The Wild Bunch in Remuera has Santa and Mrs Claus in store every day until December 24, from 10am to 2pm.
George alive and well; the other cat had a decent send-off
"Last Tuesday there was a knock on our door from a lady who was out walking," a reader writes. "My son followed her across the road to where a black and white cat had been the victim of a
hit and run ... my son called out to me to say our cat, George, had been run over. Hubby and I rushed outside to see poor George bleeding out on the road - sadly we could see the outlook for George was not good. We wrapped George in a towel and the four of us jumped in the car, hubby driving, son navigating and trying to find a night vet and me nursing George in the back seat. The vet confirmed what we already knew. We all agreed the best thing was to put poor George out of his misery. The vet asked if we wanted to see George one last time - no thanks, we wanted to remember him as he was, we said, and arranged for him to be cremated. So we settled up with the vet and went home, all three of us feeling pretty miserable ... Then, while getting ready for bed I hear my son yell out ... there was George lying under the coffee table - alive and well. This was followed by more tears. So it hadn't been George on the road but someone else's cat. And while we haven't found out whose much-loved moggy died that night, we were there to do the right thing by him."
Fingernail fibs
"As a child I was told by the parental that biting my fingernails would make my appendix burst," writes Jo. "At 16 it did - in spectacular fashion. Stomach pains, three months in hospital, couple of surgeries, drains, nearly died ... And then I nearly burst my stitches when I heard the parental ask the surgeon: 'HAD my nail biting caused it?' Don't think they told us another old wives tale again. I believe after the surgeon stopped laughing he said, 'No, fingernails did not cause it to burst'."
Sympathy hard to squeeze from Texas bail magistrates
