Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Beagle honored for calling 911 WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) -- A Florida beagle was to be honored Monday for saving the life of her diabetic master by biting down on his cell phone to get help. Advertisement Kevin Weaver went into a diabetic coma and woke up in a hospital with no memory of passing out on his kitchen floor. Belle is the first animal to receive the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award, presented in Washington by the CTIA Wireless Foundation to those who use cell phones to save lives, the Washington Post reported. Kevin Weaver, a former flight attendant who lives in Ocoee, Fla., bought Belle two years ago after seeing her in the window of a pet store. "I felt sorry for her," Weaver said. "I went in and said, 'She's mine.'" It was after he bought Belle that someone who knew about his problems with diabetes suggested getting her trained as a medical assistance dog. She was taught to sense when his blood sugar was high or low by using her sensitive nose to sniff his breath. Advertisement Belle was also taught to call for help by biting down on the 9 on a cell-phone keypad. "She loves me and I love her," Weaver told the Post. "She's my best friend, that's for sure." Odd Toynbee plaques just litter in Chicago CHICAGO, June 20 (UPI) -- As mysterious plaques calling for resurrecting the dead on Jupiter appear on city streets, Chicago treats them as graffiti and removes them. They're called Toynbee plaques, and they contain the same cryptic messages pressed into intersections in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile. They all contain the same message: "Toynbee idea, in Kubrick's 2001, resurrect the dead on planet Jupiter," and the Internet is a hotbed of people with theories about their origin and message, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The toynbee.net Web site says they may refer to Ray Bradbury's short science fiction story "The Toynbee Convector." The site lists eight Chicago intersections to spot the plaques but the newspaper found only two, and then found out why. "It is considered vandalism," said Brian Steele, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation. "If we see them, we'll look for a way to remove them. We treat it no different than graffiti." Advertisement 5 NYC judges back away from old lawsuit NEW YORK, June 20 (UPI) -- Two elderly New York City former friends locked in a 6-year legal dispute over $20 million have gone through five judges who couldn't hear the case. Since July 2000, the two 77-year-old men who became friends and business associates in the 1950s have become worst enemies over money one claims he is owed by the other, the New York Post reported Monday. Real-estate dealer Ted Singer claims Martin Riskin wouldn't pay him $20 million when he tried to cash out of the partnership in 1999. But all five judges have bowed out so far for different reasons, with one citing Democratic political affiliations with Riskin's lawyer, the Post said. Singer told the newspaper he has spent nearly $500,000 on legal fees during the last six years trying to get the case heard. "Marty Riskin wants to wait until I'm dead." Singer told the newspaper. "How am I going to have a fair trial?" Utah group bids for nasty Lewis the cat BRIDGEPORT, Conn., June 20 (UPI) -- A Utah animal care facility has offered to give a nasty Connecticut cat named Lewis a home for life to spare him being euthanized. Advertisement Lewis' owner, Ruth Cisero, is charged with reckless endangerment after Lewis was accused of attacking, biting and scratching a woman in February, and an Avon saleswoman earlier, the Connecticut Post reported Monday. A judge said he would grant Cisero a type of probation but only if Lewis was put to death. But news of the case reached The Best Friends Animal Society of Kanab, Utah, which houses animals on 33,000 acres and only euthanizes animals in terminal illness cases. The group's general counsel wrote the Bridgeport, Conn., judge with an offer. "If necessary to save the life of Lewis the cat, we agree to provide Lewis with a place to live out his life at our sanctuary," Russ Mead wrote. Cisero's lawyer, Eugene Riccio, said the preferred solution would be to keep Lewis at Cisero's home. "Lewis enjoys life in southern New England and, if at all possible, he would like to remain here," he said. A ruling is expected Tuesday, the report said.
