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Published 18 May, 2019 07:07am

The weekly weird

Over 300 cats found in a tiny flat

More than 300 cats have been rescued after they were found living in a single apartment. Pictures from inside show dozens of animals sitting on every available space, from the windowsills to the stairs, toilet and kitchen counter.

“It’s a terrible way for cats to live,” rescuers said after posting the images on Facebook. Toronto Cat Rescue described what they found in the flat as a “perilous hoarding situation”.

Residents in nearby flats had grown concerned due to the strong smell coming from the flat. The cats were rescued from the Toronto flat and the work of finding new homes for all of them has now started. They will all be vaccinated and spayed or neutered. Most of the cats were in good health, with just one needing dental work.


Giant box of noodles cooked for Guinness record

The 352 pounds of noodles were cooked in a giant version of a Maruka Foods brand yakisoba noodle box and served to 579 people at the event outside JR Isesaki Station in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture.

A Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand to confirm the event set the record for the world’s largest tasting event of instant noodles.

The tasting, organised by Maruka Foods officials, coincided with the end of the Golden Week holidays, falling on Children’s Day.


Heroic parrot survives being kidnapped, shot and bitten by a snake

A battle-hardened parrot has somehow survived being kidnapped from a zoo, wounded in a police shoot-out and bitten by a snake. He is still alive, though he is blinded in one eye and no doubt has a lot of stories to tell.

Named Freddy Krueger, his most recent ordeal was in the southern Brazilian city of Cascavel on April 16, when he was stolen from a zoo. Several days later, Freddy mysteriously appeared again close to his enclosure, with only a few blood spots to give a clue about what happened.

He is being kept away from the other birds as a precaution in case he turns violent. It was disclosed that Freddy had been bitten by a snake just a week before the robbery and was still in the recovery phase. He had to be taken to the vet after bleeding ‘profusely’ from a leg injury that appeared to be caused from a non-venomous snake bite.

Despite being unable to peel seeds due to losing part of his beak, he can still eat fruit and feed normally. ‘He’s a bit of a wild one,’ the zoo’s vet said. Sadly, though, a second parrot which was stolen alongside Freddy has not yet been found.


Octopus sucks on blogger’s face

A blogger was left horrified after an octopus she tried to eat alive sucked on her face in a horrific video.

The woman, desperate for popularity for her blog, told her followers she intended to eat the creature but in the clip she put online, the octopus attacked and started sucking on her face instead.

She’s seen screaming and crying as she despairingly tries to yank the animal’s tentacles of her skin. An octopus typically uses its tentacles to catch prey or defend itself from potential attacks.

It uses its long and strong arms to wrap around other animals and its suckers to tightly attach to its flesh. A mature giant Pacific octopus has some 280 suckers on each arm, and each sucker contains thousands of chemical receptors.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 18th, 2019

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