Rhode Island Officials Release Results Of Santa Cookie DNA Test

CUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) — The Rhode Island Department of Health says it was not able “to definitively confirm or refute the presence of Santa” in a young girl’s home after she requested to have a partially eaten cookie and a couple of gnawed-on carrot sticks tested for DNA to see if Santa Claus is real.The department tweeted on Monday that “we all agree that something magical may be at play.”The department said it found no complete matches to anyone in the Combined DNA Index System but said there was a partial match “to a 1947 case centered around 34th Street in New York City,” referring to the movie “Miracle on 34th Street.” It said it would need more DNA samples “from other known Santa encounters to make a definitive match.”Advertisement The “good news” is that the lab did find the presence of DNA closely matching Rangifer tarandus, known as reindeer, when testing the carrots, the department said.The girl, a Cumberland resident, had sent the cookie and carrot sticks to the town’s police department to ask if they can be tested for DNA, Chief Matthew Benson said on Friday. Benson forwarded the “evidence” to the state’s Department of Health-Forensic Sciences unit for analysis.RelatedSanta ClausCumberlandIndex SystemRhode Island Department of HealthMiracle 34th StreetGirl Asks Rhode Island Police To Analyze Christmas Cookie For Santa's DNA



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Coveted Hot Dog Statue Stolen From West Virginia Restaurant Finally Returns Home

A statue of a hot dog is shown at the Dairy Winkle restaurant, April 14, 2022, in the Campbells Creek ssection of Charleston, W.Va. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office says the statue, which was stolen from the business during a break-in sometime after a Jan. 11, 2023, fire, has been returned. (Lori Kersey/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)via Associated PressCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The owner of a West Virginia restaurant that was heavily damaged by fire has his coveted hot dog statue back.The “Wienerman” statue was stolen from the Dairy Winkle in Campbells Creek during a break-in sometime after the Jan. 11 fire, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release

A tip led deputies to a location where the statue was found undamaged. It was returned to restaurant owner Kerry Ellison, the statement said.Investigators have not identified a suspect and are seeking information about the theft.The short statue depicts a hot dog licking its lips and holding a bottle of mustard while pouring a bottle of ketchup on its head.Ellison hopes to reopen the restaurant later this year.

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Bunnies Celebrate Year Of The Rabbit In Style At Hong Kong Resort

A staff member feeds a rabbit at the Bunny Style Hotel in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Anthony Kwan)via Associated PressHONG KONG (AP) — Rabbits scamper around a play area in a climate-controlled building in suburban Hong Kong, some climbing a castle made of wood while others explore a cotton tunnel.In one of the world’s most densely populated cities, where most apartments range from small to miniscule, rabbits are popular pets

And when their owners are away, there are rabbit lovers ready to look after their lonely pets at Bunny Style, a luxury rabbit resort.That’s especially evident this month, as the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in Hong Kong is spurring a surge in travel for the Lunar New Year to welcome the Year of the Rabbit.Donna Li, the owner of Bunny Style, said she’s fully booked for the holiday and keeps her charges happy with regular exercise, parties, spa treatments and lots of carrots.“We aim to provide a secure environment,” Li said.Li, who has two pet rabbits of her own, set up Bunny Style in June, starting with just a playroom offering space to hop and relief from Hong Kong’s hot, humid weather

“To begin with, my idea was mainly about setting up a safe indoor play space with a suitable temperature for rabbits,” Li said.As the government began lifting COVID-19 restrictions in September, Li sensed a need and swiftly set up boarding facilities. They were full over Christmas and Li has already begun taking bookings for Easter.With 15 rabbits, Li and her staff will be busy over the holiday, the most important in the Chinese calendar. Apart from feeding — some owners order special vegetable cakes in advance — there are hair-brushing, nail trimming and exercising to be managed.“I think rabbits understand what people say. They can sense whether we are being nice to them and look after them well,” Li said. “And so when I look after them, I talk to them a lot, telling them how beautiful and cute they are.”A livestream and video clips are also provided, “so we knew that our rabbit was out actively hopping and enjoying itself,” said Rainbow Li, who found Bunny Style on the internet and boarded her rabbit while she and her partner traveled over Christmas

Bunny Style charges about $15 per night, including half an hour of supervised play time. Beauty treatments and special menu items are extra.The animals’ popularity in Hong Kong has inevitably led to some owners finding they’ve bit off more than they can chew. For that, there are shelters such as Tolobunny, set up in 2015 and dedicated to finding new homes for abandoned rabbits, often at public adoption events.Spokesperson Bridget Ng is already anticipating a surge of calls to the shelter’s 24-hour rescue hotline in the months after the new year. Already, its volunteers are temporarily housing 42 rabbits given up by their owners.“Our observation is that throughout the year, especially at festive holidays like Valentine’s Day, Easter or Christmas, there are more people who want to keep rabbits, but after a few months, there will be more abandoned rabbits,” Ng said.Homeless dogs and cats still get more care, but “I hope there will be more attention and resources for all kinds of abandoned animals,” founder Winky Cheng said.

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At 23 Years And Counting, This Ohio Chihuahua Is World's Oldest Living Dog

var label_63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a = "ctx-wait-63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a"; var defer_63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a = document.currentScript; console.time(label_63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a); window.waitForGlobal( () => window.HP && window.HP.params && window.HP.params.clientUUID && window.localStorage && defer_63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a && defer_63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a.parentElement.dataset.ready === "true", () => { console.timeEnd(label_63cad62ce4b0c8e3fc76f74a); Pebbles, a toy fox terrier that previously held the record, died in October, five months before her 23rd birthday.Spike’s owner, Rita Kimball, said she never expected her beloved pet would become a canine Methuselah when he first joined the family 13 years ago. He was scrounging around the parking lot of a local grocery store when he decided to adopt the Kimballs.“We went out to the car and he followed us and he jumped right in ... It was meant to be,” she told Dayton CBS affiliate WHIO-TV.From the looks of it, Spike’s early years were tough, Kimball told Guinness World Records.“He had been shaved up his back, had blood stains around his neck from a chain or rope, and looked pretty rough,” she said. “The clerk in the grocery told us he had been there for three days, and they were feeding him scraps.”Advertisement Spike, a 23-year-old Chihuahua living in Camden, Ohio, is the world's oldest living dog, according to Guinness World Records.Guinness World RecordsA vet determined the little dog was already 10 years old by the time the Kimballs found him.Rita Kimball told Guinness she named him “Spike” because “he had the attitude of a big dog.”“He is friendly but since he’s almost blind and hard of hearing, he gets testy at times and just wants to be left alone,” she said.Despite his advanced age, Spike remains active and often takes walks with Kimball around the farm.“He visits with the animals in the barn: cows, horses, and barn cats,” she said.“When he was younger, he tried intimidating the cows and horses by barking and trying to chase them. Now they just stare at him and don’t even move.”Kimball said she had no idea Spike was a record-setter until she saw Jimmy Fallon talk about Pebbles on his show and realized her pooch was possibly older.“Most of our family knew that Spike was old, but didn’t know he had a shot at being the oldest in the world,” Kimball told Guinness World Records. “Now that he is a record holder, they see him as a celebrity.”Advertisement

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Girl Asks Rhode Island Police To Analyze Christmas Cookie For Santa's DNA

Cheerful Santa Claus holding plate with cookie while sitting at his chair.ljubaphoto via Getty ImagesCUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) — A young Rhode Island girl has finally figured out how to determine if Santa Claus is real — DNA.The Cumberland resident sent a partially eaten cookie as well as a couple of gnawed-on carrot sticks to the town’s police department to ask if they can be tested for DNA, Chief Matthew Benson said in a statement Friday

“I took a sample of a cookie and carrots that I left for Santa and the reindeer on Christmas Eve and I was wondering if you could take a sample of DNA and see if Santa is real?” the girl wrote. Her name was not disclosed.Benson forwarded the “evidence” to the state’s Department of Health-Forensic Sciences unit for analysis.“Items to be examined for traces of DNA and compared with profiles on record for the above-named suspect/aliases,” the department form says.The charge? Failure to finish snacks.Results are pending.“This young lady obviously has a keen sense for truth and the investigative process and did a tremendous job packaging her evidence for submission. We will do our very best to provide answers for her,” Benson said



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Dog Stuck In Tree Rescued By Firefighters After Squirrel-Chasing Mishap

var label_63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546 = "ctx-wait-63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546"; var defer_63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546 = document.currentScript; console.time(label_63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546); window.waitForGlobal( () => window.HP && window.HP.params && window.HP.params.clientUUID && window.localStorage && defer_63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546 && defer_63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546.parentElement.dataset.ready === "true", () => { console.timeEnd(label_63c315f4e4b0d6724fce7546); Izzy the dog before his rescue from the tree.Caldwell Fire DepartmentThe dog’s name is Izzy, his owner Christina Danner said in the comments. He got up there while chasing a squirrel, though Danner noted he was “never even close” to catching it.“Perhaps, he will not be so persistent, next time, in chasing squirrels,” wrote the fire department. They noted that Izzy was now safe and sound.Though firefighters are often associated with rescuing cats from trees, whether they’ll actually do so depends on the fire department and the circumstances. Last year, a cat named Hank in Washington, D.C., made headlines after being stuck in a 60-foot-tall tree for five days

In Hank’s case, the city fire department said they couldn’t help him. Ultimately, workers with the animal welfare nonprofit Humane Rescue Alliance were able to rig a contraption using ropes and a crate to get the cat down.“Cats have an amazing ability to climb up trees,” the Humane Rescue Alliance’s Dan D’Eramo told The Washington Post at the time, “but actually, they aren’t that good at climbing down.”RelatedAnimalsDogs PetsFat Boy The Cat Finally Rescued After 9 Days Atop Power PoleFirefighter Brings Home Cat Rescued From Devastating Animal Shelter Blaze'Panther' The Cat Finally Rescued After Days-Long Stay Atop 36-Foot Utility Pole



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Dallas Police Join Search For Zoo's Missing Clouded Leopard

A missing clouded leopard shut down the Dallas Zoo on Friday as police helped search for the animal that officials described as not dangerous and likely hiding somewhere on the zoo grounds. (Dallas Zoo via AP)via Associated PressDALLAS (AP) — A missing clouded leopard shut down the Dallas Zoo on Friday as police helped search for the animal that officials described as not dangerous and likely hiding somewhere on the zoo grounds.The small cat weighs about 20-25 pounds (9-11 kilograms), said Harrison Edell, executive vice president of animal care and conservation at the Dallas Zoo. The search inside Texas’ largest zoo was focused on scouring trees, which Edell said clouded leopards like to climb

The zoo tweeted that the missing cat, named Nova, was a “serious situation,” but Edell said the animal posed no threat to humans.“If anything, she’s real nervous and afraid of people,” Edell said.He did not say how the animal escaped its enclosure. Another clouded leopard at the zoo, Nova’s sister, was still in its habitat, Edell said.Animals have escaped enclosures from the Dallas Zoo before. Most notably was in 2004, when a 340-pound (154-kilogram) gorilla named Jabari jumped over a wall and went on a 40-minute rampage that injured three people before police shot and killed the animal.

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Medical Group's Holiday Text Message Turns Into The Stuff Of Nightmares

In a disastrous mistake, Askern Medical Practice told patients in a mass text that they had aggressive lung cancer.Google MapsThousands of patients at a British medical clinic received some horrific news just before Christmas when they were told via text that they had aggressive lung cancer.But the messages from the Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster, England, turned out to be a mistake.“Please accept our sincere apologies for the previous text message sent,” the clinic said in a follow-up, according to NPR. “This has been sent in error. Our message to you should have read We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”Advertisement GP surgery accidentally texts patients they have 'aggressive lung cancer' - instead of Happy Christmas https://t.co/SW0gHfmxkP— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 29, 2022The BBC said it took up to an hour for patients to receive the correction. Patient Sarah Hargreaves told the broadcaster she had been waiting for biopsy results when she received the message and “felt sick to my teeth and broke down.” Patient Chris Reed told The Sun that his partner burst into tears upon hearing the news. He called the clinic, but couldn’t get through ― and then went in person.“They went from, ‘You’ve got lung cancer’ to ‘Merry Christmas’ in about an hour,” he told the newspaper. “Unbelievable.”Advertisement Patient Vicky Southgate said on Facebook that she was “shaking and close to tears” after getting the message, according to The Independent. And patient Carl Chegwin told NPR he would not be returning to the practice.“That kind of thing breaks people and drives people to despair,” he was quoted as saying.The clinic has not publicly commented on the matter after sending out the correction message.



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