Bad News Briefs

-Where does she think she lives? Mother's worst nightmare as snake wraps around baby:

A LISMORE mother had the fright of her life when she woke up in the early hours of Saturday to find a python wrapped around her young daughter's arm.

"The third time it really bit her deep, so I grabbed the snake's head and grabbed Zara and tried to pull them apart. It was really hard, the snake was very strong. I could not believe a snake was biting my daughter.

"This is something you hear about happening overseas, but not here."

"Not here"? This woman lives in Australia, where practically everything is always trying to kill you, even the cute wombats.

-Some thanks: Police officers hospitalised after saving feisty cat from busy road.

 Two police officers who tried to rescue a feisty feline from a busy road in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday morning, were badly bitten and scratched by the "savage" cat.

Oh, by the way, where? Australia.

-It's not all our fault: China's Program to re-introduce Pandas to the Wild Proving Difficult: 

The program to re-introduce captive pandas to the wild came to a halt after the death of the male panda, ‘Xiang Xiang’, or ‘Lucky’, which was released into the wild in 2006. Xiang Xiang died a year later after apparently being attacked by wild pandas.

-And finally:  Norfolk 911 calls for 'baby lion' turn up a coiffed dog

The 911 caller reported that the baby lion was walking down Colley Avenue, possibly looking for food, near 50th Street. So police called the Virginia Zoo around 10:15 a.m. to make sure the lions were all accounted for, said Winfield Danielson, a zoo spokesman.

Mramba, the male lion, and Zola, the female, were in their habitats.

As it turns out, it was Charles the Monarch that was out and about.

Neighborhood regulars know Charles, who hangs out with his owner at Daniel Painter's business, Daniel's Lawn & Garden Center, on Colley Avenue.

Charles is a cross of Labrador retriever and poodle shaved to look like the mascot of Old Dominion University.

Painter said police have told him several times that his dog has been mistaken for a lion. He said he's taken his dog from his Riverview home to Lafayette Park near the zoo and seen people run to their cars in shock.

"I tell people he's a Lab-a-lion, and half the people believe that."

Now, I grant that taking advantage of people's ignorance like this is somewhat amusing, but if you are looking at your own dog and getting ideas, people: the folks who leave life-sized stuffed animals lying around are bad enough. Let's not compound the problem, OK?