Harry Potter fortress for a two-year-old

Recently, a lucky two-year-old little girl got a surprise from her grandparents — a two-storey Harry Potter-themed play­house. This 350sqft fortress was created by Ruby and Dave Dunlop in their back garden for their young granddaughter, Logan.

This extraordinary playhouse has a wooden bridge, swing set and slide, and features Platform 9¾, Hogwarts, Ollivander’s wand shop, a cupboard under the stairs and part of Privet Drive.

There are also a number of magical finishing touches dotted about the place, including Hogwarts letter cushions, broomsticks, a toy basilisk, a Hogwarts snow globe, a Fantastic Beasts-style trunk and portraits of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Albus Dumbledore.

The whole thing took just six weeks to build and was designed and created by Charmed Playhouses in Alberta in their massive workshop.

It then took a further three days to set up the impressive structure at the Dunlops’ home.

The Dunlops didn’t reveal how much the fortress cost, but customers typically pay anything from £9,000 ($15,000) to £155,000 ($250,000) for luxury playhouses.

Speaking about the playhouse, Dave said: “My daughter and her partner are huge Harry Potter fans! We felt it would be so neat if Logan had a special place for her to come and play with at Pa’s and Gram’s.” He added that the little one is over-the-moon and already calls it “her house”.

Woman reunites with cat after 11 years

Only a pet owner can understand the love and warmth that one gets from a pet, while pain and longing if the pet is lost. Fortunately, this woman has recently been reunited with her cat 11 years after he went missing, thanks to a patient animal rescue worker and a microchip scanner.

The owner of the cat, Maggie Welz, of Duchess County, New York, said her cat Tiger never returned home after running out of her house when someone opened a door. Her family later moved down the street, but she asked the people who moved into her old house to keep an eye out for the brown tabby cat.

Later, he started showing up on the house of Carol O’Connell, an SPCA (society for the prevention of cruelty to animals) staffer. O’Connell said, Tiger had been coming around her house for the past three years, but she wasn’t able to get close enough to pet him, but when he did, she scanned his collar with microchip scanner and was able to locate Welz.

Service dogs attend live musical as part of training

If you think these dogs are attending any lecture than you are wrong, they are actually attending a performance of a Canadian theatre’s live musical. Sounds quite weird?

A photo of the dozen eager canines sitting in the theatre seats went viral when Ontario’s Stratford Festival shared it on Twitter, and the head trainer for K-9 Country Inn Working Service Dogs said the performance of Billy Elliot: The Musical was part of the dogs’ training.

Laura MacKenzie said the theatre outing was part of the two-year training programme designed to help the canines keep their calm amid crowds, unusual lights and loud noises.

Ann Swerdfager of the Stratford Festival said, “The dogs were extremely well behaved.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 7th, 2019