Slimming course: Fat cat in Texas now slims down, adopted by vet

An obese stray cat found wandering six months ago near Dallas has slimmed down to 34 pounds and been adopted by the veterinarian overseeing his care.

Dr. Brittney Barton said Friday that the orange tabby dubbed Skinny is doing well on a special diet to help lose weight and increase his metabolism.

Barton says she became attached to the onetime 41-pound cat she was treating at an animal orphanage and last month he became part of her family. Skinny joins Barton’s husband, three children, a dog and another cat at her home.

Barton says Skinny gets along great with the other animals, can jump up on a couch and runs to his food bag at feeding time. She says the house has long hallways that provide good exercise for Skinny.

Marriage proposal interrupted by huge wave

A young man’s romantic proposal on the shore of Laguna Beach, California was interrupted by a giant wave that swept over the couple. The incident happened in December 2012, and the video of the proposal is now making the internet rounds. On a rock surrounded by Pacific ocean waters, Matt sang a song he wrote, then later knelt down to propose to his girlfriend Lis. Right after he asked her to marry him, a gigantic wave engulfed the couple and they were washed to shore. Matt managed to hold onto the ring and once on their feet, the bride-to-be jumped up and responded, “Yes!”

Watch this: The woman who love pets more than her husband

Chantal Banks is a grown woman with a family, and like many families, hers keeps pets.

Except, in her case, the pets are rats, there are 19 of them and she appears to like them an awful lot.

The April 3 episode of The Learning Channel’s “My Crazy Obsession” will explore Banks’ eccentric life, from the two-bedroom apartment she now shares with her rats, to her son’s bizarre assertion that the rats are his brothers and sisters, to the furtive grumbling of her estranged husband, who quite frankly is just sick and tired of taking care of rats.

And just in case you’re thinking the network that brought you “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” has fallen short of its namesake, behold! According to Banks, her rats smell like nachos.

But that cheesy, spicy smell isn’t the only comfort Banks’ rodent friends provide her.

“My rats don’t judge me. They love me for who I am. When I cry, they lick my tears,” Banks told TLC.

Is this all that weird compared to cat hoarders? Probably not. At least this woman’s rat infestation is desired and under control. It could be a lot worse; it could be Iran.

Barter trade: Jail Guard Allegedly Gave Inmate Cookies In Return For Sex

Abner Canda, 58, a guard at the Snohomish County Jail in Everett, Wash., is accused of giving a female inmate chocolate chip cookies in exchange for sexual favors, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun.

The 22-year-old woman, identified only as “C.D.”, came forward to law enforcement officials in January 2013. She told police that in May 2012, she “showed [Canda] my breasts, willingly for some food.” Then, on Nov. 19, she said, Canda “came into my room behind me and kissed me and touched my breasts and also put his hand down my pants and placed his finger inside of [my vagina.]”

Read the whole affidavit at The Smoking Gun.

In January, she said, Canda performed oral sex on her. She also told police Canda gave her homemade chocolate chip cookies in return for the sexual favors. It is unclear if he gave her cookies after each act, or just one batch in January.

According to the affidavit, surveillance footage shows Canda and C.D. walking to the cell together on the Nov. 19.

The woman told cops she was discussing the incidents because “I’m trying to change and be a better person now. I’m ashamed for my actions.”

Investigators spoke with other female inmates, two of whom told them they also had sexual relations with the guard. One referred to herself as “dating” him. However, he is not currently facing charges related to those allegations, the Herald Net reported.

Teller tells robber to wait; he flees

Police in a Detroit suburb said they were searching for a man who attempted to rob a bank but was told by a teller that he would have to wait.

A police report said the man, estimated to be 28 to 35 years old with red hair and facial hair, walked into a Flagstar Bank branch Wednesday in St. Clair Shores and “handed a note to the teller stating he had a pistol,” the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.

“The teller told him she was waiting on drive-through customers and he would have to wait,” the police report said.

The man waited for a short time and fled when a bank manager approached and asked if he needed help.

Witnesses said the man left in a black Pontiac that appeared to be a Grand Prix or Grand Am from the late 1990s or early 2000s.

 

1,544 don fake mustaches for world record

The Gilda’s LaughFest event in Grand Rapids, Mich., opened by setting a world record with 1,544 people wearing false mustaches, its leader said.

Leann Arkema said participants put on the fake mustaches Thursday to set the festival’s latest world record, mlive.com reported Friday.

“This year’s world-record attempt was a seriously fun time,” said Arkema, president and chief executive officer of Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids, host of the comedy event. “It was a great way to kick off the 2013 festival.”

The event set a world record last year for the greatest number of people wearing animal noses, with 607 participants putting on chicken beaks, and another record in 2011 for largest rubber chicken toss, with 935 rubber chickens thrown into the air.

Weird: Woman, 82, kicked off train for singing

The family of an 82-year-old woman who was forcibly removed from a Florida train for singing said she suffered possible shoulder and hip fractures.

Donald Anderson said a passenger on the Miami-Dade Metrorail train captured cellphone video of his mother, Emma Anderson, 82, being removed from the train by a security guard who grabbed her bag and pulled her from her seat, WPLG-TV, Miami, reported Thursday.

“He snatched so hard until I fell. I fell backwards,” Emma Anderson said.

Donald Anderson said X-rays found his mother may have suffered shoulder and hip fractures from the incident.

“When I look at them snatching my 82-year-old mother up off that Metrorail, it’s disgusting to me,” he said.

Emma Anderson said the guard told her she was being removed for singing her spiritual hymn.

“I was beating my little beads with the bottle and I was singing a song, and he came up to me and said, ‘Ma’am, you’re making too much noise,'” she said.

Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman Karla Damian said Emma Anderson was violating the rules by singing loudly and refused requests to stop.

“Miami-Dade Transit has a responsibility to all its passengers to provide a safe and comfortable travel experience. … We regret that Ms. Anderson had to eventually be escorted out, but regardless of age, all passengers need to abide by the rules associated with using transit,” Damian said.

Donald Anderson said the family has hired a lawyer for potential legal action

Scrap dealers: 8 buses stolen, chopped overnight

Police in Chicago said Friday they were searching for a scrap yard owner after eight school buses were stolen and chopped into scrap overnight.

Police arrested three people at SRV Metal Scrapper after following a GPS trail and finding the stolen buses, which had already been cut to pieces and piled into a two-story heap of scrap, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The 40-foot long buses — weighing about 17,000 to 20,000 pounds each — were stolen sometime after 7 p.m. CST Thursday from a yard operated by Sunrise Transportation Inc., which has about 260 buses. The theft was not noticed until workers arrived for work at about 5 a.m. Friday.

All eight of the buses were equipped with Global Positioning System tracking devices, so police were able to track them to the scrap yard — where they said several people ducked into a building when officers arrived.

“There was a pile of shredded school buses about two-stories high,” a police official said.

Sunrise President and co-owner Greg Bonnett said when he learned investigators had tracked the whereabouts of the buses, he “expected to come in and see our buses, not a mound of scrap.”

“In 40 years I have never heard of anything like this,” he said.

Sunrise had enough buses to handle Friday morning’s school bus schedule.

Rekindling old flames: Rihanna thankful for Brown’s Return

Chris Brown and Rihanna

Singer Rihanna has opened up about her blossoming romance with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, insisting she’s grateful for the “fresh start”.

The couple split following a fight in 2009, which left the pretty singer with a broken heart and battered face and Brown facing assault charges, but they reconciled last year and spent Christmas and New Year together.

Brown also recently joined the ‘Umbrella’ singer in Hawaii for her 25th birthday celebrations.

Now Rihanna has stated that the romance is getting serious – and it’s so much better the second time around.

She said, “We got a fresh start and I’m thankful for that… Right now that’s what we want, a great friendship that’s unbreakable.

Now that we’re adults we can do this right.”

Addressing the controversy surrounding her decision to take Brown back, after what he did to her four years ago, Rihanna added: “I have my own reasons, very, very private reasons.

Very personal but the bottom line is I know him. I had a lot to think about and I had a lot of time to think about it. I was trying to do this for myself.

“You don’t have that feeling with everybody so when you have it you don’t want to let go of it. I would definitely say that he is the one I have that kind of relationship with.”

And it appears the ‘We Found Love’ singer is making family plans with her beau, revealing that she has every intention of becoming a mum.

Only good friends: Jackie Appiah Not Dating Bobby Obodo

 

Jackie Appiah and Bobby Obodo

There have been several speculations in the entertainment industry that Ghanaian actress Jackie Appiah and Nigerian actor Bobby Obodo are in a relationship but the actor has cleared the air, saying that they are only good friends.

Earlier this year, Jackie Appiah also stated that she and the actor were nothing but “colleagues” in the movie industry.

In an interview, the Nigerian actor based in Canada stated emphatically that: “It is simple; I’m not dating Jackie Appiah.

She and I are just friends – good friends. And that’s the end of my story.”

According to the actor, people could not be stopped from talking or believing what they wanted to believe.

“You also can’t stop the media from perpetrating whatever rumors they want to perpetrate,” Bobby noted.

The speculations started when Jackie and Bobby were seen together publicly several times in Accra, during the Christmas period.

Although the actress admitted that the frequent sightings contributed to the widespread rumours, she said she had a clear conscious and added that often, they went out with her friends and cousins.