driver spotted the cows’ heads sticking out of the water about 30ft (9m) from shore in the pond south of Colorado Springs. Firefighters wearing protective suits used saws to cut through 15cm to 20cm of ice and clear a channel to the shore.
Mr Anstine said the cows were able to walk out of the pond about an hour after they were spotted. It is unclear how long they had been in the water, but they are said to be doing fine.
Tanks a lot for surprise discovery
Brazilian police said a raid to recover stolen cars and cargo came up with a more interesting find – two tanks.
The engine-less battle tanks were found inside a warehouse in Sacoma, an impoverished district of Sao Paulo. Officers also confiscated 500 television sets, car body parts and a truck that had been stolen recently.
Military officers said the two tanks did not belong to the army and that their origin would be investigated. Officials did not say what sort of tanks they were or how old they might be.