African Grey Parrot Saves Man From Fire

London, March 24, 2006

A parrot was on Friday credited with saving the life of his British owner from fire by mimicking the sound of the smoke alarm and running up and down his legs, according to reports.

Peter Taylor, from Mirfield in the northern county of Yorkshire, had taken out his hearing aids and was asleep when the fire broke out.

Merlin, his African Grey parrot, raised the specially fitted alarm, which he had learned to imitate.

"Sometimes when I am cooking he will come out with the noise," said Taylor. "I have to tell him that there is no fire and he will stop doing it. But he has got it perfect."

Cat hits branch on 80-foot fall from tree

COLUMBIA, S.C., (UPI) -- Piper, a South Carolina cat, ended an eight-day tree sit with an 80-foot fall to the ground but didn't sustain any major injuries.

Piper's owner, Rodney Colvin, said rescuers climbed the tree Monday to get the cat down, but Piper just kept climbing higher.

WLXT-TV reports a thin branch Piper rested on suddenly snapped, sending Piper towards the ground.

He hit a branch on the way down which may have reduced any injuries.

Colvin found Piper hiding under a car and said he looked OK -- but he took him to the vet anyway.

Lost Dog Found After 4 Years

Australia - A four-year search for a missing dog has ended happily after the border collie-cross walked into a house a few kilometres from the Cornish kennels she had escaped from.

The owners, David and Nicola Hunt, who moved more than 500 kilometres to search for their pet, were astounded on Friday after the dog, Holly, turned up. "As soon as I saw her I knew it was Holly," Mr Hunt said. "She came up to me as if she'd been gone for a day. It was a very emotional moment."

The dog escaped from kennels in Liskeard, Cornwall, while the Hunts were on honeymoon in Asia in May 2002. At the time, the couple lived near Manchester and left the dog with Mrs Hunt's parents in Liskeard, who put it in kennels when they went away for a few days.

There were sightings of the dog after its escape but it avoided capture. The Hunts moved to Liskeard to continue the search.

On Thursday, the dog walked into a house in the town. The householders recognised it from the newspaper and called the council.

Chicago Man Saved by His Cat During Fire

By Ralph Zahorik http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun

A cat saved his disabled owner's life during a fire in his home this week.

John Campbell, 37, who is disabled, sleeps in a hospital bed and walks with a cane, was awakened before dawn Wednesday by his 6-year-old cat, Pepper.

"He was jumping up and down on me at 4 in the morning," Campbell said. "I tossed him off three or four times. He started walking all over my face til I got up. When I did, I could smell smoke. I saw flames in the back of my house."

Campbell grabbed Pepper and some clothes and fled his home at 609 N. Chestnut St.

"I ran out the door half naked, put him in my truck and got over to my neighbor's house."

Campbell said Pepper is a great cat. "I've had him since he was a baby," he said.

"That cat definitely saved his life," Young said. "It was persistent. He kept at him until he finally decided to get up."

It wasn't clear if there any working smoke detectors in the house.
Firefighters didn't hear a smoke alarm when they arrived on the scene, Young said.

Campbell lost nearly everything he owned in the fire except for the clothes on his back and his truck. Among the losses was his collection of Warner Brothers' Marvin the Martian figures, a Titanic movie poster autographed by Gloria Stewart and his late grandmother's bedroom set.

The two-story frame house was a total loss. Damage was estimated at $180,000 by the Waukegan Fire Department.

The fire started in the kitchen, said Dan Young, assistant fire chief. Campbell said he was told the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical.

Campbell has lived on Chestnut Street since 1994. "I lost basically everything," he said. "The fire went up the wall, burned out the rear section of the house and burned through through the main support wall."

Campbell went to North Chicago High School and has an associate degree in automotive technology. He does consulting work on automotive mechanics and works on computers. "I build computers," he said.

Another fire in a five-car garage at 20 Noll St., behind a glass store at Noll and Washington streets, at 4 a.m. Tuesday caused about $75,000 in damage, Young said.

The fire was started by a wood-burning stove in the garage. A stove vent was too close to a wall or a ceiling, Young said.

High winds that morning fanned the fire.

Canadian Woman Places Personal Ad for Her Parrot

CBC News

A woman in New Brunswick has placed a personal ad in a local flyer, hoping to find a mate for her lovesick parrot.

The ad in the pet listings of the Buyer Flyer reads: "11-year-old blue-fronted Amazon lady seeks like gentleman for long-term relationship. The love of my life says he's not the same species and it just won't work."

Susan Weatherby said her parrot, Abbie, has hit sexual maturity and is ready for a male in her life.

But Abbie's just looking for love in all the wrong places. She seems to have fallen hard for Weatherby's father, Marvin.

Weatherby said the infatuation is so bad that Abbie makes "wild vocalizations" when she recognizes the sound of his car in the driveway, displaying her tail feathers and squawking her approval whenever Marvin comes near.

"I literally, when my father's around, can't get near her because she lunges at me," said Weatherby. "She's protecting her mate."

The bird seems to like her men with considerably less plumage than normal, Weatherby notes. She's gaga over Marvin's bald head.

"He'll ask her for a kiss and bend his head in front of her and she will actually lean over and very gently open her mouth, stick her tongue out and give him a kiss on the top of the head," said Weatherby.

Police Rescue Moose Tangled in Swingset

MILAN, N.H. - It was a tempting green hedgerow for the hungry young moose. Somehow, a child's swingset got in the way. The moose, who was trying to snack on a backyard hedge Thursday, got tangled in the swingset's chains. The homeowner called police for help.

Lt. Jean LeBlanc decided he needed backup, so he called Don Valliere, maintenance man for the Berlin Police, and asked him to bring a pair of bolt cutters.

It was up to Valliere, 54, to free the moose. Photos snapped by LeBlanc show Valliere balanced on a beam of the swingset, snipping the chains — just a couple of feet from the 400-pound adolescent moose.



"It didn't like the idea too much that I stayed close to it, but it stayed calm," Valliere said Friday. "The only thing I was nervous about was getting bit."

The rescue went smoothly and the moose was freed. It left without looking back.

"It just real slow, just walked away," Valliere said.

Cat And Orangutan Hit It Off

Hector Duarte Jr. - All Headline News Staff Reporter

Panama City Beach, FL (AHN) – Tondalayo, a 45-year-old Sumatran Orangutan, and T.J., a stray tabby cat are inseparable since being introduced last year.

Stephanie Willard, Education Director at Zoo World in Panama City Beach, says Tondalayo was depressed after his companion died two years ago.

Willard stumbled onto the cat and decided to introduce the two. Zookeepers have named the cat T.K., for “Tondalayo’s Kitty.” They play together, as well as sleeping and cuddling every night.

They have been together round the clock for over a month.

Willard says, "It's an unbelievable match. This has worked out a lot better than I expected it to. She's got brighter eyes now. He's brought a lot of light to her. He's perked up Tonda more than anything."

Dock-Jumping Becoming Popular New Dog Sport

Dock-jumping is really catching on in the western United States, but what is it?

It basically is a traveling competition in which dogs run down a dock and jump as far as they can into a large pool of water while trying to catch a chew toy. (The record is more than 28 feet.)

Tony Reed, whose day job is in long-distance sales at AT&T, also runs a business called Splash Dogs. "People love watching dogs, and this really catches their attention," said Reed, who will stage the first Arizona Splash Dogs contest at this weekend's International Sportsmen's Exposition at the Arizona State Fairgrounds.

Reed's interest in the event began in northern California when he learned that his puppy, a black Lab named Sierra, loved to jump off docks.

Then he saw a dock-jumping contest on ESPN, and he has been hooked ever since.

He built his own portable dock and pool, which he trucks around the West and stages about 20 events a year.

He said he expects as many as 75 dogs to compete in the Phoenix event.

Information: SplashDogs.com.

Cat Saves Couple from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

By Maria Croce, http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/

When Ian and Sheila Wallace dozed off in their living room, they didn't realize they were being slowly poisoned by deadly fumes from their faulty gas fire.

Then the couple's pet cat Felix started tapping the edge of the fire with his paws, waking them with the noise - and saving their lives.

The Wallaces suffered carbon monoxide poisoning when pigeons fell down their chimney and blocked the air cycle from their gas fire, which also hadn't been fitted correctly.

The fumes weren't filtering properly and deadly carbon monoxide fumes had been seeping into the couple's living room.

They fell into a deep sleep from the deadly fumes when, luckily, Sheila was woken by their cat Felix tapping his paws on the edge of the faulty fire.

The noise roused Sheila and she then woke her husband, and realized something must be wrong with the fire.

Sheila said: "If it hadn't been for the cat we might have been dead. He was a rescue cat and he ended up rescuing us.

"I remember dozing off and the cat started throwing itself at the edge of the fire. He could hear a pigeon that had fallen down the chimney and was tapping the front with his paws. The noise woke me up, then I woke up my husband.

"I hate to think what might have happened if the cat hadn't been in.

Ian added: "The fire hadn't been working properly and we'd called someone out to mend it. It turned out they hadn't replaced it properly. Pigeons had also got into the chimney and restricted the air flow. We'd been nodding off in the living room, but we put it down to old age. It turns out it was the carbon monoxide."

Now Ian and Sheila have a carbon monoxide detector. "It's such a relief we're okay," said Ian.

Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer because you can't see it, hear it, smell it or taste it.

Dog is included in sale of house

SCOTT CITY, Mo. - Perhaps Rocky has a nose for real estate. The dog is credited with sealing a home sale in Missouri.

Jared and Whittnie Essner met Rocky while house-hunting in Scott City, Mo., and knew they'd found their home -- and their new dog.

It turns out the seller couldn't keep Rocky, so as part of the deal, the little guy went with the house.

The realtor says she's never seen a contract like it: "Rocky was in black and white under personal property to stay."

The former owner has visitation rights whenever he wants to see the pooch.