The weekly weird

Published August 25, 2015

Giant-eyed cat raises money for surgery

THIS poor little cat, Matilda’s unusually large eyes are due to a medical condition that will eventually require surgery. Matilda’s owners said the giant eyes that turned Matilda into a viral celebrity on Instagram are the result of a genetic disorder that became apparent after her first birthday.

“The regular vets were for the most part stumped. After she saw a specialist, we learned that it is a spontaneous lens luxation, which means that the lens detached from the rest of the eye for no known reason. This is the mysterious part of the problem since she is an otherwise healthy cat,” told the owners.

Matilda and her humans have now started a fundraising website to help other pet owners pay for expensive surgeries and other medical procedures.


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Six years of crocheting ‘Super Mario’ blanket

A NORWEGIAN Nintendo super fan said it took him six years to crochet a map from Super Mario Bros. 3 into a 7-foot, 2-inch-long blanket.

Kjetil Nordin’s blanket, which also measures five feet and 10 inches across, depicts the map from World 1 of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

“The hardest thing has been to accept that it took such a long time. I’ve spent 800 hours crocheting and many hours researching and searching for the correct yarn,” Nordin told.

“When the water was half way finished I saw that I had chosen the wrong shade of blue. It was almost purple, and very ugly, so I had to undo all of it. That took an extra week,” he said. He further told that he hasn’t decided on a follow-up project.


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This venomous cobra has two heads

A SNAKE breeder, Mr Huang, found a baby Chinese cobra on his farm in Yulin, southern China, a few days ago.

He said the creepy-looking snake is still alive and growing, even though it does not eat or drink. Both heads have their own brain, meaning they often try and move in opposite directions.Sometimes two-headed snakes will attack each other, and even try to swallow each other. Mr Huang has now handed over the venomous Chinese cobra to experts at Nanning Zoo in the hope that it will live longer.

Li Keqi, a zookeeper at Nanning Zoo, said: “The snake has been alive for more than a fortnight now and has been with us, during which time it has already changed its skin once.”

Polycephaly, the condition of having two heads, is most commonly seen among snakes. They have a short lifespan of only a few months, one two-headed rat snake reportedly lived for 20 years.

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