Man pulled snake out of bush, turned out to be 18 feet 8 inches long

Florida - The South Florida man who caught and killed the longest Burmese python ever found in Florida gets to keep the snakeskin. Jason Leon of Palmetto Bay saw a few feet of the snake sticking out of some bushes alongside a rural Miami-Dade County road on May 11. When Leon pulled the snake out into the open, it turned out to be 18 feet 8 inches long. Leon killed the snake with a knife when it began to wrap around his legs. He reported his find to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. More

High school seniors release 10,000 crickets into halls, banned from graduation

Kentucky - Punishment by the administration of East Carter High School in Grayson, Ky., is deemed too extreme by classmates, parents - and even a state senator. But Principal Larry Kiser says the critters were expensive to clean up after. High school seniors were banned from graduation after releasing 10,000 crickets into its halls as a prank. East Carter High School in Grayson, Ky., stopped seven students from attending Saturday morning`s celebration because of the cost of the cleanup. More

Armed Forces Day - Saturday, May 18, 2013

SA - For most Americans in the United States, Armed Forces Day is not on the lists of likely holidays to honor the country`s military in celebrations of Memorial Day or Veteran`s Day. Sadly, most Americans may not even realize that Armed Forces Day is even a legitimate holiday. Armed Forces Day was established to be celebrated on the third Saturday in May. It started during Harry Trumans administration when he led an effort to consolidate the various holidays supporting each separate branch of the military into a simple unified holiday to honor the four branches together. The actual initiation of this day occurred on August 31, 1949, when Trumans Secretary of State announced the establishment of a joint Armed Forces Day to take the place of the former tradition of having separate days to honor the men and women in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. More

Mom Forces Bullying Daughter To Wear Thrift Store

MURRAY, Utah - A Utah mother is giving her daughter some tough love after learning she was bullying a classmate. Kaylee, a fourth grader, was teasing a fellow student about her clothes, so her mom Ally decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. Ally got an email from a teacher on Wednesday saying that her daughter had been relentlessly teasing another student about her clothes for the last three weeks. So Ally decided to let Kaylee know what it feels like to be judged on what you wear. She went out to a thrift store and picked out some clothes for Kaylee, then made her wear them to school on Thursday and Friday. More

Dog helps save owner stranded for days after car accident

Australia – A dog helped save his owner’s life after the man was trapped following a car  accident on a remote property in Australia.
Herbert Schutz, 76, drove his car into a tree near Rylstone Friday. When  he tried to escape the wreckage, the car rolled on top of him, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Schutz was rescued Monday night by his neighbors after his daughter – who  grew concerned when she was unable to reach him – contacted them.
Schutz was found covered in hair from Australian Kelpie, Boydy, whose body warmth helped Schutz battle temperatures as low as 39 degrees F in  the four days he was trapped without food or water, the Sydney Morning Herald  reports. More

Elementary school adopts all-vegetarian menu, offers kids beans, tofu wraps

NEW YORK – A New York City elementary school has adopted an all-vegetarian menu, serving kids tofu wraps and veggie chili.
Public School 244 is the first public school in the city to go all-veggie.
The animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says it might be the first all-veggie public elementary school in the nation.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says he’s proud of the “trailblazing” school.
The Queens school has 400 students in pre-kindergarten through third grade. More

Air-breathing, predatory fish has officials on alert

New York – Environmental officials in New York City are warning the public to be on the  lookout for an aggressive, air-breathing fish that may be invading the city’s  waterways.
MyFoxNY.com reports the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation  (DEC) is asking fishermen in the Harlem Meer to be on the lookout for the northern snakehead fish, a predatory creature native to Asia.
The station reports a local man named Miro Zic claims to have caught one of  the fish in October, but the DEC has not confirmed that catch. A snakehead fish was confirmed caught in the area in 2008.
The fish, which is native to Russia, China and North and South Korea, can destroy an ecosystem if it is allowed to flourish.
The fish can breathe air and  survive on moist land for several days if it needs to. More

Florida battles slimy invasion by giant snails

South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.
More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Residents will soon likely begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state’s rainy season in just seven weeks, Feiber said.
The snails attack “over 500 known species of plants - pretty much anything that’s in their path and green,” Feiber said. More

Police stop 6-year-old driver heading for Chinese food

Illinois – Police in Lapeer responded to an unusual phone call Saturday morning from  drivers on M-24 who reported a vehicle driving erratically.
“They told police when they called that it looked like a 6-year-old was  driving the car,” said Sgt. Andy Engster of the Lapeer County Sheriff’s  Department. “And they were exactly right.”
By the time police arrived to pull over the six-year-old boy, two drivers of  other vehicles had already boxed him into a turnaround, said Engster. One  reached into the window and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
When police asked the boy why he took the car, he told them he was going to  get Chinese food. More

Couple too scared to leave home – terrorized by an angry pheasant

Vandalizing cars, attacking the elderly and head-butting windows.
Phil has become notorious in his home village. Phil is a very territorial pheasant.
Residents of Wentnor in Shropshire spoke of their despair yesterday at the bird’s behaviour, with some saying they can’t leave their home for fear of being pecked and chased.
Experts said this is probably because Phil  has become confused, seeing  her as a rival male pheasant.
Sally-Ann Hudson, a medical secretary,  said: “Sometimes I go from one room into another, and he will run round  the outside of the house following my movements. “
“He even tries to get into the house – it’s  like something from a Hitchcock film. 
Residents of Wentnor in Shropshire spoke of their despair yesterday at the bird’s behaviour, with some saying they can’t leave their home for fear of being pecked and chased. More

Dead hamster rises from the grave

England – Over the Easter weekend, one pet in Painswick, England was literally getting  into the holiday spirit – after she rose from the grave on Good Friday.
Tink, a 2-year-old hamster, was found lifeless in her cage by Lisa  Kilbourne-Smith, 23, and her boyfriend James Davis, 24, who were watching her  for a friend, Stroud News and Journal reported.
Believing Tink to be dead, the couple phoned the hamster’s owner about the  news.  They then wrapped the hamster in a paper towel and buried her one  foot below the surface in a flower bed.
The next day, on Good Friday,  Tink had eaten her way out of the paper  towel and dug out of the soil. Tink was discovered by Lisa’s father Les while he was in the garden, crushing  boxes to recycle.
According to veterinarians, it was likely that Tink was hibernating, a common  practice for hamsters. More

Man wants to be reimbursed after dog eats $500

Montana – A Montana man whose 12-year-old golden retriever ate five $100 bills hopes to  be reimbursed by the federal government.
Wayne Klinkel tells the Independent Record that his dog Sundance ate the  bills while he and his wife were on a road trip to visit their daughter.
Klinkel says he carefully picked through the dog’s droppings, and his  daughter recovered more when snow melted.
He says he washed the remnants of the bills and taped them together and sent  them to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing with an  explanation of what happened. More

Baby seal found in forest four miles from sea

Sweden - A baby seal has been discovered in a forest four miles away from the coast by a perplexed walker. A member of the public was strolling through Uppsala in Sweden when they made the shock discovery. Officials are baffled as to how the animal got there. A somewhat confused person called and said he was out walking in the woods where he had found a seal pup. I thought he was joking at first, the local policeman Henrik Pederson said. More

Dog Runs Over Pedestrian With Car

Pennsylvania – Police say a dog that was left in an unattended vehicle pushed it into drive and the car struck a pedestrian in central Pennsylvania.
West York Police say the accident happened shortly before 11:30 a.m. and the pedestrian was found lying in the street.
The York Daily Record reports police say the car had been left running when the dog inside knocked it into gear, causing it to slowly drive away.
Police say the unnamed pedestrian tried to stop the car before it hit a parked truck, but was unsuccessful and was caught between the two vehicles. 

Woman tries to burn snake – Snake burns her house down

BOWIE COUNTY, Texas – Authorities believe a homeowner’s response to finding a snake in her yard may have led to the fire that destroyed her house.
The fire sparked at a home in Bowie County just before 7 p.m.
“While cleaning up, she saw snake, threw gasoline on the snake, lit the snake on fire,” said Deputy Randall Baggett with the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office.
“The snake went into the brush pile and the brush pile caught the home on fire.”
Despite the efforts of several fire departments that responded to the scene, the flames completely engulfed the home.
It is a complete loss.
A neighboring home was also damaged on one side. More

There’s a theater in Russia where all the actors are cats

The Moscow Cat Theater is a traveling circus that showcases cats.
Creative  director Vladimir and his daughter, Maria, train the cats from birth. They have  one cat who continually has litters, yielding them an abundant amount of cats to  work with.
The circus travels around Russia showcasing cats walking on  tightropes, walking across the stage balancing on balls, and walking upside  down.
Vladimir says his wife hates all the cats running around, but he and his  daughter love them.
Maria learns under her father who trains the cats and comes  up with the tricks. Often times they simply get to know the cat, who does  something crazy, and they then train it to continue to do it.
In Russia, the cat theater is a common thing to see, but elsewhere it is very  rare. It is a common misconception that cats are not trainable, and this theater  just proves it’s wrong.

Missing boy, 3, was protected by his dog

South Dakota – A Custer toddler and his loyal sidekick, a pet pit bull, embarked on a backyard adventure but caused a panic when they wandered too far into the hills and prompted an all-out search by authorities.
After the boy, 3, went missing from his home on Little Italy Road in Custer, his mother made a panicked phone call to police.
The boy was missing for nearly an hour before police found him unharmed in the woods and protected by his large brown pit bull.
Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler said after an intense search they came upon the boy, but Wheeler couldn’t go near him because the dog would not allow it. The dog did not become overly aggressive, but Wheeler knew better than to go any closer.
“He was showing me that this was not my area,” said Wheeler. “I know that look.” More

Boy shows mom how to do CPR, saving infant’s life

Georgia – A 9-year-old boy and his 10-year-old friend are being hailed as heroes after helping a woman whose baby stopped breathing. One boy gave instructions on how to CPR while the other boy waited for an ambulance.
Susanna Rohm said that she was holding her 2-month-old son Isaiah in her lap when she realized something was wrong.
“I noticed he looked pale and so I looked at his arm and his leg and they  were limp,” said Rohm. “Then I noticed that he looked like he wasn’t alive.”
Scared and home alone, the Marietta mother couldn’t remember how to give CPR.
She jumped up and lost her cellphone in the commotion. There wasn’t a landline  in the house, so she stepped outside to get help.
Ethan Wilson and Rocky Hurt were tossing a football in a front yard. Rocky then ran over to help.
“He came in and I had my hand on my baby’s chest just screaming and the little boys said, ‘put two fingers on his stomach,’” said Susanna.  ”He  said, ‘press down five times,’ so I did five compressions, and then he said,  ‘breathe in his mouth.’”
After a few minutes little Isaiah belted out a loud cry. An ambulance arrived  moments later.