World’s ‘oldest’ dog celebrates 20th birthday

A golden retriever, who has celebrated her 20th birthday, is claimed to be the world’s oldest after passing the milestone.

Despite the breed having a life expectancy of 10 to 12 years, Augie is still going strong and a rescue centre believes she may be the first golden retriever to reach the age of 20.

Augie, whose official title is August, was born on April 24, 2000, and was rehomed twice before being taken in by owners Jennifer and Steve in Tennessee.

The couple adopted her when she was 14-years-old. Augie enjoys daily walks in the garden, although she is a bit shaky when she first gets up.

Her birthday post racked up more than 24,000 shares on Facebook.

Giant cherry found on Italian farm

A pair of siblings in Italy said they found a giant cherry in their orchard that weighs nearly an ounce and unofficially broke the Guinness World Record.

Sebastiano Zanoni, the owner of a farm in Paese, Treviso, said he and his sister, Selene Zanoni, were working in the cherry orchard when they spotted a giant cherry on one of their trees.

The cherry weighed 0.88 ounce, and the siblings soon discovered the Guinness World Record for heaviest cherry was only 0.84 ounce. The pair said they are looking into getting official recognition for the cherry before it rots.

Mutant ‘cyclops’ lamb born with one eye

A farmer was baffled after his sheep gave birth to a mutant one-eyed black lamb.

The farmer, Pipih told that the mother and its other babies were normal except for this one born with cyclopia, at the rural property in West Java, Indonesia, recently.

The lamb had difficulty breathing and eating because of its deformed face so Pipih sought help from neighbours. Despite extra attention given to the lamb, it died two days after it was born because it struggled to eat.

Village official Cucu Sunarya said they visited the farmhouse after hearing about the strange lamb to check for possible disease. They found that the lamb was healthy apart for its misshapen facial parts, which were the reason for its difficulty in eating.

Loch Ness monster ‘photographed’ by tourist

A ‘photograph’ of a mystery creature taken by a tourist has sparked a debate over whether it’s the Loch Ness Monster.

Steve Challice, from Southampton, claims he took the picture of what he describes as a ‘big fish’ while on holiday in Scotland. He estimated that it was 30 feet away and about eight feet long. After the image of the large creature emerging from the water appeared online, people began commenting that it might be Nessie while others speculated whether the picture was real.

“Personally, I know there has been some interest and some people are saying it’s the monster but I don’t believe that,” he admitted.

Author Roland Watson, who runs the Loch Ness Mystery blog, has been in discussion with Steve since finding the pictures on Facebook.

The writer and Loch Ness monster expert said: ‘Up until now this year we only had distant webcam blobs due to the lockdown at Loch Ness, then this image turned up. If this is a genuine picture of a creature in Loch Ness, it would easily rank in the top three of all time,” Watson said.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 4th, 2020