Pet rooster climbs into owner's bed to wake him up at 7am every morning
By Leo Black
A pet rooster climbs into his owner's bed every morning to wake him up at 7am.
A video shows Rourou the rooster clattering down the hallway, jumping on the sofa and on its owner's bed to let out an ear-splitting crow.
Owner Qi Wentong adopted Rourou, three, after his previous owner fell ill.
Rourou has been living with Qi in Tangshan in China's Heibei Province and is allowed to roam freely around the house.
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Jaw-dropping pictures show precision flying skills of U.S. Air Force demo team
By Dean Murray
The precision flying skills of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration flying team are shown in these jaw-dropping pictures.
The team conducted a so-called "photo chase" over Navy Air Facility El Centro, California, on 26 February - a chance for their skills to be caught on camera.
Pilots can be seen carrying out show-stopping manoeuvres in their F-16C Fighting Falcon supersonic fighter jets, including Top Gun-like inversions.
The Thunderbirds perform precision aerial displays to demonstrate the capabilities of the Air Force's high performance aircraft.
The team say they perform all around the world to “display the pride, precision and professionalism the U.S. Air Force represents.”
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"I'm biohacking my dogs - I spent £1,800-a-year on vegan food"
By Josie Adnitt
Meet the woman who is 'biohacking' her dogs - by feeding them a £1,800-a-year vegan diet.
Stella Paris, 37, says her pets - Tuco, a Chinese crested powder puff, and Bear, a French bulldog - are in perfect health.
She even claims the diet has reversed some of Bear’s health problems – helping her breathe easy and clearing up skin conditions.
The singer-songwriter is a vegan herself and describes herself as “anti-speciesist” - meaning she believes every animal should be treated the same.
Biohacking involves someone making incremental changes to their - or their pet's -body, diet, and lifestyle to improve their health and well-being
Stella, from south London, said: “People are very aware my dogs are vegan – people say it should be illegal or I’m abusing my dogs.
“But I am anti-speciesist, I believe every animal should be treated the same with no preference or superiority - why would I love one and kill another.
“If you love your dog, why are you sacrificing a cow, pig, chicken or turkey – don't they also deserve to live? If you love animals, you would love all animals.
“The vets are shocked by my seven-year-old Frenchie, Bear – they're shocked she has no skin conditions, and her breathing is good.
“They can see a difference between her and other Frenchies they regularly see before I even tell them she’s vegan.
“Vets know dogs can thrive and live well on a plant-based diet. I wouldn’t just give them broccoli and carrots, I give them nutritionally complete meals containing omegas, carbs and proteins.”
Stella, who studied biology and chemistry, switched to a vegan lifestyle six years ago and makes content online promoting veganism and campaigning against animal cruelty.
She first made the switch to vegan dog food for rescue pup Bear four years ago and adopted Tuco shortly after.
And Stella claims the diets have not only cured Bear’s physical health ailments but helped with emotional problems suffered by the rescue dog too.
The two pooches are treated to nutritionally complete dog food costing £150 per month and get regular sweet potato and mango-based treats.
Other treats include Brazil nuts, walnuts, apples and raw fruits like sugar snaps.
“As vegans we don’t call them pets, we call them animal companions, I would consider being called an owner an insult,” said Stella.
“Domesticated dogs should be fed a vegan diet for their health – when dogs eat meat they can get worms, they’re not obligate carnivores.
“A few friends have also changed their dogs to plant based diets when they found out it was possible, and they've gone vegan too."
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Widow visited by police after accompanying husband to assisted dying clinic in Switzerland
By Ben Barry
A widow was visited by police after she accompanied her husband to an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.
Dan Tuckley, 46, went to the hospital with a muscle strain after a heavy weights session at the gym - but tests revealed he had kidney cancer.
It grew five-fold in just a month and doctors told him it was terminal and there was nothing they could do for him.
Just four days later he booked a spot at an assisted dying clinic near Basel, Switzerland - a quest which cost him £20,000
His family said that Dan wanted to kill the cancer before it had the chance to kill him.
And after a family meal where he ordered food and wine, he was no longer well enough to drink, he was given a syringe filled with drugs.
He died listening to My Way by Frank Sinatra, surrounded by his wife, Sarah, 46, and siblings Kate, 29, Phillip, 48 and Matthew, 36.
In December 2022, Sarah was visited by the police who told her that would not be pursuing what they called an 'assisted suicide investigation'.
Sarah, a business analyst, from Derby, Derbyshire, said: "I opened the door and they said it was Derbyshire police, I knew there was a risk but when they said police it didn't even register in my head.
"They said they would not be pursuing an investigation and kept calling it assisted suicide.
"I kept telling them that it was not assisted suicide and it was assisted dying.
"Dan fought for his country and we were made to feel like criminals for bringing something forward that was going to happen in a matter of days.
"It seems alien to me that we don't have the choice - it is like trying to deprive a woman from having an abortion.
"Dan did not want to pass in a hospital or with people just watching.
"He wanted to pass on his terms with those who loved him the most and most importantly while he was still him."
In July 2022, Dan had pain in his stomach and thought he had pulled a muscle at the gym.
He went to Derby Royal Hospital that evening "just to be cautious"
A scan the next day, on August 17, showed a mass behind the stomach.
"The vibe was that it would be highly treatable," said Sarah.
But a second scan showed cancerous cells.
Then had a PET scan and a biopsy diagnosed renal medullary carcinoma - a rare cancer of the kidney - and he was told he had one year to live.
Within days his symptoms got worse and he was unable to digest food.
Then a month later in September 2022, a scan showed Dan's cancer had grown five-fold and he was told there was nothing doctors could do and he was sent home.
Dan's sister, Kate, a teacher, from Gosport, Hampshire, said: "This news was unbelievable.
"No one had even had the time to come to terms with the initial
diagnosis, let alone that we would now be losing him.
"This was so sudden and we knew we needed to be together.
"We'd always had a strong sibling bond.
"We could see how thin and ill he was- unable to eat anything now for over a week and struggling to talk. His condition had progressed so fast - far too fast."
Since his diagnosis, Dan started researching assisted dying and found a clinic near Basel, Switzerland where he would go to die.
And on September 20 Dan, Sarah and his siblings went on what they dubbed 'Operation F*ck Cancer' on a private jet.
Kate said: "We collected the hire car and drove through Switzerland, the backdrop of breath-taking vistas only adding to the utterly unreal situation we were all suffocating inside.
"Tuesday night we stayed in a beautiful hotel in the mountains. Dan came to dinner with us that evening.
"He chose the wine we all drank, because he could not drink it, and he chose a meal, but he could not eat it.
"That is another cruel aspect of this condition.
"Even criminals on death row are granted a last meal, but that was yet another thing stolen from Dan."
The next day - his last full one alive - they needed to get £10,000 out to pay for the rest of Dan's deposit for the clinic.
Sarah said: "It was like we were performing an international heist. All we wanted to do was bring a dying man some peace.
"We were driving around Switzerland trying to get money out and we wasn't sure if we were going to get arrested or not trying to get all this money out."
On September 22, 2022, Dan and his family went to the clinic near Basel, Switzerland where Dan died.
Kate said: "Dan wanted music on so we had music on.
"We were all there around the bed, trying to laugh and joke.
"We did our final selfie - the doctor came in and said when he is ready he can go.
"We were talking to him and he said it was time and he was dead within 10 seconds - it was so peaceful and quiet."
In December 2022, Sarah was getting ready to leave the house when she got a knock on the door.
Sarah and Kate said that the family were made to feel like criminals and that nobody should have to experience it.
Kate said: "They said they had investigated it but there were no charges.
"I am annoyed that she had the police knock on her door and she was on her own.
"That makes me cross, I would have liked to be with her when that happened.
"It makes me furious that our family had to go through this whole process.
"It makes me cross that Dan was in a state where he was going to die."
Nathan Stilwell, assisted dying campaigner for Humanists UK, said: "This is yet another indication of the overwhelming appetite for our outdated law on assisted dying to be changed.
"There is no issue in public life that the public backs more strongly than assisted dying."
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Woman suffers burns when her pressure cooker exploded while cooking soup
By Leo Black
A woman's face swelled up like balloon after she suffered second and third degree burns when her pressure cooker exploded - while cooking soup.
Becky Fargo, 43, was cooking potato soup for her daughter Jadyn Young, 13, when the pressure cooker pressurized unexpectedly and exploded.
Becky, of South Webster, Ohio, USA, had set the machine to cook without pressure, something she had done several times before.
But when she tried to get the soup out, the cooker exploded leaving 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her face, chest and neck.
Becky, a restaurant manager, said: "I had used it about five-to-ten times in a two-year period and I had mostly used it for chili and other slow-cooker foods.
"There was no issue at all but something was different this time."
Becky was blown back by the blast and the boiling hot soup coated her chest, face and neck, sticking to her skin.
After running to wash the soup off, she woke her daughter up, who called for help.
She said: "I ripped my shirt off and splashed water on myself because the soup was stuck to me and it was burning.
"The explosion knocked me back four feet. It was huge, the lid broke."
When the ambulance arrived an air-lift was called as the nearest hospital with a burn unit was two hours away.
She was treated for a couple of hours and sent home with an ointment for her wounds.
Becky said: "The burns got progressively worse over the next 36 hours. My face swelled up like a balloon.
"Days four to nine were excruciating. They were open, oozing, crusty and they just burned. My chest was on fire."
The burns persisted for months, first swelling and then peeling and she was forced to take three weeks off from work to treat her injuries.
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“I have a pet pigeon – it lives in my apartment and kisses and cuddles me”
By Amy Reast
A woman has a pet pigeon who lives in her apartment and loves to kiss and cuddle her.
Aleksandra Bezrukova, 25, discovered a pair of eggs which hatched baby pigeons - known as squabs - on her balcony and she fell in love.
After they grew up and flew away, Aleksandra became determined to raise a pigeon of her own.
After finding a pet pigeon that needed re-homing she took the bird in and named her Coco.
Coco has been living in Aleksandra's apartment with her husband, Alexandre Pastemps, 29, a crypto trader, since October.
Both of them adore Coco and she grows more friendly by the day - even giving Aleksandra kisses and cuddles.
Aleksandra calls her a "little sweetheart" and reckons pigeons have a worse reputation than they deserve.
She claims even once-skeptical family members are smitten with Coco now too.
Aleksandra, a clothing shop owner, living in Chloet, France, said: "When those eggs first hatched on my balcony, something inside me woke up.
"They were so cute, I spent hours each day looking at them.
"When they grew up and flew away, I was heartbroken - so I researched online about having a pet pigeon of my own.
"As soon as I saw Coco I loved her and our relationship grows each day.
"Pet pigeons are so lovely - they're super smart and clever, and cute.
"I think people who feel negatively just don't understand them."
Aleksandra found herself captivated by pigeons after seeing two little eggs in a nest on her balcony in August 2023.
She left them where they were and saw the parents tending to the nest for over a month - then eventually two little chicks were born.
Over time the chicks grew and learnt to walk, then flap their wings - before Aleksandra had to say goodbye for good when they flew the nest.
She said: "I looked at them every day, I would just open the window and sit and watch them.
"I was heartbroken when they flew away.
"Something inside me woke up - I started to be curious about pigeons and watched videos about pigeons as pets.
"I decided I wanted a pet pigeon too."
After finding a local man looking to re-home a seven-month-old pigeon, Aleksandra "fell in love" and the rest was history.
She said: "When I saw her I loved her, and I wanted to give her the best life.
"She was super cute, and let me take her from the guy’s hands straight away."
When Aleksandra first brought Coco home in October 2023, she said the bird was timid - but over time became more trusting.
The first milestone was landing on Aleksandra's head, before nipping her cheeks softly - the equivalent to a pigeon kissing affectionately.
In December, Coco let Aleksandra cuddle her for the first time and sat on her shoulder.
Now they share a special bond, and pigeon cuddles are a regular occurrence.
Coco lives in their apartment, and sleeps in a cage but is free to fly around indoors all day long.
While it can be dangerous for house-trained birds to fly outdoors on their own, Aleksandra is looking to get Coco a leash so she can fly outside safely.
She is also looking to start teaching Coco tricks - such as responding to her name, and recognising different colours.
Aleksandra says most people are supportive - but she had a few negative comments online.
She said: "People when they see Coco, they say how beautiful she is.
"She is super white with beautiful brown eyes and a fancy tail - they ask if she is even a pigeon.
"Most people think she is a sweetheart but some people say pigeons are dirty and spread disease.
"But humans spread dirty things in the world too."
She added: "Pet pigeons are like little puppies, sometimes when I get home Coco welcomes me back through the door.
"Sometimes when she coos, I coo back and we speak in a pigeon language together.
"Pigeons can be super smart and affectionate. They're such interesting pets."
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