Cat safe after 300 mile journey in coach engine!

A mechanic described his shock after finding a cat had travelled 300 miles from Scotland to Yorkshire in the engine compartment of a coach.

The young ginger tom, who has been nicknamed Gulliver because of his travels, is believed to have got in the National Holidays coach at Arrochar, north of Glasgow, at the weekend.

He was only found by mechanic Daniel Parnel after the driver returned to his base in Hull on Sunday.

Mr Parnel, 27, said he found Gulliver when he opened a panel to clean the radiator.
The cat was sitting on the radiator itself and the mechanic first thought it was a rat or a squirrel.

Mr Parnel said he decided to take the cat home and keep it after it was checked out by a vet. He has been told there a lot of feral cats in Arrochar.

He told the Hull Daily Mail: 'The most likely thing to have happened is he will have been attracted to the heat of the engine, gone to sleep on the radiator and been driven away.

'He hasn't done badly getting to Hull. It gets really hot in there.'

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Moses the massive hound rescued from cat flap!

This is the enormous 13 and a half stone dog who was stuck for two hours after getting his head wedged in a cat flap.

Huge hound Moses Chan had to be rescued by firefighters after squeezing his big head into the tiny hole.

The 14-month-old Dogue de Bordeaux, who measures more than 5ft tall on his hind legs, had been trying to copy his owner's four cats, but didn't realise how big he was.

'I can't believe I have a blonde dog who thought he could fit in such a tiny gap,' said owner Lisa Saberi, who has only had Moses a week.

'He seems to think he's a cat. He is always trying to play with them and he tries to eat their food if I'm not watching.'

Lisa, 29, had left Moses to run around in the garden while she went to the shops with her 13-year-old daughter, Natasha and son Hayden, 10.

But Moses got fed up with being outside and when he saw cats Hunni, Clover, Paddy and Marley going through the cat flap he decided to do the same.

Luckily next-door neighbour Reece Young, 12, heard Moses whimpering for help and quickly realised what was wrong when he peered over the fence and could only see the back end of the big dog sticking out the door.

He quickly tried to free the huge dog but had no luck so called his mum, Jackie, who came home and phoned the fire brigade.

Lisa, from Welwyn Garden City, Bucks, a mature student at Ruskin Anglia University, Cambridge said: 'I wondered what was going on when I got back. I couldn't believe Moses had been so silly.

'He looked so sad and sorry for himself I was really concerned, but it was a very funny sight. You could just see this huge head.'

It took 45 minutes for the firemen to rescue Moses by drilling holes around the plastic cat flap.

The poor pooch was then taken to the vet with a grazed neck but is now on the mend.

Lisa added: 'He was very worn out and distressed, but he's much better now. I've taken the cat flap out and will board up the hole so it won't happen again.'

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'Cat with no face' becomes a blogging success

A cat who became disfigured after losing her face in a road accident is working to help humans come to terms with their own disabilities.

Chase, who is now three, was left without a nose, eyelids and skin on her cheeks after being hit by a car as a kitten.

Plastic surgeons were unable to rebuild her features and were pessimistic about finding her new owner, until one of the vet technicians who had helped treat her offered to take her home.

Chase, who requires daily drops to keep her eyes moist, now works at a “therapy cat” touring schools and hospitals, helping boost the confidence of people with disfigurements.

She has also become something of an internet celebrity, thanks to a blog set up by her owner Melissa Smith.

The site, written from Chase’s perspective, features daily updates on her adventures, health and charity work, as well as dozens of photos.

Despite her appearance and disabilities – she also had a leg amputated after the accident – she is pictured playing with other cats and dogs and fooling around with her owner.

“I'm a happy kitty and hope to help other humans (especially those disfigured) thru my work as a therapy cat feel just as great about themselves and realize that not everyone looks perfect and that is OK,” Chase writes on her blog.

She also makes light of her appearance, writing that her chief talent is that she has “never lost a staring contest”.

Reassuring readers about her condition, she writes: “I have great vision and love to catch flies and crickets.

“My face looks pink but it is just tissue and the fur will never grow back. I am not in any pain!”

The blog has already attracted more than 10,000 visitors and hundreds of well-wishing comments from cat lovers.

Chase was saved by the Chevy Chase Animal Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky, and now works with the Paws for Friendship charity.

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Read Chase's blog!

The puppy with wheels for front legs.

This tiny puppy may have been born without front legs but there's no way that is holding her back.

Hope, the appropriately named two-legged Maltese puppy gets around by using a specially-designed device which features wheels from a model aeroplane.

The energetic pup uses her hind legs to boost her body forward onto her chest and operate the wheeled prosthetic limbs.

The beloved pooch was born with only two legs and has small wriggling nubs where her front legs should be.

At first Hope moved around by hopping but experts said her her natural mode of moving eventually would damage her bones and spine.

The wheeled device was created by orthotist David Turnbill free of charge with makeshift shoulder joints connected to model airplane wheels.

Each of the device's 'arms' can move up or down independently of the other, allowing Hope to pivot and turn.

The spring-loaded prosthetic arms hook to a custom-fitted chest plate to allow Hope to lay down or sit up without removing the prosthetic.

The wheels she uses as front legs took some getting used to and at first the tiny lap dog would tip over to one side.

However practice made perfect and now the persistent puppy has mastered the art of wheeling herself around, there is no stopping her.

In fact she can bound across a room at a surprisingly break-neck pace.

'She gets around fine,' said the puppy's rehabilitation specialist Cassy Englert.

more cute photos, video and source

Britain's most unwanted dog finally finds new owners after 11 years in a rescue centre.

Proving that every dog has its day, Britain's most unwanted pet has finally been found new owners - after spending the last 11 years in a rescue centre.

Jenny struck lucky after spending 77 dog years in kennels - thought to be a British record.

She was abandoned when she was just one in 1997 when rescuers from Gables Farm Dogs' and Cats' Home found her tied to a lamppost.

And each day afterwards only brought fresh disappointment for collie Jenny as her canine friends were always chosen ahead of her.

New owners were put off because she was very fearful and a little aggressive when she first arrived, according to staff.

And by the time she had fully settled in, she was older than ideal because most people want puppies.

Now, after becoming the longest-staying resident in the Plymouth centre's 101 year history, Jenny has finally found a family to love her.

New owners Pat and Mary Caffrey, from Paignton, Devon, were moved by Jenny's story when they looked at the Gables website and decided to go and meet her face to face.

Mr Caffrey, 59, a retired engineer, said: "We read her story and we thought 'ah look at that' about her being tied to the lamppost and being there so long."

And recalling the moment he and his wife fell in love with hitherto unwanted dog, he added: "When I looked at her and she barked at me.

"We walked around and saw the others and we walked back to her, looked at her, looked at each other and said: 'Yeah, we'll take her on.'

"We've always had dogs and we lost our previous dog, Gemma, in August last year and it was the first time in 20 years that we had been without a dog.

"We'd had a good few months without a dog and it just wasn't the same.

"We always get rescue dogs and the puppies are great - they will always find a home, but the older dogs are not always as fortunate as that."

The previous record for life in a dog home was held by 12-year-old border collie Errol, which spent 10 years in kennels in Wickford, Essex, before finally being rehomed in January this year.

Katie Barkell, from the home said: "She was here for such a long time, she was part of the family.

"We were established in 1907, we are 101 years old, and she is the resident that has been with us the longest in our history. The previous record was six years.

"When she came in, she was very nervous.

"I think that she acted a big aggressively.

"It took a while to get her trust and by the time she had settled in, people were put off by her age.

"She has a few old age problems but the new owner were not put off by that.

"They picked her straight away.

"They were looking for an old dog that was in need of a new home."

Tony Harris, General Manager said: "We are all overjoyed that Jenny has found a new home to call her own after living with us for such a long time.

"It was fantastic to see her jump into the car without as much as a backward glance."

Since living with her new owners Jenny has been on lots of adventures, and enjoys running on the local beach, chasing her ball and splashing in the water.

Gables Farm Dogs' and Cats' Home is Plymouth's oldest animal welfare charity and has a strict non-euthanasia policy.

Staff said that Jenny's story proves that they never give up hope of finding a loving new home for an animal.

The Caffreys have had Jenny for three months and love her.

"She has been brilliant," Mr Caffrey said. "We have had her three months and she had settled in nicely.

"She was quiet and the vet did say that she is an old girl and she will probably just like to be quiet.

"She loves the beach and she goes walking twice a day in the woods. She loves her walks and she loves being quiet."

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Pet dog 'uses trampoline to escape'

One moment Harvey, a three-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, was alone in the garden, the next he disappeared.

Laura Kidson, 27, is convinced the animal used her children's large blue and black trampoline next to the wire fence at their home in York to make good his escape.

Harvey has not been seen since last Friday and Mrs Kidson, a mother of two, said she had called the police because she was growing increasingly desperate to find her pet.

"He couldn't get over the fence on his own and must have used the trampoline to bounce himself into my neighbour's garden and got out," she said.

"He's something of an escape artist and has got out before, but we were just starting to think he had stopped all that.

"We have phoned the police and the council dog warden but no one has seen or heard of him and we're getting desperate."

Mrs Kidson said Harvey used to play on the trampoline with her four-year-old daughter Chloe and like to lie on it in the sun.

"The fence isn't all that high, but he couldn't have climbed over it on his own and must have used the trampoline to bounce himself into my neighbours garden and got out," she said.

"He liked to bounce on the trampoline with my daughter Chloe, but he rarely went on it on his own. He liked to sit on it and sunbathe.

"I was just putting the shopping away and Harvey was in the garden. One minute he was there, the next he had gone."

Mrs Kidson, who has a nine-month-old son Cole, works as a dispenser at Boots chemist and said her daughter was really missing the dog.

"It was Chloe's fourth birthday party on Saturday and she was devastated that Harvey wasn't there for her birthday. She misses him so much."

She said the family's 14-week-old Boxer puppy, Roxanne, has also been pining for her playmate.

**Update - Harvey has now been reunited with his family :) **

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Scientists to stop flatulence?

Scientists claim to have developed an inoculation to reduce methane emissions from farting and belching sheep and cows.

Phil Goff, New Zealand's trade minister, told an economic summit in Paris that a solution was in sight.

"Our agricultural research organisation just last week was able to map the genome that causes methane in ruminant animals and we believe we can vaccinate against flatulent emissions," Mr Goff said.

Sheep, cattle, goats and deer produce large quantities of gas through belching and flatulence, as their multiple stomachs digest grass.

Animals are responsible for about a quarter of the methane produced in Britain, but in countries with a large agricultural sector, the proportion is much higher.

The 45 million sheep and 10 million cattle in New Zealand burped and farted about 90% of that country's methane emissions, according to government figures.

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Cat adopts rat!

A pet cat in China has adopted a rat which she is nursing alongside her four kittens.

Sun Shujun, of Yantai City, says the rat has been living with her cat since the kittens were born four weeks ago.

Sun, 81, says that a neighbour came to see the kittens on the day they were born and was amazed to see a rat suckling alongside them.

"At the beginning, I thought I must have seen wrong. So I took a flashlight and had a clear look," said the neighbour.

The rat not only drinks cat's milk, but also plays with its kitten 'brothers and sisters', according to the Qilu Evening Post.

The cat reportedly treats the rat exactly the same as her natural kittens and it has become part of her family.

Sun reckons her maternal instincts must have overwhelmed her predatory instincts to allow her to adopt an animal she would normally see as prey.

Cat & Bear Make A Wonderful Odd Couple!

As far as lifelong friendships go, Muschi thinks her large and loveable friend Maeuschen is the cat's pyjamas.
The feline, which struck up the unlikely friendship with the 40-year-old Asian bear eight years ago, now can't bear to be apart from her friend.

In fact, the pair are so close that zookeepers at Berlin Zoo had to reunite them after Muschi, or 'pussy' in German, pined for Maeuschen - 'little mouse' - after they were separated.

The pair were split up last October when the bear was locked in a cage while her living space was enlarged.
The distraught cat soon caught the attention of zoo keepers after she remained sitting outside the bear's cage pining for her friend.
This week, keepers took the unusual step of allowing the feline into the cage with her shaggy-haired pal.'They greeted each other and had a cuddle and now they're happy,' said Heiner Kloes, a member of the zoo's management board.

'The cat has a real fan club, mostly among our older, regular visitors.'
But where Muschi, a normal black domestic cat, came from remains a mystery.
'She appeared from nowhere in 2000 and we decided to leave them together because they got on so well,' Mr Kloes said.

'They sunbathed together and shared meals of raw meat, dead mice, fruit and bread.'

The enlarged enclosure will reopen in the spring.

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Toad OK After Stay In Dog’s Stomach

PALMERSTON, Australia, June 10 (UPI) -- Workers at an animal clinic in Australia's Northern Territory said a cane toad has survived a 40-minute ordeal in the belly of a dog.

Jackson Crews, 27, said he tossed some meat pies onto his lawn for his dog, Bella, to enjoy, but in her rush to consume the tasty treats she swallowed a cane toad that had wandered into the yard, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

"I threw them (the pies) on the grass and as I did I noticed a cane toad," Crews said. "Bella saw it and thought it was one of the pies. She swallowed it whole."

Crews said the local animal hospital told him to bring the dog in immediately.

"They gave her a needle to help her vomit," he said. "She vomited a lot of pies and pasties but nothing else came up. Then they gave her another needle and she spewed up the cane toad."

Staff at the clinic named the toad, which appeared to be unharmed by the incident, "Spew" in honor of the vomit that saved its life.

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Unicorn-like deer spotted in Italy

ROME, June 11 (UPI) -- Officials at a nature center in Italy have spotted a 10-month old deer that looks a lot like the mythical unicorn, the Italian news agency ANSA reports.

Instead of a normal pair of antlers, the young buck has only a single horn.

"Our deer may be aware that he is different since he doesn't allow himself to be seen very easily," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Prato Natural Science Center in Tuscany, told ANSA.

Tozzi says an anomaly similar to that of the center's deer may be responsible for unicorn mythology that dates back to the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus in the Fifth Century B.C.

"It's proof that the mythical unicorn celebrated in iconography and legends was probably not just a fantastic creature but a real animal," Tozzi said.

The deer's mother arrived at the center several years ago after being injured by a car.

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