In the news!

You have to love regional newspapers - I picked up a copy of the Lethbridge Herald (Alberta) on 23 September and there it was on the front page (as it should be too). "Raccoon attacks Claresholm senior". The raccoon - described as crazed - apparently attacked the victim outside the Porcupine Hills Seniors Lodge. Some friends kicked the raccoon until it let go and then dragged her to safety - the raccoon then "continued trying to get at them through the glass doors".

The Royal Canadian Mounties were called in and confirmed that the senior had suffered from a raccoon bite (I'm thinking the crazed raccoon on the end of her leg on or about the time the bite occurred was the giveaway).

The raccoon has not yet been located but we know the mounties always get their man so an arrest is surely imminent.

Quirky Canada

Seen in Banff outside a pet shop - 'Pet food, Live pets'.

And a full page story from the 'Rocky Mountain Outlook' about two women friends who had just dug up a 'time capsule' they had buried 14 years previously. It seems that one night in 1994 after drinking their share of red wine they had driven out into the bush and buried a white bucket full of bits and pieces.

I think the story swings on the following quote "The women...sit around a hole in the ground, sipping champagne. Smiles beam through their tear stained faces." Powerful stuff.

And the contents of the bucket?

In order, as listed by the newspaper, a purchase slip for the plastic bucket, mouldy letters - one written in lipstick, another with a Jamaican $20 bill and a condom attached, a foul smelling cigar, pictures of young children in Halloween costumes (no not their own children), a movie listing promoting True Lies with Arnold Schwartzenegger"

They must have drunk a lot of wine.