Dog Saves Cat In Rare Blood Transfusion Op

A dog has saved the life of a cat by providing its blood for a transfusion.

Macy the Labrador stepped in when Rory the ginger tom became ill after eating rat poison.

Vet Kate Heller, of Tauranga in New Zealand, said the feeble feline was fading fast and needed an immediate transfusion to survive.

She searched for a suitable donor cat but could not find one quickly enough.

Ms Heller decided to take a gamble and use dog blood to try to save the animal, knowing Rory would die instantly if she gave him the wrong type.

Rory's owner Kim Edwards frantically called up her friend Michelle Whitmore, who volunteered Macy as a blood donor.

The vet took 120ml of blood from the 18-month-old Labrador and transferred it to the cat, which started to recover within an hour.

Ms Heller said she had never performed the procedure before, but after taking advice from an animal blood laboratory, decided it could be the only way to save Rory.

Ms Heller said: "I hadn't heard about it or read about it. It's not in any textbook.

"People are going to think it sounds pretty dodgy - and it is - but hey, we've been successful and it's saved it's life."

Ms Edwards said the cat appeared to have come through its ordeal unscathed, seemingly without any canine side effects.

"The vets just went above and beyond... it's incredible that it worked," she said.

"Rory is back to normal and we don't have a cat that barks or fetches the paper."

Interspecies transfusion, as acts like a dog giving a cat blood are called, has only been successfully carried out a handful of times.

According to experts, cats do not have antibodies that reject dogs' blood, so a transfusion may buy enough time for the cat to regenerate its own red blood cells.

New Jersey Candidates Faces In Corn Maze

A New Jersey farmer has cut the faces of Governor Chris Christie and his challenger into a cornfield maze to highlight their election battle.

The corn depicting Mr Christie, a Republican, and his Democratic rival Barbara Buono was planted in June at the Stony Hill Farm in Chester.

Dale Davis has told Newark's newspaper The Star-Ledger that he chose the maze to get people interested in the race.

Mr Christie is way ahead of his rival in opinion polls, leading in every demographic group.

He is seen as a viable contender for the 2016 Republican nomination for president.

The maze will open to the paying public from August 31. The election is on November 5.

Swarm Of Bees Attacks Couple And Kills Horses

A couple exercising their two miniature horses have been attacked by a swarm of around 30,000 bees, stinging the animals so many times that they died.

Kristen Beauregard, 44, was stung about 200 times and her boyfriend around 50 times as the insects chased and followed them in Pantego, north Texas.

She said they were sweeping up "piles and piles" of bees and "it was like a bad movie".

Ms Beauregard said everything was normal as she exercised Trump, a Shetland pony, until he started jumping and kicking.

Suddenly, a dark cloud of bees appeared and began stinging both of them. When their attempts to swipe the bees away failed, she jumped into the pool and the pony followed.

She said: "It got all dark, like it was night time, there were so many bees.

"We were trying to stand up in the water but every time we stuck our heads out for air, they would cover us and start stinging us.

"We were trying to breathe and they were stinging us in the face and in the nose."

She escaped into her rental home, with bees flying behind her and crashing into windows, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Horrified, she watched Trump frantically run all over the yard, rubbing against bushes to wipe off the bees and stumbling.

Her boyfriend, whom she declined to identify, called 911 as the bees overwhelmed Trump and a second horse, Chip.

She said firefighters sprayed a foam substance to clear the bees, and dragged the horses to a pasture to be treated by police and paramedics.

Show horse Chip, six, died before a vet arrived, while Trump spent a night at her clinic but also died.

The bees have also killed five hens and a beekeeper has disposed of a nearby hive.

The insects are being tested to see whether they are Africanised or "killer" bees, which are a hybrid of the Western and African honeybees.