Twin lambs born - one white, one black

ONE'S black, one's white and they have amazed their owners.

Salt and Pepper are twins, born to a ewe, which is white and a ram, which is a sussex breed, sporting a black face, legs and bottom.

Jan Cowan, who has just begun building a flock on the family property in the Manning Valley on the NSW mid-north coast to make sheep cheese, said yesterday that the twins born a week-and-a-half ago were inseparable, The Daily Telegraph reports.

"We have them in a pen next to the house because of the foxes," Mrs Cowan said.

"They play together, they sleep together with one resting its head on the other.

"If one goes one way the other will follow. They take a teat each, side-by-side of each other when feeding."

Mrs Cowan said a local vet who helped deliver the twins had told her their being born with different colouring was a very rare event.

But the Cowans may not have a black sheep in the family for long.

Bob Murray, NSW branch president of the Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association of Australia, said nature could still intervene despite years of selective breeding to produce sheep with white wool.

"Put simply, the genes which ensure white wool are dominant over the genes which produce the darker wool," he said.

"But sometimes the dark gene sneaks in and takes over, and if you have a dark-woolled ram and a white-woolled ewe, there's a 50 per cent chance you'll get one of each.

"And in sussex sheep it's not uncommon to get lambs which are all dark when born.

"But when they are about six months old they will lose that darkness and look like other sussexes with the dark face, legs and backside and white body."


News.com.au

Puppy flushed down toilet

LONDON - A PUPPY in Britain had a lucky escape after a four-year-old boy accidentally flushed it down the toilet when he was trying to wash it, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Monday.

The week-old cocker spaniel's young owner, Daniel Blair, thought the puppy needed a wash after it got muddy playing in the garden, so he put it in the toilet and flushed it.

But his plan went disastrously wrong when the animal was swept away and became trapped in a waste pipe for nearly four hours.

Firefighters and animal welfare officers could not reach it, so Daniel's mother eventually called a plumber, who found the dog lying upside down in a pipe about 20 metres away from their house in Northolt, west London.

The dog - which has been named Dyno after the plumbing firm which rescued it - is now safe and well and back with the family.

Daniel has apologised, blaming his twin brother for getting the dog dirty and saying: 'I had to give him a wash. I'm so, so sorry. I won't do it again.' -- AFP

Source : The Straits Times

Teen Wakes Up to 3-Foot Snake Staring at Him in Bed

A New York city teen came face-to-fang with a 3-foot boa constrictor Sunday that slithered uninvited into the youngster's home — a jarring confrontation that had the whole family in a panic.

"The snake was just staring at me," said a shaken Kareem Lewis, 18.

The close encounter came around 10 a.m., when Lewis was waking up in the family's first-floor apartment on Sherman Avenue.

"I started to panic when he started to slither at me," said Lewis, whose mom was at church.

The teen called 911, and police held the snake inside a pillowcase until animal control arrived.

Lewis guessed that the snake slithered in through a window.

Fox News

Bride waited until after wedding to run

TRIESTE, Italy, May 27 (UPI) -- An Italian bride went through with her wedding ceremony but ran off with the wedding car driver before the reception, her new husband said.

The husband, a 34-year-old man identified only as Andrea, said his bride Sara, 30, told their 30 wedding guests in Trieste that she wanted to change clothes after the ceremony but never arrived at the restaurant where the reception was held, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Wednesday.

Andrea said Sara drove off with a friend of his who was tasked with chauffeur duty. The husband said he and wedding guests called the pair on their cell phones when they failed to arrive at the reception and Sara told him she was "sorry" and had "made a mistake." Andrea quoted Sara as telling him that her "heart belongs to someone else."

Sara and the driver left for Greece to carry out the married couple's planned honeymoon, Andrea said. He said he is considering legal action against his wife.

UPI

The little girl with a mother, grandmother, great grandmother and GREAT GREAT grandmother all still alive

Most little girls are lucky enough to have a granny or two to give them lots of love.

Ellie-Jane Bannocks has it even better, with a great-granny and a great-great granny still around to spoil her rotten.

The baby's arrival means that five generations of women from the same family are alive and well - and living just a few miles apart. In each generation, the first born in the family has been a girl.

The matriarch is Mary Pittman, 86, of Basildon, Essex, who had one child, Rita, with her late husband William.

Rita, now Mrs Purser, 62, had one son and two daughters. Only one of her children, Dawn, went on to have a family of her own.

Dawn, 43, now Mrs Bannocks, had Gemma, now 21, and a younger girl and boy. It is Gemma Bannocks who gave birth to Ellie-Jane six months ago.

Mrs Bannocks, a care worker, said it can be confusing having so many women around. 'But nanny Mary never gets confused and she pretty much gets all the names right.'

Gemma added: 'It's nice to have both my nan and my great-nan alive and now my daughter has got three generations of nans. They treat Ellie-Jane like a diamond and I know she'll always have that support.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-...emale-line.html

Man fathers 21 children by 11 different women... and he's only 29

A man aged 29 has fathered 21 children with 11 different women, it emerged yesterday.

Desmond Hatchett's brood came to light after authorities in Tennessee in the U.S. took him to court for non-payment of child support.

He has apparently set a U.S. record but said: 'It just happened.'

He added that he would not have any more children. 'I'm done. I'll say I'm done,' he said.

Hatchett, who earns a minimal wage, told TV reporters he knows the names and ages of all his offspring.

Their ages range from newborn to 11 years old.

Authorities in Knoxville said they plan to take half of his monthly salary to pay for the youngsters but officials said that would work out to just over £1 a week for each.

His lawyer Keith Pope said: 'The children can't all be supported by Desmond, so the state of Tennessee has had to step in.'

Many Knoxville residents called for him to be castrated.

He even boasted of fathering four children by different women in the same year.

Hatchett's name appeared on court documents 11 times representing 15 of his 21 children.

U.S. authorities are now braced for more women coming forward to claim Hatchett is the father of their children after he appeared on local TV.

He said the women he was involved with all knew he had other children.

One mother, who has two children with Hatchett, said she should get £44 a month but rarely receives any child support.

'It's frustrating, but usually, when I ask he gives it to me,' she said.

Authorities in Knoxville ordered Hatchett to court to explain how he intends to pay child support.

He arrived for the hearing with just over £300.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/...en--hes-29.html

Asthma Facts

Asthma is an inflammatory disorder of the airways, and if not properly managed, can be a life threatening disease.

1. The World health Organization (WHO) estimates that 300 million people around the world suffer from asthma.

2. According to WHO, exposure to indoor allergens such as dust mites in bedding, carpets and stuffed toys, and outdoor allergens such as pollen, mold and tobacco smoke, are the biggest risk factors of developing asthma. Haze aggravates asthma symptoms.

3. Asthma can occur among the elderly.