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Kitten survives 70-mile drive under truck

WENATCHEE, Wash., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A Washington state man says a 6-week-old kitten with a bad leg made a 70-mile trip hanging onto the undercarriage of his truck and lived to meow about it.

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"I never knew she was there till I heard the faintest, tiniest meowing," Rod Thomas told The Wenatchee World Sunday. "It was a real surprise."

Thomas, 45, was on his way to a morning sales trip from East Wenatchee to Moses Lake when a bird flew into the path of his Ford F-150 pickup. He says he didn't see the bird's remains on the highway and decided to take a look when he got to his destination.

At Moses Lake Thomas checked the grill and although he didn't find the dead bird he noticed a thin, furry tail sticking out from behind the skid-plate protecting the truck's transmission, the newspaper reported.

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"I gently tugged on it," Thomas said. "It pulled away, was gone for a second, and then a blur, then this little fuzzy head peeks out."

It took five minutes for Thomas and his sales associates to coax the kitten out. "She was spooked, that's for sure, but we got the poor thing out and made a place for her in the back of the pickup," he said.

Thomas is allergic to cats but may keep "Lucky," as the kitten has been dubbed, as a barn mouser.

"She's probably not the cat we'd choose for the barn," he said, "but all my friends are pointing out that this is a turn of fate -- we need a cat, and one appears in a kind of magical way."


Prayer for lost diamond answered

BOSTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A Cambridge, Mass., oncology nurse says her prayers to St. Anthony helped recover a diamond missing from her engagement ring for four months.

Betty Ann Burns-Britton received the one-carat diamond re-set in a gold band with a heart in it more than 30 years ago but discovered the rock missing May 3 when she started her shift 6 a.m. at Massachusetts General Hospital, The Boston Globe reported Sunday.

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"I knew this was minor," Betty said, bursting into tears. "But my heart wasn't telling me that."

Bonnie Filicicchia, a nurse finishing up her night shift, hung around helping Betty look around the hospital for the missing diamond. Getting nowhere, Bonnie decided on divine intervention, the newspaper said.

"Oh holy St. Anthony," she prayed. "Look down from heaven, Lend me your hands, You alone possess miracles ... "

That evening Betty found what looked like a diamond but turned out to be cubic zirconia, the Globe said.

Months went by until Aug. 28 when Bonnie saw Betty at work and inquired after her diamond.

"Oh, holy St. Anthony ... ''

That night as Betty was about to get into her car she saw something shiny.

It was her diamond.

"There must have been a car parked over it every evening," Betty Ann said. "Why it didn't go into a tire and travel who knows where. Why the rain didn't wash it away?"


British grandmother wants cucumber record

LONDON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A grandmother in Britain grew two huge cucumbers but was in a pickle when the largest decomposed before Guinness World Records could verify its size.

Clare Pearce's largest cucumber was at least 47 inches long; Frank Dimmock of Thame, in Oxfordshire, set the current Guinness cucumber record of just over 41 inches more than two years ago, London's Sunday Telegraph reported.

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However, Pearce's smaller cucumber, at 42 inches, could set a new record if its size can be verified before it decomposes, the newspaper said.

Pearce, 78, said she didn't do anything special to grow the vegetables.

"I've never grown cucumbers before, but I knew it was massive. My daughter contacted the Guinness World Records but apparently we needed a horticulturist to verify it, and we didn't know one," Pearce said.

Pearce said she planted cucumber seeds in her garden in Whittlesey, near Peterborough, in May. The largest one grew until August, when it fell from the plant and started decomposing.

"I just watered them. The only thing I can think that I did differently was that once, fairly early on, I was feeding the tomatoes with tomato feed and I had a bit too much, so I used up what was left on the cucumbers," Pearce said.


Bronx cheers return of beavers to river

NEW YORK, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A second beaver is living in the Bronx River, 200 years after the animals vanished from New York City, officials say.

"A companion, a friend, a mate, an associate -- we don't know what it is," Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., told the New York Daily News. The first beaver was named Jose in his honor when it was discovered in 2007.

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The pair were spotted this summer and photographed by a Bronx Zoo employee on part of the river that runs through the zoo.

"We've doubled the population of beavers in New York City," John Calvelli of the Wildlife Conservation Society told the News.

Beavers were once so vital to the local economy that two of them grace the city's official seal and flag. But they were hunted to extinction for their pelts in the early 1800s.

The Bronx River has long been too polluted to support such wildlife, the newspaper said.

"The second beaver now just reassures us this was not a fluke," Serrano said. "This river is coming back to life."

Although the genders of Jose and his new friend are unclear, it is hoped they will produce offspring, the News said.

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