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By TIMES WIRES
Published June 21, 2007

Animal obit

Snake, and both of its heads, dies at Aquarium

We, 8, the two-headed rat snake that has been the main attraction at the World Aquarium in St. Louis, died of natural causes over the weekend. More than a million people have seen the snake on display at the museum since caretaker Leonard Sonnenschein bought it from a breeder in Indiana for $15, 000. "It's terrible news, " Sonnenschein said. "People come in every day and say: 'I'm here to see the two-headed snake.'" Well, thanks to a taxidermist, in a few weeks, they'll be able to again. We just won't be moving as much. For anyone interested, We wasn't a he or a she ... or, actually, We was a he and a she. We'll leave it at that.

Animal rescue

Save the cat! And the rat! Stat!

Firefighters in Pocatello, Idaho, got the chance to use their spiffy small-animal resuscitator when they found four cats and a rat in a burning apartment. "I would have put down $10, 000 that anything in that cage was dead, " said Kirby Jonas, who found the rat under the blackened bedding in its cage.

Here kitty, kitty

The cat in Parkersburg, W.Va., wasn't in any imminent danger, but everyone really wanted to get the 2-pound kitten out of the storm drain, and it didn't want to come. So what does it take to get a 2-pound kitten out of a storm drain? Two fire trucks, five firefighters, a team of animal rescuers and 250 gallons of water. After banging tools at one end of the pipe didn't make it move, firefighters sent the water through the pipe, hoping wet feet would coax the kitty to be on his way. After 90 minutes, that worked. It was taken to the Humane Society, and forget it, because it has already been adopted.

Peace & quiet

His sleep almost put roomie under

Frederik Moelner, 17, was laid up in a hospital in Landshut, Germany, after a nasty car crash. Ananova.com reports he was having trouble getting to sleep, and rather than asking staff for something to help him nod off, he went after what he saw as the problem: that pesky machine that kept beeping next to his bed. Well, it seems that the machine was also right next to the bed of Hermann Berghof, 76. And Berghof was kind of using it. It was a life support machine that kept him breathing. Hospital staffers noticed the problem before any irreversible damage was done, but police have decided to give Moelner a good talking-to.

Compiled by staff writer Jim Webster from Times wire services and other sources.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 00:36:17]