Dogs in wolves’ clothing

Officials with the Parks County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office went out hunting for wolves after a concerned citizen claimed to have spotted the predators April 25 near Fairplay, Colo. A grainy, zoomed-in video sent by the citizen showed large, four-legged beasts loose near an elk herd. After an investigation, sheriff’s deputies determined the animals were actually St. Bernard dogs on the lam rather than a pack of wolves. The owner of the five St. Bernards had been cited days earlier for not keeping the animals locked up after another escape.

Housing Catch-22

It’s a chicken or egg problem. Builders in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, say they can’t build more homes, mostly because they can’t find enough homes to house the workers needed for construction. Skyrocketing demand in the Canadian city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island for housing has led construction firms to consider bringing in out-of-town construction crews to build more homes. But they have no place to put them. The CEO of a local construction firm said he considered bringing in outside help to finish a number of home projects but couldn’t find lodging. “There’s just no availability, whether to rent or buy,” CEO Chad Bryden told Capital Daily. “Affordability is a factor too, but availability is the biggest factor.”

To the moon, Canada!

The long arm of Canadian law just got a little longer. Lawmakers in Ottawa voted in April to extend the nation’s jurisdiction for criminal prosecution to the moon. According to the bill amending Canada’s criminal code, Canada now reserves the right to prosecute Canadians who, on the lunar surface or en route to the moon, commit a crime. The first Canadian astronaut slated to travel to the moon will embark in 2024.

Substitute groom

An impatient Indian father of the bride changed plans abruptly when the man intending to marry his daughter didn’t arrive promptly to the wedding. When the groom showed up four hours late to the April 22 wedding, the bride’s father accused the man of being drunk and refused to allow the event to proceed. Instead, the bride’s father found a suitable wedding guest and had his daughter marry him.

77-year-old cake

At long last, an Italian woman will finally be able to enjoy the cake owed to her on her 13th birthday. In 1945, hungry American soldiers confiscated Meri Mion’s birthday cake while fighting Germans near her home in Vicenza in Northern Italy during the final days of World War II. But on April 28, officials from the U.S. Army replaced the cake, just days ahead of her 90th birthday. American soldiers, including Italian garrison commander Col. Matthew Gomlak, were on hand to sing happy birthday for Mion in both Italian and English. “We will eat that dessert with all my family, remembering this wonderful day that I will never forget,” she told reporters.

Deadly souvenir

An ill-advised vacation keepsake caused a panic at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, on April 28. Airport security officials discovered an unexploded artillery shell in the luggage of an American family traveling home, causing airport staff to dive behind concrete pillars. The family had declared the shell at airport security, saying they picked up the souvenir during a visit to the Golan Heights. What the family did not realize was that they were carrying live ordinance used during the 1967 Six-Day War. One Israeli passenger who fell onto a baggage carousel was injured in the panic, but the passengers were allowed to board their flight. Security officials safely disposed of the live shell.

Clever like a fox

An overnight raid by a wild fox left 25 flamingos dead at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., May 2. Zookeepers say the fox got into the enclosure with the zoo’s flamingos through a baseball-sized hole in the mesh fence ringing the enclosure. “We’re still in shock right now,” Zoo director Brandie Smith told The Washington Post a day after the attack. A wildlife biologist provided the fox’s motive, saying that to a wild fox, flamingos may as well just be tall chickens. Zoo officials conducted a sweep of the enclosure the day before the attack and believe the fox chewed a hole through the mesh overnight in order to kill over one-third of the zoo’s 74 flamingos.