oddly enough

oddly enough

Honorary feline mayor to go home after dog attack

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Stubbs, the honorary feline mayor of an Alaska town, has recovered enough from severe injuries sustained in a dog mauling to be released from the animal hospital.

The 16-year-old cat’s owner, Lauri Stec, made the drive from Talkeetna to Wasilla to pick him up Monday.

Stubbs lives at Nagley’s General Store, and Stec is the manager there.

“He’s OK,” store clerk Marco Cortez said. “He’s just a little beat up.”

Stubbs has been under veterinary care after being mauled by a loose dog in Talkeetna, 115 miles north of Anchorage. The Aug. 31 attack left Stubbs with a punctured lung, a fractured sternum, bruised hips and a deep gash on his side. Stec said she knows the dog that was involved and has reported the attack with borough animal-control officials.

The quirky community of 900 elected the orangey-beige cat in a write-in campaign 15 years ago. There is no human mayor in the town, where Stubbs holds court at the store, greeting customers. He’s also a known presence at the next-door pub, where he enjoys drinking water-catnip concoctions from a wine glass.

Stubbs already was popular but gained even more fans when news spread about the attack. People from all over the world have posted get-well messages on his Facebook page, which had almost 22,000 “likes” as of Monday afternoon.

At Nagley’s General Store, two walls were covered with get-well cards and letters from all over, and visitors have been asking nonstop about Stubbs, Cortez said. So his improving condition is good news.

“Everybody’s happy,” Cortez said.

Donations also are coming in from all over for Stubbs’ recovery. Some of it will be given to an animal shelter in the region.

The attack on Stubbs was not the first strike on his nine lives. In the past, he has been shot by a BB gun and still has a BB lodged inside. He’s fallen onto a cold fryer vat and once rode on a garbage truck before jumping off.

Girl finds stolen cremation ashes in Pennsylvania park

CLAIRTON, Pa.

A girl has found cremation ashes that had been stolen from a van belonging to the dead man’s son.

Robert Smith says he thinks someone in the crime-ridden Pittsburgh suburb of Clairton mistook his father’s ashes for a powdery drug such as heroin or cocaine. He says, “You know this is a high drug area. ... It’s sad.”

Smith says his father died in June at age 75. Since then, Smith has kept his ashes in a memorial box in the center console of his van.

He discovered the ashes missing shortly before 3 p.m. Monday. They were recovered in a park about seven hours later after a girl found them.

Police are investigating the theft.

Associated Press