Staying on the subject of creatures with extra legs I came across this article about five-legged frogs. The frogs are currently being studied in Cambridgeshire where they were found, but as yet scientists are baffled as to what has caused the deformity.

As a wine lover I found this article interesting. It lists the top 10 most expensive bottles of wine ever sold and includes a slideshow with information about each of the wines. Much as I love wine I can’t imagine why someone would pay over $100,000 for a bottle.

Before reading this article I didn’t know what a kinkajou was. Apparently it is a small furry raccoon-like animal. This particular kinkajou apparently also likes bus rides.

A kinkajou.

No it’s not a joke these sheep really are red. They were spray painted using a special dye as part of a project to brighten up the M8. A flock of pink sheep are planned for the future.

Meet Stumpy the four-legged duck. Stumpy has a rare mutation which means he has an extra pair of legs.

To add a drop cap in Quark use the format box under the style menu (Apple key and F). Tick the drop cap box so the options become available. The character count option specifies how many characters you wish to drop. In this example I have chosen to set the first two characters as drop caps, so I would put a 2 in the this box. The second option specifies how many lines of text the drop cap will take up. You can set this from 2 lines to 16 lines. In my example I have set this to 3 so the drop cap will take up 3 lines of normal text. Once you have set the options click apply to make the changes.

Do you have a spare £130,000? If the answer is yes then you could spend it on one of these cool rocket packs. Called Rocket Belts they can reach speeds of up to 60mph and can launch you as high as 300ft into the air. So, the only thing about this product that is not cool is the price tag. I think I have a bit of saving to do before I can afford one.

There was a huge breakthrough in the cat eating monkey case today. A team of highly trained cat detectives acting on a tip off managed to apprehend the rouge monkey. Initially he denied all charges but after some “mild” persuasion by DI Willow and her team, the monkey finally admitted to the charges of attacking four innocent cats. Cats can once again sleep easy in their baskets now this monkey is safely behind bars. See the dramatic pictures from the crime scene below.

The suspect is captured for questioning.

Detectives Willow and Lucy begin the questioning process.

Getting nowhere they play "good cop bad cop"

Willow is the bad cop. After this "gentle" questioning the monkey confesses to four murders and is sent to jail. Crime does not pay.

Further to Rory’s article about naval defence cuts I came across this article on The Daily Referendum that Portsmouth Naval Base is under threat of closure. To help keep it open you can sign this petition.

Its April Fools Day again and looking around a few websites I found the following cool products. I Want One of Those is offering a Robo Girlfriend which has several advantages including a silent mode. Whilst Think Geek has a host of great new products including the WiiHelm for hands free game playing, Piranhaz battle fish and the inhalable caffeine stick. All great products if only they were real.

Tired of not being able to hit those shots on Wii Bowling? You need this cool Wii Playing Robot. Made of Lego and including two motors it is able to bowl a perfect game every time.

I found this funny story on a website about home exchanges. Basically on one home exchange an American couple were asked to feed the cat in their UK holiday home. However not knowing what the cat looked like, it wasn’t until the end of holiday that they realised they had been feeding a stray cat and ignoring the English couple’s beloved pet. It just goes to show how sneaky cats can be.

It’s easy to assume when shopping with a well known company that your credit card details are kept safe. However the theft of 46 million credit card details from TK Maxx shows that even large companies may not keep your details secure. Personally when shopping online I prefer to use my Paypal account, if I am using a website for the first time, so that I don’t actually have to expose my card details. Like many people though I don’t think twice about using my credit card when shopping on the high street. It makes me wonder whether I should go back to withdrawing cash and avoid paying with my card altogether, or perhaps I am just getting paranoid about the whole thing?

Poor Willow didn’t stand a chance against the power of the monkey.

We have now successfully fitted two of ours cats with a small tracking device which attaches to their collars. Whilst it is not actually meant specifically for cats it enables you to quickly track down a cat that does not want to be found. For more information on this see Rory’s blog.

Oscar being attacked by the cat killing monkey.

There is nothing more frustrating than to have a perfect layout only for items to be accidentally moved and thus appear misaligned when it goes to print. A simple shortcut can help prevent this. To lock the items on a page simply select them and press F6. A black padlock icon will appear when you hover over the items to indicate that they are locked and no amount of dragging will move them. The only way to unlock them is to press F6 again to reverse the process or choose unlock from the item menu.

I read a humorous post on Owens blog today about the importance of choosing the right name for your website. He highlights a few examples where companies have got it wrong with hilarious consequences. I think my favourite was www.penisland.net which may sound like a porn site but is in fact a site called Pen Island offering custom made pens.

One of my cats Oscar was not very well yesterday. Unfortunately he had some sickness and diarrhoea and although he quickly recovered he was unable to clean himself properly ending up with poo all over his rear end, so we had to give him a bath. Bathing Oscar is not an easy task as he hates being picked up and is a very large strong cat. With this is mind we devised a plan that we thought would keep us safe from flying claws. First Rory prepared a washing up bowl of warm water with a generous amount of Herbal Essences 2 in 1 Shampoo added to it. I then fetched a very thick towel and we both put on gloves for added protection. After chasing Oscar around the living room for about half an hour I was finally able to throw the towel over him covering his head and front paws. I quickly picked Oscar up and keeping his head covered to avoid being bitten dunked the whole back end of the cat into the washing up bowl. Then holding him tightly Rory proceeded to rub the shampoo into his coat before rinsing him off with warm water. At this point Oscar was growling very loudly. Next I moved the towel from his head to wrap the back claws whilst Rory sponged soapy water onto the front part of the cat. One more rinse and Oscar was clean although very wet and not very happy. A day later and I am amazed at how soft and fluffy his coat is. Now that we have perfected the technique perhaps we will bath him more often…. Or maybe not.