Everything old is new again

The return of two sorts of bad animal behavior we haven't seen in quite some time:

-In 2010, we covered the story of a pheasant attacking people in a town in England, going after grandmothers and strollers and even lying in wait for children getting off the school bus. Things have been quiet in the pheasant department since then, but now there's a report of another attack pheasant in Yorkshire. This one's rath is more single-minded: he's got it in for the mailman:

Once Mr Hutchinson has pulled up in the village, the angry bird chases him between post boxes and jumps up and attacks him. It even has a go at his van, chasing after it to peck at the tyres.
The weary postman said: “As soon as I arrive around this area it will follow me to the post box and I shall then move down to my next call and it will chase the van, pecking the tyres, then maybe it will wait for me and follow me to the letter box.”

The linked article also provides an interesting update on the previous case:

He eventually curbed his aggressive behaviour after taking up with two female pheasants.

 You'd think this points to an obvious solution, but no one seems to have noticed: the only suggestion has been to give in to the terrorism:

In an offer of help, a spokesman said: “I think what we might do is contact the post man and let him deliver to the village’s post to the hotel and the locals could pick up their post from there."

-In 2009, in a story that I somehow neglected to blog about, and that got edited out of the book, a dog ruined a teenager's school trip to Peru by eating his passport:

Officials at Chicago's O'Hare airport told 17-year-old Jon Meier the chewed-on document was fine, but authorities in Miami rejected it and wouldn't let him board the southbound aircraft.

His family's 1-year-old golden retriever, Sunshine, chewed a corner of the document, obscuring some numbers. Meier couldn't get another passport in time to join the trip with his Spanish class from Eau Claire North High School. 

I'm finally getting a chance to mention this because it's happened to someone again. Presented without comment because they're falling all over themselves to make the obvious jokes already:

A Welsh rugby star has had to pull out of an important match in France after his puppy chewed up his passport.

Jason Tovey, 23, was all packed and ready to go to the airport to fly to Toulon to play for Cardiff Blues when he found his ruined passport.

He said he was dreading telling his coach that he could not play in the Heineken Cup game on Saturday.

"It's a bit like the old schoolboy excuse that the dog ate my homework," he added.

The outside half's Labrador puppy Buster had even left his teeth marks on the passport, which now has gaping holes in it.

"I was dreading telling my team coach, I didn't think anyone would believe."

A Cardiff Blues spokesman said: "Jason rang to say what happened - he's in the doghouse."