If you read my husband's blog you will know that our wheelie bin was stolen a few months ago. Bearing this in mind I found this article interesting. A wheelie bin which belongs to Peterborough City Council apparently turned up 1,200 miles away in Bulgaria. The bin was spotted by a council employee whilst she was on holiday. She was surprised to see the council's logo clearly in place. It makes me wonder where my bin ended up. Perhaps it is also sunning itself on a beach 1000 miles away.

I read this article about five kittens that were left to die in a bin. Due to the heavy rain the bin had filled with water and the poor things were left struggling to survive as the water got higher. The weakest of the kittens had lost their fight for survival and died before anyone found them; the other three were found desperately trying to stay afloat.

It always makes me so angry to read an article like this, in my opinion if you are responsible pet owner and you don’t want any kittens, you get your cat neutered. There should be no excuse for unwanted kittens. It strikes me that some people in today’s society need may need further education before they should be allowed to own an animal. Just as there is no excuse for having unwanted kittens, there is also no excuse for treating an animal like a piece of rubbish. Kittens never stay at animal shelters for long and I’m sure the three surviving kittens will soon find a loving home, its just a shame that a callous person caused the death of their siblings with needless cruelty. 

The three surviving kittens.

Its getting to that time of year when cat owners like myself need to start thinking about flea control. Fleas can be a real nuisance especially in a multi-cat household. With four cats if one cat gets fleas, then soon the whole house is infested. I usually find that prevention is better than cure, if at all possible. I am careful to change my cats flea collars every few months and so far we have been flea free for nearly two years, fingers crossed.

However, with pets it’s inevitable you will have to deal with fleas at some point. I found this useful website called fleascontrol.com that has a flea control guide to help you get rid of annoying fleas. The website has useful tips on what remedies work such as flea collars for prevention and flea shampoo and powder for tackling the problem. It also has useful information for removing fleas from the home to try and prevent further outbreaks.

An army of rubber ducks, blue turtles and green frogs is on its way to Britain. The 29,000 plastic toys broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago and since then have been floating around Australia, Indonesia and South America. Now they are heading here and are expected to turn up in Cornwall.

I read this article about Aldo who is a pygmy hippo. He has just been born at a zoo in Paris and is one of only a few dozen pygmy hippos in Europe. Aldo was born as a result of a breeding program to try and increase numbers of the pygmy hippo in Europe.

A group of researchers are going on an expedition to try and find Bigfoot. They will visit Michigan and meet local people who claim to have seen Bigfoot with the aim of finding out whether he does, in fact exist.

I read this story about a kitten that got trapped in a toilet after it crawled inside to explore. Fire Fighters had to remove the toilet to rescue the kitten from inside the U-bend. We are always very careful to put all the toilet seats down in our house, mainly because Oscar likes to stick his paws in water and could easily fall in and get stuck. This little kitten was very lucky; I hope he learnt that toilets are not good hiding places.

I came across this article about a new hospital in Omagh. A public consultation is being held to discuss whether the hospital will be built on a graveyard. If plans go ahead then hundreds of bodies will need to be exhumed. Don't these people watch horror movies? The first rule is never build your hospital or new house on a graveyard.

Rory still has tooth ache, so is still on a diet of soup. I made a surprisingly good batch of carrot and orange soup. Basically you just boil some carrots and onions with some chicken stock, until they are soft. Then put in the blender with some freshly squeezed orange juice and blend it until it’s smooth. Lastly just reheat it. 

It’s our first wedding anniversary today and we had planned to go out for a meal tonight to celebrate. Unfortunately my husband has tooth ache and can only eat soup so it looks like we will have to postpone it to another day. He did, however, surprise me this morning with an iPod nano, which being my first iPod, I am having a great deal of fun playing with.

My cat Oscar has always suffered from runny eyes ever since we got him form the rescue centre nearly three years ago. Unfortunately the vet has said Oscar will always have the problem and there is nothing they can do to correct it. Oscar is such a happy cat, he is always pouncing on things and he is very affectionate, despite his eye problem. He does, however, get very moody when his eyes need cleaning. As you can see from the picture Oscar has runny eyes and is feeling very sorry for himself. A simple wipe of his eyes with the soothing eye wipes from the pet store or a clean tissue and Oscar is his usual happy self and back to pouncing.

I read this interesting story about a lake in Southern Chile which has suddenly disappeared. The lake was about the size of 10 football pitches and the area where it used to be is now completely dry. One theory is that an earth tremor caused the lake to drain away.

I came across this website for the World's Ugliest Dog contest. You can vote online for who you think should win. This little guy is called Elwood and he sure is ugly.

A golfer in Nevada managed to start a grass fire when he tried to get his ball out of the rough. When he knocked his ball into the dry grass and tried to hit it back onto the fairway, the golfer managed to hit something that created a spark and the dried grass set on fire. The fire burnt 20 acres of grass before it was put out by 50 firefighters. Thats what I call a bad at golf.

My cat Lucy has a new hobby, hunting newts. We have around 50 newts in our pond at the moment and as you can see by the picture Lucy spends most of her time watching them and dipping her paws in the water to try and catch them. To date she has not actually managed to catch anything but she is very persistant.

As someone who drinks quite a lot of wine I am always in need of a constant supply. I recently signed up for Virgin Wines discovery club. Basically what that means is they will send me a case of wine every quarter, based on the wines I would usually choose. If I don't like any of the selected wine then I just let them know and I don't pay for them. I also get 15% off any of the wines in the case if I want to purchase more. My first case arrives in September, so I am interested to see how the service works for me and also if their money back guarantee is as good as it seems. More updates on this to follow.

There are many hazards to watch out for when going to the beach, but apparently one of the most dangerous is sand castles. In fact more people are injured in the US falling into holes in the sand caused by children building sand castles than they are by sharks. Lifeguards are now under orders to stop children digging deep holes in the sand.

An interesting article here which discusses whether fish have feelings or not. It talks about the assumption that fish have very short memories which has recently been challenged by scientists ,who found fish actually have a memory span of a few months. Now, I feel really bad for keeping my poor goldfish is a bowl when I younger, it must have been really bored, no wonder fish never look very happy.

Its about time for another cute cat picture. This is Oscar (top) and his brother Ollie relaxing at home after a hard days pouncing in the garden. Cats have such a hard life, don't you feel sorry for them?

The European Space Agency is currently looking for six people to go on a trip to Mars. Well. almost, its a pretend trip to Mars but the crew will experience isolation and confinement. The experiement is being run to help scientists understand how people cope in extreme conditions.