ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Apartment creates stir with kitchen-bathroom combo

ST. LOUIS

A St. Louis man is the new tenant of a tiny apartment with a unique layout – the kitchen and bathroom are in the same place.

Yep. The toilet, bathtub, oven and sink are all in one room. The 200-square-foot apartment is in St. Louis’ tony Central West End.

The ad and photo for the $525-per-month apartment appeared on several websites and had people flush with excitement. Harold Karabell of S.F. Shannon Real Estate Management says the new tenant loves it.

The 111-year-old building originally housed 12 luxury apartments. Karabell says that around the time of the Great Depression, it was remade into 50 small units, the studio the smallest among them.

Wildlife officials work to coax sea lion back to sea

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Wildlife officials came up with a new plan to try and coax a Steller sea lion back to the ocean after it had been shuffling through neighborhoods in Sitka for a few days.

Officials were planning Sept. 2 to build a passageway of tarps and boards to keep the adult male sea lion from seeing people, hoping the blinds would put him at ease and direct him back to sea, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The sea lion was “hiding out in the woods” on Japonski Island on Sept. 2, said Julie Speegle, a spokeswoman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was first spotted on a Sitka road Aug. 31 before waddling to various sites

NOAA wildlife officials were working with Sitka police and firefighters to direct the animal away from people and back to the water. Some watched over him Saturday night, Speegle said.

Officials have avoided tranquilizing the sea lion because an adult male can weigh up to 1,700 pounds, Speegle said. “He’s a big wild animal,” he said.

Scientists are not sure yet why the sea lion wandered into town; it’s an unusual action for the species, Speegle said. The animal appears to be healthy.

Associated Press