Volume 3, Issue 8, August 2009 Journalism as never before  

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Weird Wildlife

Clever Puss

 

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Weird WildlifeA few weeks back the Guardian Newspaper reported on a study involving string and bits of fish that seemed to cast doubt on feline intelligence. For those of you who are interested you can find out more about the study from the following link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jun/16/psychologist-test-outsmarts-cats - though it had to be said that when we read the article, we came to the conclusion that the study said more about the intelligence of psychologists than it did about cats. Be that as it may. However, we are happy to report that it didn’t take long for our furry friends to redress the balance. In July results of a study carried out at Sussex University came up with the earth-shattering finding that cats are able to manipulate their owners. Apparently, cats frequently use a special type of ‘solicitation purr’ that makes their owners get out of bed in the morning to go and feed them. According to researcher Karen McComb “"When you hear this purr, you find it difficult to ignore, you find it annoying but you are not really consciously aware of why that is".

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Weird WildlifeMoving rapidly on….From Devon comes the heart warming tale of Casper the commuting cat. For months now, Casper has been taking a regular round - trip on the Number 3 service from his home in Plymouth. A spokesperson for Bus company First said that Casper queues politely at the bus stop, gently pads onto the bus along with other passengers, and then curls up on a seat for the duration of the journey. Casper is now so well known on the bus route that all the local drivers know which stop to let him off at when Casper finally decides it’s time to go home. Aaah….

Sun and Moon

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Weird WildlifeAnd now - a couple of human interest stories. On the grounds of running the risk of unfairly reinforcing cultural stereotypes, we debated whether it was a good idea to include the following item - but it just had to be done! The travel firm Thomas Cook is giving clients the opportunity to pre-book their sun loungers as part of their Mediterranean holiday packages. At the moment, this offer is only available to clients who book their holidays from Germany. Nine hotels in Turkey, Egypt and the Canary Islands have so far signed up to the scheme. For a weekly rate of 49 Euros per room a family can book one lounger per person along with a beach umbrella and table. According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, one of Thomas Cook’s German based managers, Peter Fankhauser, said that "With this we're relieving our clients of early morning stress". He also said that he too found it "really tiresome" on holiday to be sent out by his wife early in the morning to place beach towels on the desired poolside loungers. There are various comments we might make, but we think it is infinitely wiser to say nothing at all at this point.

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Weird WildlifeNever let it be said that we are not even handed. So here we bring you an example of what can only be described as barking mad Englishness. You will be pleased to know that a lost lump of cheese that was fired into space as part of the moon landing anniversary celebrations has now been found. Apparently the 300kg block of cheddar was attached to a weather balloon and sent into the stratosphere from Pewsey in Wiltshire. It drifted upwards reaching a height of 30km above sea level. Initially it was hoped that the helium balloon that the cheese was attached to would burst and send the cheese back down to earth. What happened next isn’t clear, but it would seem that the balloon’s GPS system broke down and the cheese disappeared off the radar - until a resident of Cressex Buckinghamshire found it in their back garden and handed it in to High Wycombe police station. Whereupon Dom Lane, of Shepton Mallet's West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers group collected the cheese and then drove it home. He told the BBC: “I may try a bit to see if it has matured at high altitude and then it will probably go into a glass case at our production offices."

Sex Toys for Dogs!

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Weird WildlifeWe’re not sure whether this story fits into the category of animal welfare or is just plain perverted. Whatever the case, it’s certainly intriguing and bizarre, though perhaps a little risqué for a family publication such as the Bugle (and we recommend approaching Google searches relating to this item with extreme caution!). The world’s first sex doll for dogs has recently been launched at the 8th Pet South America, which took place at the Transamerica Expo Center in São Paulo Brazil.

The soft rubber ‘easy clean’ female canine has been designed to relieve the sexual frustration that is experienced by some dogs and thus improve their quality of life. Now we really, really don’t want to go into too much detail here, but Marco Giroto, owner of the PetSmiling company (which is ‘responsible’ for creating and marketing the product) explained the rationale behind this unusual toy as follows: “I had the idea to make this doll when my Maltese started to grab everybody’s legs. I did some research and couldn’t find anything like it [ed: now there’s a surprise]. I decided to make it!”