Watercooler Stories

• Tweet

Kitty takes a tumble in washer

MAYFIELD, Scotland, July 24 (UPI) -- A Scottish family likely will check its laundry basket a bit more closely before tossing clothes into the washer to avoid washing their cat.

Emma Lothian of Mayfield said Tinker, a 10-week-old tortoiseshell, was nestled in the laundry and wound up going through the hot-water wash cycle before it was found, the Scotsman.com reported.

"I'd been doing some housework and I noticed Tinker wasn't running around as usual," Lothian said. "Then I heard something coming from the washing machine. I had a look and I saw her stuck inside on top of all the clothes."

She extracted Tinker after prying open the door with a wallpaper scraper.

"I wrapped her up in a towel and took her to the vet, but honestly, it didn't look as if she would pull through," she told The Scotsman Saturday.

The vet put Tinker in a heated oxygen chamber.

"Luckily, Tinker had managed to avoid inhaling any of the water, otherwise she would have drowned," veterinarian John Buxton said. "In my 15 years as a vet, this is the first time I have treated a cat that managed to get in to a washing machine."

Stolen pig statue found damaged

GARDEN CITY, Mich., July 24 (UPI) -- Police in Michigan said a stolen pig sculpture valued at $6,000 was found with three of its legs missing and its snout damaged.

Garden City police said the Willy the Pig sculpture, which was taken from Garden City in June, was found Friday in the yard of a home on Whitmore Lake, WDIV-TV, Detroit, reported Monday.

Police said the base of artist Sophie Marie's sculpture was found last week in a field with other fragments.

Marie had leased Willy the Pig to the Downtown Development Authority for two years.

Second bear spotted near Pa. mall

PITTSBURGH, July 24 (UPI) -- Police in the Pittsburgh area said they believe a bear seen crossing a road was trying to get to a mall where another bear was captured Sunday.

Frazer police said the bear, estimated to weigh 300 pounds, was seen several times around the Northbound side of Route 28 between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday nearby the mall where a smaller bear was captured Saturday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Monday.

Officers said they stopped traffic on the road around 9 p.m., when it appeared the bear was about to cross the road, but the animal instead returned to the brush.

Dan Puhala, a Game Commission wildlife conservation officer, said he does not believe the two bears were connected. He said the smaller bear was wearing a collar with a tracking system and was returned to Cambria County, where it is believed to be from.

Wedding moved to hospital

NASHVILLE, July 24 (UPI) -- A Tennessee woman who had to be hospitalized prior to her wedding said the ceremony was only delayed an hour when she moved the nuptials to the hospital.

Kristine Nepomuceno, who received a kidney transplant in 2009, said she went to the emergency room at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville for health problems Friday night and hoped she would be out in time for her 3 p.m. wedding the following day, WSMV-TV, Nashville, reported Friday.

"I couldn't get up out of bed and walk by myself so I wanted to go to the ER to see what they could do," she said.

Nepomuceno said she was heartbroken when doctors told her she wouldn't be out in time, but she perked up at the suggestion of moving the wedding.

"The people at St. Thomas told me there was a chapel on-site and that I would be more than welcome to use it," she explained. "So we just moved everyone from the church across the street to the hospital."

Nepomuceno said she rolled down the aisle in a wheelchair only about an hour behind schedule.

"I just came here as a regular patient, and I'm walking out as a princess," she said. "I'm having my fairy-tale wedding even though I'm in a wheelchair."

The bride said she was further delighted to share the day with her maid of honor, who donated her kidney to her in 2009.

"She's one of my best friends and she donated her kidney to me," Nepomuceno said. "If it weren't for her selfless act I wouldn't be here today."