KEY POINTS:
Wayne Houston says his two Burmese cats have been great rat chasers over the years but last week they outdid themselves by bringing a cat-sized rat into the master bedroom at 3am. The rat couldn't be found and the same thing happened the next night, again at 3am.
The next morning Mrs Houston found a chewed apple, but no sign of the vermin. Some time later, Mrs Houston discovered a wet patch in her handbag and closer inspection revealed the monster rat nesting there. After the obligatory screams, the handbag was duly zipped and the rat was released into a nearby reserve. The bag has been retired to the rubbish bin.
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Kathleen Riley of Takapuna: "Who ever distributed the new Auckland Telecom phonebooks was certainly not thinking of his customers' safety. They arrived on our doorstep at about 10am on Good Friday. How about a bright yellow package announcing to everyone that, 'Hey, this house is empty for the long weekend. Come and rob me blind. No one's here to stop you'. By Sunday there were hundreds of these still sitting in front of houses all over the North Shore."
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Biologists at Germany's University of Jena have announced that they are terminating a research project on animal movements after three years because they were tired of waiting for a sloth named Mats to leave his perch. (Source: News of the Weird)
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A 105-year-old Romanian had to go to the doctor for the first time in his life after eating a jar of gherkins past their sell-by date. Tudorica Anghel was told he was very healthy for his age, and that he was probably suffering from indigestion. When doctors tried to access his records they found he had never been to a doctor. Dr Diana Cimpoiescu, who treated Mr Anghel, said: "We did a full examination of him and apart from a bit of weak hearing he has nothing at all wrong with him." (Source: Ananova.com)
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The story about the low-mileage 2000 Toyota Vitz (Echo) for sale at John C Porteous Cars in Kingsland featured in Sideswipe yesterday actually had 78km on the clock, not 78,000km as was stated. That would be about twice around the equator and thus not a low-mileage car at all. The reason for the low mileage? The car was bought by a company that used it to showcase their navigation system, and it was parked in their showroom since new.
