FORT WORTH, Texas, March 27 (UPI) -- A Fort Worth, Texas, man is relieved after the city changed its potbellied pig ordinance, allowing him to keep his two beloved 90-pound piggy pets.
Dino Taylor was worried he would be forced to either get rid of his potbellies, Lilly and Honey, or relocate to a different city because of a Fort Worth law restricting residence from owning swine weighing more than 60 pounds, The Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.
The City Council voted Tuesday to allow potbellies weighing as much as 120 pounds to live in the city.
"We take the negative connotations that pigs are dirty and they mess stuff up and that you eat them. From ancient times, they were always pets," Taylor said.
The city also voted to permit animal control officials to enter vehicles to save trapped pets from overheating in hot weather. It also approved a law to hold parents and guardians responsible for their children's pets.
Man arrested after daughter gets burned
PAPILLION, Neb., March 27 (UPI) -- A Nebraska man is charged with child neglect after his 4-year old daughter was burned while he was teaching her a fire trick, police said.
Brian Kirby, 26, told police he was showing his daughter how to do a trick with a liquor bottle and lit match when she was accidentally burned, KETV in Omaha reported Wednesday.
The girl reportedly was dropping a lit match into the bottle when a flame burst upward and burned her. She is now in good health and in the care of her mother.
Kirby told authorities he was attempting to teach the child about fire safety when the Saturday incident occurred, KETV reported.
Illinois corn flake destined for road show
WILLIAMSBURG, Va., March 26 (UPI) -- The Texas man who obtained a now-famous Illinois-shaped corn flake in an Internet auction says he will add it to his traveling road show.
Jon Wolf of Austin, who bought the flake for $1,350 on eBay and is the curator of triviamania.com, says he wants to feature the piece of breakfast cereal in his traveling museum of American oddities, the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday. Wolf received the high-priced flake this week at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Williamsburg, Va.
The unusual cornflake was put up for auction after Emily McIntire, 15, of Chesapeake, Va., discovered it this month.
Some of the items featured in Wolf's show are Ron Howard's "Happy Days" jacket and Marilyn Monroe's 1962 date-book.
"That's the most perfectly Illinois-shaped corn flake I've ever seen," Wolf said while McIntire handed him the cereal.
Dad and daughter hit jackpots on same day
MARGATE, Fla., March 26 (UPI) -- A single Florida mother of two won more than $1 million at a casino on the same day her father won $7,000 from a lottery ticket, the woman told reporters.
Paulette Miles, 48, of Margate, Fla., was at Seminole Coconut Creek Casino betting on a "Cash Cow" nickel slot machine Saturday when she hit it big for $1,114,815 -- the highest amount ever won on a Florida slot machine -- the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday.
Miles, who earns her living as a nurse for a man with Parkinson's disease, said she'd lost $67 of the $100 she took to the casino and was trying to win back enough money to afford gas for a drive to Wellington, Fla., to spend time with her father the next day.
"Something must have been going on. My dad hit the lottery for $7,000 the same day," she said.
Miles said she would have been happy to win even $1,000 and that in the flurry of her win, she never ended up making the visit to her dad.
