ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Colorado couple calls it quits over fight to keep catwalk

DURANGO, Colo.

A Durango-area couple is giving up their fight to keep a 13-foot escape route for their cats outside their Colorado apartment.

Martha Spence and her husband built the catwalk from a window to a nearby tree to allow their two cats to go outside from their second-floor unit whenever they wanted. The Durango Herald reported that they agreed to take it down recently at the request of the development’s homeowners association.

The couple had planned to appeal the request, but Spence said her husband wasn’t able to take off work to pursue it.

Neighbors objected to the look of the catwalk and also worried children would try to use it. In addition, the association says its regulations bar pets from roaming free in the development.

Bold turkey: Woman hits cop to kick smoking habit

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Think you’ve heard of every way possible to quit smoking? Etta Mae Lopez came up with a new one: Slap a cop and go to jail, where smoking isn’t allowed.

Lopez smacked Sacramento County sheriff’s Deputy Matt Campoy in the face last week as he left the main jail at the end of his shift.

He grabbed her and took her inside the jail, where she slapped his arm as soon as he turned her loose.

Once she was handcuffed, the 5-foot, 1-inch Lopez told Campoy she picked him because he was in uniform and she wanted to make sure she struck a law-enforcement officer.

“She waited all day for a deputy to come out, because she knew if she assaulted a deputy she would go to jail and be inside long enough to quit her smoking habit,” Campoy told The Sacramento Bee.

The deputy said he tried to sidestep Lopez as he left the jail through the usual gathering of family members who linger outside the facility a few blocks from the state Capitol.

“I stepped to the left again and she suddenly stepped into me and slapped my face,” he said. “I’ve been telling everybody that I have a new Irish name: Nick O’Derm,” a reference to the NicoDerm brand of nicotine patches smokers use to try to kick the habit.

Lopez, 31, pleaded no contest to mis-demeanor battery on a peace officer and was sentenced last Thursday to 63 days in jail, with credit for the three days she served last week, said Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the county district attorney’s office.

Lopez also was sentenced to five days for violating her probation from a 2010 drunken-driving conviction.

Among the conditions included in her sentence: an order to have no contact with deputies.

Associated Press