A experimental medical treatment has a paralyzed dog back on his feet. After discs ruptured in Henry the miniature dachsund’s spine, vets gave him a death sentence, advising British owner Sarah Beech to put her pooch to sleep. But scientists at Cambridge University had other plans. To promote nerve fiber growth, they injected healthy cells from Henry’s nose into his spine, and now the 6-year-old dog is walking and wagging his tail again. If Henry’s success endures, scientists may be able to parlay it into a treatment for humans.
Geoffrey Robinson / Rex
The rumor began in a Pittsburgh bar frequented by aviators: Bo Obama, the presidential pooch, went number two in Air Force One and a flight attendant nearly stepped in it. Bo’s youthful indiscretions, from chewing shoes to inopportune body functions, have been acknowledged in the past. But when The Wall Street Journal contacted the White House press office, they denied the tale—only to be contradicted by multiple sources who refused to recant their accusations. Officially, the Air Force’s 89th Airlift Wing, which includes Air Force One, is not permitted to comment, but an official from Andrews Air Force Base—who noted that the tale was “not as bad as some I’ve heard”—confirmed the tale with two contacts from the 89th. Nonetheless, notes the Journal, “The White House stands by its denial. And Bo isn’t talking.”
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Move over, handbag dogs, you've got competition for the hearts of celebrities. Pigs the size of teacups are being snapped up by the likes of Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint and other celebrities, The Daily Mail reports. Micro-pigs weigh about 9 ounces at birth but grow to be 40-65 pounds and about 12-16 inches tall after two years of growth. The pigs can live up to 18 years; they are clean, quiet, and apparently easy to toilet train. However, due to their popularity, the tiny porkers carry a hefty price tag: about $1,100.
Geoffrey Robinson / Rex
Gaza City’s Marah Land Zoo lost its two zebras to hunger during this year’s Israel-Hamas war. Enter Ahmad Barghouti, a professional painter who dyed two donkeys’ fur into zebra-like stripes, to the delight of children who sometimes enjoy rides on the “zebras'” backs. According to the Associated Press, Marah Land also features a pair of monkeys, an “aging tigress,” and a handful of rabbits, cats, and birds.
Hatem Moussa / AP Photo
A newborn pygmy hippo, scarcely larger than a baby carrot, enjoys a meal of lettuce with his mother at Rotterdam’s Blijdorp Zoo. The endangered pygmy hippo is native to West Africa, where deforestation and hunting has reduced their numbers to fewer than 3,000 in the wild. With an adult height of just over 3 feet, the pygmy hippo is approximately one-fifth the size of common hippo, the only other hippopotamus species in the world.
Ed Oudenaarden, AFP / Getty Images
Looks like someone didn’t get the message that good fences make good neighbors. After two Calgary men scaled a barbed-wire fence and pressed themselves up against 2-year-old Siberian tiger Vitali’s enclosure, Vitali lashed out and mauled one of them. The 27-year-old man suffered “serious” but not life-threatening injuries. It is unclear why the men entered the enclosure, but the mauled man apparently got close enough that Vitali was able to reach through a second wire fence separating them to snag the man with his claws and thrash him. Zoo officials defended the beast: “Vitali has certainly done nothing wrong here. It’s his natural behavior."
Jeff McIntosh, The Canadian Press / AP Photo
In an effort to promote domestic food solutions and reduce reliance on imports, the Bangladeshi government honored farmers for efficient rat-killing at a ceremony last week in Dhaka. The man who killed the most rats—farmer Mokhairul Islam, who poisoned some 83,450 rodents—won a color television. “This is an exciting moment,” Islam said. “I will continue to kill them.” Second-place winner Fakhrul Haque Akanda, photographed here, killed 37,450 rats, mostly with traps, some of which he invented. “These bloody rat are my enemy, they destroy my gardens,” he said. Then men collected the tails of their slain rats for proof.
Pavel Rahman / AP Photo
Talk about dodging a bullet. BC, a 2-year-old tabby cat from rural Mississippi, narrowly avoided death this week when an arrow pierced his forehead and came out the back of his skull—but somehow avoided killing him. Owner Randolph Henderson described finding his penetrated feline: “He was trying to put his head in the food bowl. The arrow was hitting the bowl. It was amazing to me he was living, walking, rubbing, because the arrow looked like it was through his brain.” Henderson’s 50-person Mississippi town appears to have a cat-hunter on the loose: BC is the second cat in recent weeks to survive an arrow injury to the head.
Monroe County Humane Association
