A bank robber in Florida was caught after he was found drinking beer, opposite the bank he had just robbed. Not the best getaway plan ever. After robbing the bank he simply walked to the car park, changed his shirt and went to get himself a well earned beer. He was quickly arrested.

We hear about people being mugged every day. This mugging story has an unusual twist. A student walking home was set upon by three vicious geese. In his haste to get away he dropped his mobile phone, which one of the geese promptly seized in its beak before making its escape. It is not yet clear whether this gaggle of geese have struck before or indeed how they intend to use the mobile phone with no hands. One thing is for sure no phones are safe when there is a goose on the loose.

A goose.

Cats just love boxes. This is Willow helping to unpack the new TV.

A lucky cat managed to survive 35 days trapped in a cargo crate after it chewed its way into a box which was then loaded onto a ship going from the US to Shanghai. Apparantly it is possible for cats to survive for long periods without water because they are able to live on the moisture that comes from condensation. Amazing.

I found this article about a rare white alligator that lives at a zoo in Knoxville. The 12 year old alligator is kept in a special enclosure with a heat lamp, as she would burn if she went out in the sun.

We all want our pets to be well looked after when we go away. We have to plan our holidays’ carefully to make sure we have someone to come and take care of our cats for the duration. No cat care means no holiday. However, even I think the idea of a Pet hotel is a little extreme. The Wag Hotel in San Francisco is just that. It features a number of creature comforts such as plasma screen TV's, toys and rugs and also has a pet chef and massage parlour for the pampered pets. With all this, why would they want to go home?

I came across this article about this cute albino hedgehog. He lives in Cumbria at a nature reserve and is the offspring on two African Pygmy hedgehogs. Apparently only one in ten thousand hedgehogs are born white with red eyes.

Researchers studying Loch Ness found not a monster but a common toad. The amazing thing being that they found it at a depth of 98 metres (324ft) down, much further than they usually expect to find amphibians. Still no monster though.

Are you looking for an excuse to eat beef jerky? Or perhaps drink alcohol and eat chocolate? Well apparently all of these things can be good for you according to this article. Beef jerky is not only high in protein; it also contains omega 3 fats most commonly associated with oily fish. Alcohol on the other hand can lower the risk of a heart attack when drunk in moderation. The most beneficial alcoholic drink has been proven to be pinot noir, a good excuse to go the bottle shop. Lastly chocolate can help improve blood flow to the heart. Now I just need to find an excuse to eat cake.

I found this cool hedge monster on the BBC website. Apparently it has taken John Dobson 17 years to perfect it.

Further to my post about Lucy's attack on Rorys hand, Rory had been been feeling hot and generally unwell for most of the weekend following the attack. When he went to the doctors he was told his hand was infected and given a huge dose of pills (pictured below) with the instructions to take one three times a day for a week.

Lucy is not a very popular cat.

Lucy the evil cat.

Having four cats I find one of the worst jobs is cleaning out the litter box. It needs doing a twice a day and sometimes even more often. It can also be an issue when we want to go away for a few days. Whilst it is easy to find people to come and feed the cats, not many people want to clean the litter tray. With this is mind I have been investigating some alternatives to the basic litter tray.

I came across the Littermaid. This handy device is an automated self cleaning litter tray. The litter tray itself has a large open design enabling and includes an automated cleaning rake. Basically what happens is the cat uses the littermaid. When the cat exits the tray it triggers the sensors, setting the timer for the cleaning cycle. Ten minutes after the cat has left the tray the cleaning cycle starts and the rake moves the clumps of waste into the receptacle. If a cat should enter the tray before the tem minutes is up then the timer simply resets itself and waits an additional ten minutes before starting the cleaning process, meaning that there is no risk of cats becoming trapped inside during the cleaning cycle. All of the collected waste is deposited in the disposable plastic trays.

To clean the littermaid you simply need to remove the sealed plastic trays which are sealed to close in any bad smells. The disposable trays are available to purchase separately but you can always line them with plastic bags to prolong their life. The littermaid is also available in several sizes to suit different households, such as the LitterMaid LM900 Mega which is designed for people who have four or more cats. This model features a larger tray area to hold more litter and the disposable trays are also deeper to hold more waste.

In all it’s a very good idea and should cut down greatly on the time spent cleaning the litter tray. It also means that when we have other people looking after the cats they would only have to replace the plastic tray every couple of days rather than cleaning the litter tray itself which is a much more pleasant experience altogether.