Members of the animal kingdom behaving oddly. Strictly rationed.
A 3-foot alligator wandered through the open back door of a bagel shop in Southport, North Carolina, dashed through the kitchen and stood at the front counter as if waiting to order – sending the owner scrambling for a chair.
Firefighters in Austin, Texas, climbed a ladder and used a hydraulic spreader – the Jaws of Life – to widen a tree hollow and free a raccoon that had got its head stuck. It looked lifeless afterwards, but it was just exhausted.
A male emu at a Suffolk farm has failed to fertilise any of the 14 eggs laid by his one-eyed companion Eyeleen – perhaps because he doesn't fancy her enough. The upside: each egg makes scrambled egg for four.
A red-shouldered hawk found stranded in a driveway near Roanoke, Virginia, had nothing wrong with her – except that weeks of snacking on the neighbours' free-range chickens had made her too heavy to take off.
A Grand Rapids Police Department K-9 called Rocco needed surgery after scoffing garden rocks coated in slow-cooker beef juice. His handler realised how many when he could hear them in the dog's stomach.
A rare northern nutcracker turned up in Mundesley, Norfolk, and so did up to 200 birdwatchers. The buses were diverted, the police brought cones, and one teenager looked out of his window to find 50 cameras pointing at him.
Police in Manassas Park, Virginia, detained a runaway sheep after a 'brief food pursuit' through a housing estate. No charges yet, but officers suspect 'a few outstanding baaa-violations'.
Staff at a Worcestershire McDonald's got a shock when a rider and his pony, Sparky, rolled – well, trotted – up to the window.
A deer charged across a car park in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, bumped into a woman leaving a launderette, then leapt through the front window and clambered over the machines before leaving the way it came in.
A black bear wandered into a family car in Juneau, Alaska, at 12.30am, got shut in, leaned on the horn and shredded the interior until police freed it with a rope.
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