(Video Link)

We’ve shown videos of the Big Cat Rescue group before, but one thing left out of their usual videos are all the tiny cats and the non-cat species living on the organization’s property.

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

The poor fellow in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia got his head stuck between two power lines. But linemen swooped in and rescued him.

Link -via Blame It on the Voices

When big storms hit the coast, adult seals can swim through the rough seas, but little guys often end up abandoned on the beach. Fortunately, the RSPCA is there to help treat them and care for them until the cool weather recedes. Best of all, we’re left with dozens of adorable baby seal pictures to cheer us up during these cold months.

Link Via Discovery

Unfortunately for the man, there were yet more problems in store. Police also spotted that he had been siphoning off waste oil from his car into the sewer at the time.

Disposing of waste oil in this way is an offence in France, with serious cases risking up to two years in prison and a fine of €76,000 ($97,000).

The moral of the story: if you do something illegal, don’t get caught with your head in a sewer. Link -via Arbroath

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department was alerted and Vial’s co-workers and volunteer rescuers drove surrounding roads in search of the Toyota.

One searcher drove 41 miles along Kougarok Road — just a few miles from where Vial sat shivering and stranded in his pickup — but saw no tracks. The searcher turned back as daylight disappeared and the road conditions worsened, Handeland said.

Troopers joined the search. Rescuers looked for Vial on the ground and from the air, in planes and from a helicopter.

“When we get called on situations like this, it’s a needle in a haystack,” said Jim West Jr., a Nome fire department captain and search and rescue coordinator.

For Vial, the cold was worse than the hunger, he said. Still he scoured the pickup in vain for food.

His only provisions: Snow, and a few cans of Coors Light that had frozen solid in the cab.

Vial ate the beers like cans of beans. “I cut the lids off and dug it out with a knife,” he said.

Vial lost 16 pounds, but showed no signs of frostbite. Link -via Breakfast Links

There, steel saws were used to gain access and the mewing prisoner was revealed – as nothing more than a squeaky toy.

Kelvin Owen, who owns the engineering firm, said: ‘Once we got into the bin we heard the miaowing – it sounded just like a cat and we all started to carefully search the bags.

‘Then I found a bag of toys and picked out a toy. I said: “It couldn’t be this, could it?” As I held it it went “miaow, miaow”. Mystery solved!’

The sounds came from a talking plush toy resembling Marie from the Disney movie The Aristocats. Rescuers had a good laugh at the 12-hour effort to rescue the toy. Puss Puss is still missing, but may have been taken in by someone unaware of the search. Link -via Arbroath

“That night he seemed to know what was going on and came looking for me to help.

“He’s never been in my bedroom before in the eight years I’ve had him, but he came up the stairs, climbed on the bed and started talking to me in my own voice with the words “come on, come on”, which I often say to Sally.

“I wondered what on earth was going on and took Sam back downstairs to his perch, but then he looked at me and squawked.

“It was then I looked in the kitchen and saw the puppies. One had died and the other five boys were all very, very cold and wet. I quickly got the heat pads out for them and got them next to a radiator, and luckily they’re now doing well.

Sam is 18 years old and is able to mimic several of the family member’s voices. Link -via Arbroath

Firefighters and deputies said they are not sure why, but the man climbed into a narrow hole located near the base of the tree. The hole led inside the hollow tree trunk and about four or five feet underground, said Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion of the Orange County Fire Authority.

It took firefighters about 90 minutes to get the necessary equipment and safely cut through the branches of the tree to free the man from inside, he said.

The only body parts visible outside the tree truck were the man’s head and arms, he said. Part of the body was underground.

The man was checked for injuries and mental health. Link -via Arbroath

Sergei Ganyushev, a 25-year-old from Arkhangelsk, Russia, was stranded on an island in the White Sea only 150 kilometers from the Arctic Circle for 16 days. He set out along on October first to gather seaweed, but his boat sprang a leak.

Sergei managed to swim to Malaya Sennukha, one of the small stony islets dotting the area. There he survived on seaweed and rainwater, taking shelter in a makeshift dwelling of stones and a few wooden planks.

He said he gave up looking for passing ships three days before rescue and was about to take his own life when the helicopter flew overhead. When he heard the rotor, he managed to get up and wave down the aircraft.

Curiously, no one had reported Sergei missing. The helicopter was looking for survivors from another seafaring incident, in which a motorboat with a monk and a worker from a nearby Orthodox Christian monastery sank in the vicinity of the archipelago last Thursday.

The monk was found dead, but the search continues for his companion. Ganyushev was treated for hypothermia and malnutrition. Link -via Arbroath

“This train-like noise came through the fence and dove right into the pool,” said Trapotsis.

The moose fell right through the pool cover, according to Trapotsis. “He tore the cover, got entangled and just couldn’t move,” Trapotsis said. Trapotsis said his first concern was keeping the animal alive and freeing it from the cover.

At about midnight the rescue of the moose was underway. With a rope attached to the moose, nine men pulled the animal out of the water.

“I didn’t get trained on how to do this, that’s for sure,” said Jack Pushee of New Hampshire Fish and Game. “There’s a first for everything.”

The moose then wandered off into the woods, appearing to be unharmed. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

I couldn’t believe it… they were going to send up Rangers Jeff Webb, and Dave Pope, on the end of a 100ft line hanging from the bottom of the NPS Fire chopper, and somehow have the climbers pull them into the belay!  I have never seen such a mission on an EC rescue as the chopper would be awfully close to the face and it isn’t that easy to pull people hanging on a rope 30 or so feet into a stance.  The late afternoon light was fading fast so they send the chopper, flown brilliantly by Richard Shatto, up to take a look and judge if the wind conditions were within limits.

After the initial flight the Rangers were attached to the long line and the mission was on.  The chopper lifted up and the men were soon riding the rocket to the face of ElCap!  Impressive to say the least!

Evans took plenty of breathtaking photographs of the rescue operation. Oh yeah, the thumb was surgically reattached. Link -via Metafilter

Barbara Simmons, 78, fell on the side of the road while checking her mail on a hot day earlier this month.

She said she yelled for help but no one came to her rescue for at least a half hour.  Thor, a dog with a heroic name, noticed Simmons and went to check it out.

“He was just so gentle and like, ‘are you okay, are you okay?’” explained Simmons.  “It was like somebody asking, ‘are you okay, are you okay?’”

Thor’s owners said he was acting strangely that day, ignoring their commands.

“He ran to this point and he stopped and looked back at my husband and barked at him a couple of times like, ‘I’m not going to listen to you,’ and he took off right around the corner,” said owner Anne Lewis.

Thor led his owners to Simmons nearly a block away.  They called for help and the EMT told Lewis that Thor probably saved her life.

Link -via Fortean Times

Scottish SPCA Inspector Kerry Kirkpatrick contacted the farmer after being alerted to the cow’s plight.

He said: “When the job came through my first thought was, this is a wind up, but I arrived at the field to find the cow looking confused but surprisingly calm despite having his head wedged tightly in between the rungs of the ladder.

“The farmer’s family rounded up the whole herd into a holding pen and we managed to gently pull the ladder off the cow’s head.

Link -via Fortean Times

Doctors were worried that Tom may never walk again, but just two months later he’s moving around. He says he drew strength from Chelse who, seven years ago, also had to learn to walk all over again,

“Our vet had said, “you know that she had broken her back,’” said Tom.

They never thought Chelse could walk again. Tom says that if she can do it, why can’t he?

“[She] basically said, ‘don’t you quit.’ Anyway, I won’t,” said Tom.

With video. Link -via Arbroath

Summer had fallen down a four-foot window well and landed in the basement, which was not constructed with a walk-out door.

“We thought of bringing her up the basement stairs,” Heap said. “But the stairs didn’t look safe enough to support her weight.”

A veterinarian sedated Summer, who sustained minor cuts and injuries in the fall, and a coring company was contacted to cut into the foundation of the home. The initial plan was to expose an area around a second window well, remove a portion of the foundation and create enough space to bring the horse out of the basement, Heap said.

When the crew had removed enough material around the window, Summer walked out on her own. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Elbert County Sheriff’s Office)

“We have never had anything like that before, though we have found sheep in some difficult places.

“It was running back and forward on the roof, but eventually it must have realised how many firefighters were there trying to get it down and thought, I’d better come down now, I think.

The sheep was absolutely fine and not harmed at all, and it was certainly an interesting call-out, it’s not where you’d expect to find a sheep, really quite funny.

“It brightened up our weekend, that’s for sure.”

The sheep was back on the ground about 40 minutes after the fire crew arrived. Link -via Arbroath

Horton was knocked unconscious. When he woke up, he couldn’t move and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Yogi was at his side.

For the next 45 minutes, Horton pleaded with the 85-pound dog to go home and get help. Yogi didn’t want to leave. Horton couldn’t yell, and he was out of sight of passers-by, about 100 feet from a dead-end street.

Finally, Yogi headed back to the main road, where Horton’s neighbors Bruce and Maggie Tate were walking. The normally mellow dog barked frantically. The Tates knew something was wrong and followed Yogi to Horton. There, Yogi stood protectively by his friend.

“It’s pretty amazing that Yogi first stayed with Paul when he needed to, then recognized us and came to get us,” Bruce Tate said. “Paul was in desperate shape. He wasn’t in a place where there’s a lot of traffic.”

Doctors found that Horton’s vertebrae had pinched his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. They credit Yogi with saving Horton’s life. Horton has since regained some sensation, and has limited use of his arms. And Yogi is still his best friend. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Ralph Barrera/American-Statesman)

How she came to be flying over the nursing home is explained by the deep talon marks in her back and sides, showing she was probably the unwilling passenger of a hungry eagle that had picked her up but eventually found her 18 pounds too much to hold on to.

May, her ribs broken, her body lacerated, was found by nursing staff May 2 and delivered to the Sunshine Coast SPCA.

The fall injured her, says BC SPCA official Lorie Chortyk, but the whole unnerving ordeal likely saved her life.

May showed signs of longtime neglect, including rotted teeth and claws that were growing into her paw pads. She is recovering after medical intervention by the SPCA, but the Society needs donations to pay for her care. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: SPCA)

A deer fell through the ice covering a frozen lake. A helicopter pilot came in close to observe and reasoned that he could use the force generated by his blades to blow the deer onto the ice and to the shore. And he was right!

via reddit

“I actually thought I almost had it and then I hit my ribs and I couldn’t go any further. I could not go up. I could not go down,” said Michoud.

She says out of the 50 or so people passing by where she was wedged to the waist in the sunroof, many stopped, but it wasn’t to help her.

“They were taking pictures, they were filming, they were laughing,” said Michoud.

It took firefighters using a portable airbag to finally get her out.

Michoud was checked out at an emergency room and went home with bruises to her ribs and back. Link -via Arbroath

Through emails and Internet research it was established that the owner of the dogs was a breeder in Minami Soma. The group contacted the Fukushima city branch of the Japan Collie Club, tracked the owner down by phone at a shelter and got her go-ahead to rescue the dogs.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, seven volunteers left Tokyo and drove over broken roads and past demolished houses to meet three other volunteers in the ghost town that Minami Soma has become. Some had prepared radiation suits and others wore simple vinyl raincoats.

The group found the dogs waiting for their owner. A few ran off, but the group was able to remove twenty dogs from the area. Some of the dogs are being boarded at a veterinary clinic; others at the homes of volunteers. See more pictures at the MSNBC Photoblog. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Tamiko Nakamura/Sheltie Rescue)

It took lifeguards about 30 minutes to rig a series of rescue ropes. A female lifeguard then rappelled about a third of the way down the 500-foot cliff to an exposed ledge, where the very exposed 27-year-old woman was stuck.

After hooking up the young woman in a rescue harness, the lifeguard helped her rappel to the beach several hundred feet below, where she was provided with clothing. The entire operation took about an hour from start to finish.

The young woman was unharmed, Luque said. She will not be charged for the rescue, he added.

However, the unidentified woman was ticketed for disregarding signs and entering a restricted area. Link (with partially blurred video) -via Arbroath

The kitten was brought in by MAS animal control officer Raymond Thomas on Monday, and was immediately taken to the veterinary staff, Gulbe said.

An initial attempt was made by veterinary assistant Brenda Keel to remove the can, but the kitten started crying. He was sedated and a pair of bolt-cutters were used to cut the can off of his head.

Gulbe said the kitten was also hypothermic and received medical attention to stabilize his condition.

Staff named the kitten “Campbell.”

Campbell, who cleaned up well, is now up for adoption. Link -via Fark

(Image credit: Metro Animal Services)

Regardless of how he came across this equipment (borrowing, stealing, buying, beating up a Yakuza SCUBA diving demolitions expert, etc.) Hideaki threw on his underwater survival gear, rushed into the goddamned tsunami, and dove beneath the rushing waves, determined to rescue his wife or die trying. I’m not exactly sure whether or not the dude even knew how to operate SCUBA equipment, but according to one version of his story he met his wife while he was surfing (which is awesome, by the way), so it doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to say that he already had a little experience SCUBA diving under a more controlled situation. Of course, even if this dude didn’t know how to work the gear I’m certain that wouldn’t have stopped him either – Hideaki wasn’t going to let a pair of soul-crushing natural disasters deter him from doing awesome shit and saving his family. He dove down into the water, completely submerged in the freezing cold, pitch black rushing current on all sides, and started swimming through the underwater ruins of his former hometown.

Surrounded by incredible hazards on all sides, ranging from obscene currents capable of dislodging houses from their moorings, sharp twisted metal that could easily have punctured his oxygen line (at best) or impaled him (at worst), and with giant f***ing cars careening through the water like toys, he pressed on. Past broken glass, past destroyed houses, past downed power lines arcing with electrical current, through undertow that could have dragged him out to sea never to be heard from again, he searched.

Hideaki maintained his composure and navigated his way through the submerged city, finally tracking down his old house. He quickly swam through to find his totally-freaked-out wife, alone and stranded on the upper level of their house, barely keeping her head above water. He grabbed her tight, and presumably sharing his rebreather with her, dragged her out of the wreckage to safety. She survived.

Hideaki wasn’t finished, though. His mother was still missing. Read the rest of the story at Badass of the Week. Warning: lots of strong language. Link -via reddit

Sixty-year-old Hiromitsu Shinkawa was found floating on the roof of his house ten miles from the coast of Japan, two days after the tsunami hit his town of Minami Soma.

Incredibly, he was spotted by a maritime self-defence force destroyer taking part in the rescue effort as he clung to the wreckage with one hand and waved a self-made red flag with the other. He had been at sea for two days.

Reports said that on being handed a drink aboard the rescue boat, Shinkawa gulped it down and immediately burst into tears. His wife, with whom he had returned home as the tsunami approached, is still missing.

He was quoted as saying: “No helicopters or boats that came nearby noticed me. I thought that day was going to be the last day of my life.”

Officials said Shinkawa was in good condition after being taken to hospital by helicopter.

Link -via Arbroath

Realising it was coming from the area where her husband was hunting for squirrels she grabbed the nearest ‘weapon’ – the wooden ladle – and rushed into the nearby forest.

Staring in horror at the sight of her husband fighting desperately to prevent the tiger tearing him to pieces, she didn’t hesitate and charged at the animal, yelling at the top of her voice and bashing its head with the ladle until it ran off.

Tambun, who suffered deep lacerations on his head, face, neck and knees, had to wait more than 10 hours before he could be taken to hospital in the nearest town, Gerik, because rescuers had difficulty reaching his remote village.

Link -via Arbroath

“She’s not just a dog,” Tatiyana Balashova told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “She’s not a pure bred, but she’s still very special.”

Balashova who usually feeds stray dogs in Krasnoyarsk was the person who reacted to Naida’s alert.

“I heard Naida barking on the pond bank, like she was calling for help. She saw me, ran up, looked at me and ran back to the pond…”

Balashova quickly realised that a child had fallen into the water and rushed to find help from utility service workers, who were luckily close at hand.

“Because of the fact the boy was taken out of water pretty quickly and due to medics’ professionalism, this story had a happy end for Andrei, without any serious consequences,” Vladimir Fokin, the chief doctor at the hospital Andrei was admitted to, told KP.

Andrei spent a few days in the hospital recovering, and is now in satisfactory health. Naida has been adopted by a family that lives 500 km away. The canine adoption was arranged before the near-drowning incident, and the new owners are particularly proud of Naida’s heroism. Link -via Arbroath

Anyone interested in fostering or adopting a lab beagle should be aware of the challenges these dogs have. They will not be accustomed to life in a home and will not have experience with children, cats, or other dogs. They will not be house-trained and accidents will happen, although they learn quickly. Many have gone directly from a commercial breeder to the lab, and have never felt grass under their feet or even seen the sun. They will have been fed a special diet formulated for lab animals and may be difficult to adjust to new foods. They will be unfamiliar with treats, toys, bedding and may never have walked on a leash. They will have lived in cages with steel wire floors and may have inflamed or infected paws from the pressure. They may be fearful of people initially and may have phobias from a lifetime in confinement or from being restrained. They are likely to have been surgically de-barked by the breeder and have an ID number tattooed in their ear. Please also be aware that although these beagles are considered healthy, you will be given very little information about the beagle’s medical history, and you will not be told its origins or what kind of testing they may have been used for.

The video of Freedom and Bigsby is at the home page of the organization. Link -via Nag on the Lake

“He saw the blood and was furious,” Persisco told Brazilian newspaper Globo. “He left like a rocket to attack the thieves. One of them ran away, but Max dominated the other one. To defend himself, the thief ended up shooting the dog. Max thwarted the assault and saved my life.”

Max was hit twice in his chest and once in his leg, but by then he had scared off the potential thieves.

Max was treated by a veterinarian and is expected to make a full recovery. Link -via Breakfast Links

(Image credit: Porthus Junior)

The girl had just gotten off a Diversey Avenue bus near the 2800 block of North Whipple street and was walking home when she noticed a man following her, the Chicago Tribune reported. The man grabbed her as she ran up the stairs to her home, threw her to the ground and began to undress her.

Startled when Scooby and Zamora approached them, the attacker ran into an alley at George Street where he was corner by the team until police arrived.

Police charged 28-year-old Larry Smith with criminal sexual assault. Link -via Buzzfeed, where you can see more pictures of Scooby.

The survivors faced a certain and protracted watery death.

Then, the U-Boat commander Werner Hartenstein (left), made an extraordinary decision that went beyond all protocol.

He ordered the U-boat to surface he ordered his submariners to save as many of the marooned survivors as possible.

This act of humanity would save the lives of many hundreds of people.  Yet the tragedy of the Laconia was not over yet.

A U-boat cannot accommodate so many people. What happened to the survivors of the RMS Laconia is the subject of discussion even today. Read the whole story at Kuriositas. Link -via the Presurfer

“We contacted other forces with no success and then asked for the ANPR systems to be activated to see if anyone spotted the number plate CF53 BHE, the car in which Mr Bellazrak was known to have been when he left Gatwick for the 70 mile journey home.

“We were surprised to discover that ANPR cameras had recorded him in Bracknell, Wokingham, Burnham and High Wycombe – all presumably attempts at finding his way from Gatwick to Wiltshire.

“The last ANPR ‘hit’ we had showed him at about 6pm on Christmas eve in Hiugh Wycombe but then the trail went cold again,” she added.

On Christmas day, a CCTV camera recorded his license plate number in Oxford, where police were able to flag him down. He was reunited with his family. It is not yet known whether Bellazrak drove around the clock or stopped at night. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Flickr user Jeff Van Campen)

Eleven-year-old Austin Foreman was gathering firewood near his home in Boston Bar, British Columbia, when he came face to face with a cougar. When the wild cat lunged at him, his Golden Retriever, Angel, stepped in. She put herself between Austin and the cougar, giving him time to escape to the house. The cougar viciously attacked Angel, carrying her around by the neck while Austin’s mother called 911. Police arrived just in time to shoot the cougar, and after a few moments of suspense, Angel coughed back to life. She had several puncture wounds and a punctured sinus cavity, but she made a full recovery.

See a video report about Angel and read about the other heroic animals in a slide show. Link -via Nag on the Lake

At first the staff, all aged under 25, got stuck into the drinks, he said, but on the third day they eased off.

“We haven’t been getting ratty,” he said. “It’s been fun and we have had a laugh.

“We have been getting on with little jobs, having our tea, a drink, playing games and then going to bed.

“The bosses aren’t here, they are snowed out.

“We have wireless internet here and the television works so we have been fine.”

During the day, the couple and staff managed to get out onto the snow on improvised sledges made from beer trays.

Rescue came when snowplows finally broke through and the road was officially open by Saturday night. Link -via Arbroath

Mum Ammie Croft called in the cavalry to her Baulkham Hills home after not being able to find the fourth kitten in a newly-born litter.

“”I asked Alannah if she knew where he was and she said ‘down the toilet’,” Ms Crofts said. “I didn’t believe it could be true. I thought, ‘she can’t have put the kitten down the toilet’.” A whimper from the pipes confirmed her fears.

Complete with rescue equipment used in the 1989 Newcastle earthquake disaster, the NSW Fire Brigade arrived and began their quest.

The rescue crew found the kitten by putting a camera down the pipe, and pushed the kitten to an access valve. The eight firefighters worked for five hours to free the kitten. The kitten was reunited with his mother Pusska and was renamed Cain after the firefighter who pulled him from the drain. Link -via Buzzfeed

(Image credit: Brad Hunter)

Now that all the miners and rescue workers are safely out of the collapsed copper mine in Chile, The Brothers McLeod turn their thoughts to bringing up whoever else might happen to be deep below the surface of the earth. -Thanks, Myles!

Troy Kaczor, 40, told police he shed his shirt and shoes at Big Bull Falls Park in downtown Wausau before he dove into the river, intending to catch the one-legged bird and then roast it, Wausau Police Lt. Bill Kolb said.

Kaczor, who had been drinking heavily before taking the plunge, was unable to escape the clutches of the cold water and was rescued by Wausau firefighters, Kolb said.

The goose, apparently sober and a better swimmer, came to no harm, but was unavailable for comment. Link -via Arbroath

(Unrelated image credit: Flickr user Nita W)

Driver Robert Ziegler, 37, found himself stranded near the peak at Bergun, Switzerland, unable to go forward or turn around to go back the way he came.

Rescue workers scrambled a heavy lifting helicopter to carry the van and its driver to safety after he dialed for help on his mobile phone.

“I was lost and I kept hoping that each little turn would get me back to the main road. In the end it told me to turn around but of course I couldn’t by then,” the driver told police.

Link -via the Presurfer

Mr Jordan said: “It was really difficult getting the ladder up and then it twisted against the trunk, which made it awkward to get back down safely from that high.”

With Mr Wall in the same predicament as Jadis, the fire brigade were eventually called to the rescue at about 2.40pm.

Mrs Wall said: “He wasn’t very happy. He was up there for about 40 minutes, so it definitely wore him out.”

Thankfully it didn’t take much longer until both Mr Wall and Jadis were safely back on terra firma and the firefighters didn’t go home empty handed.

Mrs Wall said: “The neighbours were wonderful and I kissed the fireman when he came down and then burst into tears. I hadn’t any wine so I gave them a bag of cat biscuits as a small thank you because one of them had cats himself.”

Link -via Arbroath

“We have absolutely no idea how or why these little critters would go out on this bridge,” Church said. “The only thing we can figure is it happened at night and they were unsure of their surroundings. Once morning came, they were too scared to walk back where they came from.”

Church called associates and brainstormed how to get the animals down. Freeman kept watch over the animals, while the deputy handled traffic.

Byron Kinn, surface superintendent for Signal Peak Energy, came to the bridge, checked out the situation and said the mine had equipment that could reach the animals. Mine boss John DeMichiei signed off on the plan and the goats were rescued by about 1 p.m., Church said.

Link -via J-Walk Blog

The Rimrock Humane Society posted a video of the rescue. Link

Thomas says, “All of a sudden these four pitbulls came marching in and they surrounded me. They kept going around and around. One of them kind of lunged for me and I hit him on the head and he backed off. Then another came towards me and I was scared stiff. I gave him a wack. All of a sudden, my cat jumped in the middle of it.”

The cat ran towards the garage and the dogs chased after giving Ms. Thomas just enough time to run inside. Fearing the worse for her pet, she waited, and washed her wounds in the sink. That’s when she spotted Tiger at the door. Thinking back she says she owes the cat her life.

Thomas says, “I always thank god that my cat came because she was the one that really helped me out.”

Ms. Thomas suffered minor injuries. The dogs are in quarantine for ten days. Link (with video) -via Arbroath

Officers say the woman remained tied up for five hours before using an unusual method to notify police –  the woman had her laptop with her and used her feet to type a message to her boyfriend who then called police.

Link (with video) -via Arbroath

“He was found under his boat in a very distressed state, so essentially he was stranded for a number of days and just desperate for people to know where he was,” SaskPower spokesman James Parker said.

The man reported he had been on a boat on the lake when he hit bad weather. He ended up stranded in the bush, with no way to communicate with the outside world, Parker said.

But he had an axe and he knew SaskPower would have to check the downed line, so he went to work.

“Essentially it was mission accomplished, because we got the call, we chartered a helicopter … and on Friday around noon we discovered him,” Parker said.

Link -via Fark

Plattsburg, Missouri police officer Nick Shepherd responded to a call for help involving a dog stuck in a fence. The wire was twisted, and Shepherd cut the fencing to free the dog. He then tried to capture the dog. What happened next makes it worth sitting through the jumpy footage from Shepherd’s automatic camera. Link -via Buzzfeed

Your friend has become a victim of human trafficking. Her ‘hosts’ know that her fear of immigration authorities may prevent her from seeking help. That fear makes it possible for them to continue selling women into sexual slavery. (And yes, that’s exactly what it is. Your friend’s passport will be taken, she will be raped, she won’t be paid and she may never have the opportunity to contact the outside world again). But i promise you, if you contact the police, they will be far less concerned about the immigration status of two Russian women than they will be about potentially bringing down a human trafficking ring. Some jurisdictions even have specific amnesties which protect the victims of human trafficking in return for information about their traffickers. If your friend won’t contact the police, you should call them yourself.
posted by embrangled at 6:02 PM on May 19

Link -via Boing Boing

Update: Newsweek’s blog has an interview with one of the principals in the story. -Thanks, dontyoukeep!

It then took emergency services a further seven hours to actually get him free.

Their task was made more difficult due to further embarrassment on Xiao’s part – despite the fact that a crew of firemen all stripped down to their underwear to help in the rescue, he refused to undo his own trousers so that he could be more easily pulled free from the mud.

Link -via Unique Daily

(image credit: Quirky China News/Rex)

“He was alert, his eyes were wide open, ( he was) skinny as a rail, very dehydrated, and probably was in his last few days,“ Nall said of Lucky’s condition after he was freed from the tree.

Family friend Debbie Wilkes immediately transported Lucky to his veterinarian in Bishopville.

“He was running a temperature and they immediately put him on antibiotics, started IV fluids and gave him vitamin shots and offered him a can of food and he ate it all up,“ Wilkes said.

The cat lost nearly half his body weight, but is expected to recover. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Patricia Burkett/WBTW News13)

“This is a smart goose,” said Dr Levine, 82. “He happened to come into the yard of a veterinarian that could take care of him.”

After it recovered at The Raptor Trust, the goose was released last week into a stream in a wooded area on the trust’s property.

“It feels great to see him free and liberated, enjoying life the way a goose should,” Dr Levine said, as the goose preened and waded downstream.

Levine also removed several air rifle pellets from the goose. Link -via Arbroath

After 70 minutes of playing, Keith slumped over his drums. A cold shower and shot of cortisone later, and he was back on stage… where he quickly passed out again. Noticing the conspicuous lack of bitchin’ drum solos, Pete Townsend asked if there was anyone in the crowd who could play drums.

Scot Halpin, 19, hadn’t played the drums for nearly a year. Nonetheless he bravely stepped up and… stood by while his friend screamed, “He can play!” The concert promoter took notice, and, after a shot of brandy (with a conspicuous lack of tranquillizer chaser) Scot found himself on stage, behind the drums, playing for The Who.

Link -via Gorilla Mask

State biologist Forrest Hammond, along with some help from firefighters and police, spent about 45 minutes Sunday afternoon getting the old fashioned milk jug off the 120-pound bear’s head, according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife spokesman John Hall.

The bear was found meandering through the woods along Route 106 in Reading, bumping into boulders and trees with the milk jug stuck on its head.

Hammond had to tranquilize the bear and first tried to soap up his head and pull the milk jug off, but that didn’t work and he eventually had to use metal shears to get it loose. “He just did an excellent job of getting out there,” Hall said. “It’s important, too, that nobody got hurt,” he said, adding that the bear was released into the wild.

Officials think the can had been used as a bird feeder because there was birdseed in the bottom, which may have attracted the young bear. Link -via Arbroath