What’s an Octopig?
When my friend’s brother was younger, he had a cat called Scallywag, a tom cat. One holiday, they were driving round a roundabout in Birmingham (not sure if that was the final destination of their holiday – I shall resist all other comments) and Scallywag made a bid for freedom through the slightly open back window. Despite driving round the roundabout for the next few hours and combing the surrounding area, Scallywag was not to be found. The dejected family were about to carry on their way, when suddenly the cat was spotted! Elated, they grabbed the moggy and shut it firmly in the car.
Six months later, and Scallywag had all but forgotten about his run in with a roundabout in Brum. Until he went to the vet that is, and the vet told his family that this wasn’t Scallywag, or if it was, the time he went missing on the roundabout had resulted in a sex change – Scallywag was now a lady cat! So not only had the family abandoned the cat to the elements in Birmingham, they had also unwittingly cat-napped someone else’s cat and moved it halfway across the country.
Mistaken identity seems to be a regular issue for cats (well, they all look the same to me). A friend who lives in Brighton had recently noticed a missing cat poster near their house. So when a black cat with a nick in its ear appeared in their yard looking lost, they thought it was the cat on the poster, as it fitted the description perfectly. They lured it inside with a can of tuna and phoned up the number on the poster. “Does the cat have grey flecks in its tail?” they were asked? It did – turns out that wasn’t the missing cat, but in fact a cheeky impostor cat who was cashing in on the other cat’s misfortune by looking lost and eating lots of food that it was being supposedly lured in by, and then causing missing cat’s owners disappointment every time they got a call about it.
Another friend tells the tragic story of the demise of her childhood pet guinea pig Elliot. The family decided to get Elliot a guinea pig friend to keep him company, but had been warned off another male pig by the vet, as he said they’d fight. Unfortunately the pet shop was all out of lady pigs, so they decided to get a female rabbit instead. All was well, until a trip to the vet revealed that Jess the rabbit was in fact a male rabbit, at which point his name was changed to Jesse. What happened next you wonder – do male rabbits fight with male guinea pigs? Maybe, but not in Jesse’s case. In fact, he took rather a liking to Elliot, so much so that, in the sensitive words of my friend’s mum to her seven year old daughter, “Jesse bonked Elliot to death”. My friend is still traumatised by this event, so I’m not laughing about it, honest.
Jack Russells are always a source of amusing news stories, such as Candy the dog who went fishing with her owner Elwyn Thomas, but as he cast-off she jumped up taking the bait hook, line and sinker. She was rushed to vet Richard Gibson in Llanelli and an x-ray showed the two inch (5cm) steel hook stuck inside her. Rather than operate he prescribed a diet of banana sandwiches to let nature take its course and two days later the problem was solved. See here for full story.
Ooh and look here for a story about a jack Russell that can horse ride!
Oh and who spotted the recent story about the piglet born in Croatia with six legs and two penises? It’s like some sort of joke – what did they call it? Octopig of course!
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