Just like humans,
snakes and dogs have their good sides and their bad sides.
Australian Python Breaks Into Charity Shop
Earlier this week, Australian police were mystified at a
crime scene in a charity shop where
there was no sign of a criminal. What they did find at the shop in
Queensland, northeastern Australia, was a huge hole in the ceiling, some
liquid that looked like throw-up, and general chaos throughout the
building.
Eventually the mystery was solved when they discovered a 19-foot python, weighing 37 pounds, lying against a wall.
From
CBS News:
“Its head was the size of a small dog,” Police Sgt. Don Auld said Wednesday.
Before they found the python,
investigators’ working theory was that a human burglar with an appetite
for destruction — and a serious illness — had gone on a rampage inside
the St. Vincent de Paul store in the small town of Ingham.
“We thought a person had fallen through
the ceiling because the roof panel was cut in half,” Auld said. “When
they’ve hit the floor, they’ve vomited and then staggered and fallen
over. That’s what we thought anyway.”
Why this python chose to climb on a roof in the first place remains his secret, but I’m sure he scared himself pretty badly.
The story has a good ending though: a snake catcher was called in to
capture the reptile, which has since been relocated to nearby wetlands.
Ball Python Slithers Out Of Package In French Post Office
Photo Credit: Thinkstock
Pythons are not venomous. They kill by constriction, squeezing their
prey to death, not hard enough to break bones but just enough to stop
the victim’s breathing and blood circulation. Attacks on humans are
rare, but that was probably little comfort to one French post office
worker.
Last Friday evening, a French postal worker was all alone at the post
office in the village of Blenod-les-Pont-a-Mousson in eastern France,
when she felt a live creature rubbing against her legs.
I imagine her screams must have resounded through the village;
firemen came to the rescue, grabbing the snake and discovering a second
one in the package.
For some strange reason, a snake-owner had decided to send two ball
pythons through the French postal system. I don’t know what the
punishment in France is for sending live creatures through the mail, but
I certainly hope that this owner has to pay for his or her cruel act.
The pair were identified as ball pythons, non-aggressive snakes, and
were donated to a local zoo. Let’s hope they receive better treatment
there.
Dogs Peeing Where They Shouldn’t
Photo Credit: Thinkstock
Damn those urinating dogs! They’re dashing the hopes of the citizens
of Henley, England, that the town might win the Britain in Bloom
contest, which is to be judged later this month.
Let me explain: dogs have been
peeing on the cast-iron lampposts
in Henley, thereby causing rust damage at the base of the posts. As a
result, the county council of Oxfordshire, where Henley is located, has
decided that the posts cannot support hanging baskets.
From
UPI.com:
“A lamppost on the riverside, to which
hanging baskets were attached, developed a list, brought about by
rusting at the base,” David Nimmo Smith, Henley’s county councilor, said
in a report to the Town Council. “The county officers have suggested
that the rusting is because this was a favored stopping-off point for
dogs, although I have no evidence to substantiate this.”
And without hanging baskets, there’s no competing in the all-important Britain in Bloom competition.
If it’s not pythons, it’s those pesky dogs causing trouble! Or maybe it’s the owners/guardians who are to blame?
Great
news has trickled out of North Carolina: Eleven bears have been removed
from terrible conditions in gladiator-style bear pits and now inhabit a
new sanctuary home.
