A boy's dog is a true guardian Angel

From Mail Online:

A golden retriever called Angel is being hailed a hero after it stopped a mountain lion from attacking an 11-year-old boy.

The 18-month-old dog stepped between the big cat and the youngster during a dramatic encounter in western Canada.

Police, who later shot the cougar dead, credited Angel for saving the Austin Foreman's life.

He had gone to retrieve some firewood outside his family's home in Boston Bar, about 150 miles north-east of Vancouver.

That's when the mountain lion charged across the yard at the boy.

'I was really scared. At first, I didn't know it was a cougar. I thought it was another dog,' Austin told CTV News on Sunday.

'As soon as it went underneath the light, I saw that it was a cougar. I knew at that moment, I had to go inside.'

Angel, who had been at Austin's side, attacked the big cat.

Austin ran into the house and screamed: 'A cougar is eating Angel!'

Mrs Forman said she had to get Austin to repeat himself a few times because he was so shaken.

When she looked out the window, Mrs Foreman couldn't see anything but she could hear Angel wimpering.

'To feel so helpless, I knew I couldn't do anything,' she said.

She called her father-in-law, who told her to call the police.

Royal Canadian Mountain Police Constable Chad Gravelle was nearby and was on scene within a minute.

The officer found the cougar under the back porch and heard the dog cry out as the cougar chewed its neck, police said.

He fired two rounds into the cougar's rear end, but the cat continued its attack.

The officer closed to within five feet and shot the mountain again, killing it.

Even after it was dead, the cat's jaws were clenched on Angel's face.

Angel was silent for a few moments but then took in a big gasp of air and got up.

Forman said Angel was recovering with a local vet. The dog has numerous puncture wounds around her head and neck, as well as a swollen eye.

Mrs Forman said before the attack, Austin had come into the house to tell the family how cute it was that Angel had been following him around.

'She must've known something was up,' Forman said.

Last week, when Angel was frolicking in the snow, family members called her a 'snow angel,' the mother said.

'Now, she's our guardian angel.'

When chimps go bad

From The AP:

Travis the chimpanzee, a veteran of TV commercials, was the constant companion of a lonely Connecticut widow who fed him steak, lobster and ice cream. He could eat at the table, drink wine from a stemmed glass, use the toilet, and dress and bathe himself.

He brushed his teeth with a Water Pik, logged on to a computer to look at photos and channel-surfed television with the remote control.

But on Monday, the wild animal in him came out with a vengeance.

The 200-pound animal viciously mauled a friend of his owner before being shot to death by police.

Investigators are trying to figure out why — whether it was a bout of Lyme disease, a reaction to drugs, or a case of instinct taking over.

In recordings of calls to 911 dispatchers released Tuesday, Travis' grunts can be heard as a frantic Herold cries that her pet is "eating" Nash and must be killed. The attack lasted about 12 minutes.

"The chimp killed my friend!" says a sobbing Herold, who was hiding in her vehicle. "Send the police with a gun. With a gun!"

The dispatcher later asks, "Who's killing your friend?"

"My chimpanzee!" she cries. "He ripped her apart! Shoot him, shoot him!"

After police arrive, one officer radios back: "There's a man down. He doesn't look good," he says, referring to Nash. "We've got to get this guy out of here. He's got no face."

Police said that Travis was agitated earlier Monday and that Herold had given him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea. Police said the drug had not been prescribed for the 14-year-old chimp.

In humans, Xanax can cause memory loss, lack of coordination, reduced sex drive and other side effects. It can also lead to aggression in people who were unstable to begin with, said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chief of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

"Xanax could have made him worse," if human studies are any indication, Coccaro said.

Stephen Rene Tello, executive director of Primarily Primates, a sanctuary for chimps in Texas, said it is difficult to say what effect Xanax would have on a chimp, but he noted that chimps and humans have similar physiology.

Investigators said they were also told that Travis had Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness with flu-like symptoms that can lead to arthritis and meningitis in humans.

"Maybe from the medications he was out of sorts," Stamford police Capt. Richard Conklin said.

Worms are smarter than you think

From Yahoo News:

Worms Do Calculus to Find Food

Like humans with a nose for the best restaurants, roundworms also use their senses of taste and smell to navigate. And now, researchers may have found how a worm's brain does this: It performs calculus.

Worms calculate how much the strength of different tastes is changing - equivalent to the process of taking a derivative in calculus - to figure out if they are on their way toward food or should change direction and look elsewhere, says University of Oregon biologist Shawn Lockery, who thinks humans and other animals do the same thing.

Like human visual systems that respond to the presence and absence of light, Lockery and colleagues found that when the left neuron fires as salt concentrations increase, the roundworm continues crawling in the same direction. The right neuron responds when salt concentrations decrease, and the worm turns in search of a saltier location.

Lockery said this is similar to a game of hot-and-cold with a child. But there is one key difference: the worm doesn't need an observer to say if it's getting closer to or farther from the target - the worm calculates the change by itself.

Observing the worm responding to changes in concentration suggested an experiment to see if the worm's brain computes derivatives. The mathematical concept of a derivative indicates the rate at which something, such as salt concentration, changes at a given point in time and space. So Lockery tried to verify that these neurons recognize changes in salt concentration and then tell the worm where food is and where it is not.

Soon to don robotic suits, battle evil, go by the name Jim....

Police confront white rabbit

From Germany:

Mysterious tapping noises late on Tuesday night caused residents in an apartment building in Wetter in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to alarm police, who broke into the empty apartment only to find an albino rabbit amusing himself in his cage, police reported on Wednesday.

The inhabitants of the flat were out of town, so neighbours were concerned when they heard thumping noises and alerted the authorities, fearing an intruder. Police said they heard the noises upon arrival, and were particularly alarmed when the enigmatic being behind the door reacted to their verbal inquiries with angry thumping.

I've heard of bats in the belfry, but this is a new one.

From the Telegraph:

Teenager finds baby bat in her bra

Abbie Hawkins, a hotel receptionist, thought her mobile phone was ringing when she felt vibrations coming from her clothes.

But she later discovered the tiny creature tucked away in the padded pocket of her underwear.

As staff and colleagues crowded around, Miss Hawkins, 19, produced the frightened bat, which was the size of her hand.

"I keep thinking how could I have not known it was there?" Miss Hawkins said. "I will certainly be checking my bras every morning from now on."

Jaime Eastham, of the Bat Conservation Trust, said they had never heard of a bat being found in a bra before.

But she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe.

Dark and safe indeed.

The dog ate my homework. Then a snake ate the dog.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332913,00.html

A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.

The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.

"It actively stalked the dog for a number of days," Douglas said.

"The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog's bed, which was a sign it was out to get it," he added.

"They should have called me then, but (the snake) got away and three or four days later, I was called and went around and removed it" after the dog had been killed, Douglas said.

By the time Douglas arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its hind legs and tail.

If a snake is seen going after your dog a few days before the dog is eaten, I think you shoot the snake. Oh that's right, you probably can't the gun you need for that in Australia. Hrmmmm.

Something squirrely going on here.