TOKYO (AP) – For one snake here, dinner became an unexpected roommate.

Zookeepers at Tokyo’s Mutsugoro Okoku zoo were stunned to find that a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster they had offered as a tasty meal to their four-foot rat snake instead became friends.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said keeper Kazuya Yamamoto.

Zookeepers presented the hamster – named Gohan, which means “meal” in Japanese – to the snake, called Aochan, in October, after the reptile refused to eat frozen mice.

The snake eventually developed an appetite for frozen rodents but has so far shown no signs of gobbling up Gohan. They’re such buddies that Gohan sometimes even climbs onto Aochan to take a nap on his back.

“Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan’s company very much,” Yamamoto said.

—

RAVENNA, Ohio (AP) – Matthew Mueller was facing a huge repair bill when he totaled the engine in his 1997 BMW. So he came up with a pretty low-down scheme: He buried the car.

Mueller rented a backhoe in October 2002 and buried the car on property owned by his father in rural northeast Ohio. Then he collected $20,000 from his insurance company by claiming it was stolen.

Police received tips last year and excavated the vehicle.

“It looked like pancake,” said prosecutor Eugene Muldowney.

Mueller, 35, of Akron, was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison for insurance fraud, tampering with evidence, falsification and receiving stolen property.

He apologized in Portage County Common Pleas Court and paid restitution to Progressive Insurance along with $15,500 to state officials for their costs digging up the vehicle.

“It was stupidity and completely out of character,” he said. “I broke the law and I tried to conceal it.”

—

—

MANCHESTER, Pa. (AP) – A cat interrupted a catnap, possibly saving two lives.

Jean Poole and her 9-month-old granddaughter were dozing Tuesday in Poole’s home in the Newberry Estates mobile home park. Poole’s 7-year-old cat, Princess, woke them up, meowing loudly.

Poole got up, smelled smoke and heard crackling flames. She went to check the wood burning stove in the living room, and saw flames at the picture window. With fire blocking the front door, Poole grabbed the baby and went out the rear door. Then she returned to get Princess.

“She woke me up. I don’t know if I’d have smelled the smoke otherwise,” Poole said.

Arriving firefighters found flames shooting through the roof.

Scott Glassmyer, assistant chief of the Newberry Township Fire Company, said the blaze apparently started accidentally in a trash can outside, ignited the underside of the mobile home, spread inside the siding and broke through to the interior.

Copy the Story Link