Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Flushed puppy freed from pipes

NORTHOLT, England, June 16 (UPI) -- A British woman said her 10-week-old puppy survived a trip through her house's plumbing after her young son accidentally flushed the small dog down the toilet.

Alison Blair, 40, said her young son, Daniel, dropped the puppy into the commode at their Northolt, England, home for a bath after he became muddy during a walk and the dog disappeared down the drain after Daniel hit the toilet's flusher, The Sun reported.

Blair said she was afraid the family had seen the last of the puppy but she called the fire department after hearing the pooch's muffled cries coming from a drain.

The firefighters brought in specialist Will Craig, 22, of plumbing firm Dyno-Rod to locate the puppy using a special camera and nudge him toward a spot where he could he freed.

"I pushed him really slowly and watched the poor thing wriggling around," Craig said. "Eventually I pushed him far enough for the firemen to grab. Suddenly everyone started cheering."

Blair said her family is ecstatic that the puppy -- named Dyno in honor of his rescuer -- received a clean bill of health after his ordeal.

"I never thought a dog could survive being flushed down the loo. He's a real little fighter," she said.

Chihuahuas keep cougar at bay

SAGE, Calif., June 16 (UPI) -- A California woman said a mountain lion that wandered onto her property was cornered by a gang of unlikely guardians -- her trio of toy chihuahuas.

Ana Lee Spray, 23, said she was awakened Saturday morning by the sound of her three chihuahuas barking at the top of their tiny lungs at the opening of the garage at her Sage home, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported.

Spray said she looked out her daughter's window to investigate the ruckus and was shocked to see her gang of 3-pound dogs had cornered an angry-looking cougar in the garage.

The homeowner said the chihuahuas' barking kept the animal, which appeared to be foaming at the mouth, at bay for 45 minutes until Riverside County Sheriff's deputies arrived.

"When they saw the dogs they said 'These little things?' When they saw the mountain lion their jaws dropped," Spray said. "They radioed, 'This is a full-size mountain lion and it is not happy to see us.'"

Spray said the cougar made a run for it after officers from the Department of Fish and Game shot it with tranquilizers and she did not see the eventual capture. Authorities have not said whether the cougar was killed or released into the wild.

'0' plate gets 170 mistaken tickets

CHICAGO, June 16 (UPI) -- Chicago authorities say an error while testing equipment led to a man with a license plate reading "0" receiving about 170 tickets he did not deserve.

The Chicago Department of Revenue said it has been using "0" as a placeholder license plate for testing parking ticket equipment and officials were unaware Tom Feddor had that number as his official plate, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Feddor said that beginning in 1997, his mailbox has been filling up with citations for violations, including parking at expired meters, parking during street-cleaning hours, running stop signs or traffic signals, and parking a truck, recreational vehicle, bus or taxi on a residential street.

Feddor said he went to the Revenue Department and the Department of Administrative Hearings for help, but was unable to resolve the issue. Hearing officer Zipporah Lewis made several calls to officials in an attempt to help Feddor, but he said "the people she encountered at the other end of the phone seemed to be annoyed and bothered by her. Most tried to quickly end the call."

Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh told the Tribune officials were unaware there was a "0" plate in circulation -- Feddor's family has been using it for 40 years -- or that he was receiving tickets from the equipment testing. He said the tickets would be wiped out and any fines paid by Feddor would be refunded.

"The test violations should have been dismissed in the database. The majority of the cases (Feddor) contested successfully. But we are taking steps to rectify the situation so in the future an actual registered plate number will not be used to do the testing," Walsh said.

Cabbie encourages riders to create art

NEW YORK, June 16 (UPI) -- A New York cab driver says he has collected more than 7,000 sketches from passengers outfitted with a pen and a stack of computer paper.

Fabio Peralta, who has been driving a cab for 40 years, said his one requirement for passengers is that they be willing to give him some manner of art created in the back of his cab while en route to their destinations, the New York Post reported Monday.

"I tell them to create art, any kind of art," he said. "I don't care what it is. Whatever comes to their brain, I say.

"Doctors, lawyers, bankers will say, 'Hey, I'm no artist.' And I tell them they become one in my cab," Peralta said. "I never had a painting I didn't like, no matter how bad it is."

Peralta said he hopes to bind some of his favorite drawings into glossy booklets "when I have enough money."

The cabbie said he is now experimenting with a new artistic medium: Having his passengers participate in 30-second video sketches.

"People do whatever. They wave to the camera, they talk about their day, they tell stories," he said. "I ask if they want to be filmed, and then I pull over in a safe spot."