Weird News: Gone to the Cats
Tortilla Tomfoolery
Texas Tech is banning the throwing of tortillas by fans on kickoffs after the 14th-ranked Red Raiders were penalized twice and fined for objects being thrown onto the field in their most recent home game. Athletic director Kirby Hocutt said Monday fans entering the stadium would be instructed to discard tortillas, and there would be reminders before kickoff for anyone who took tortillas in to give them to stadium workers in order for them to be thrown away. Anyone caught throwing tortillas would have their ticket privileges revoked from the rest of the academic year across all sports, Hocutt said. The announcement came a little more than a week after the Red Raiders were given two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after kickoffs in a 42-17 win over Kansas. Oklahoma State visits Saturday.
Hocutt was the lone dissenting vote when the Big 12 Conference approved a policy to penalize teams for objects thrown on the field. The vote came just before the season, and Hocutt was defiant in his reaction to the rule and its effect on a tradition that goes back years at Texas Tech.
Costumed Canines
Dogs dressed up as everything from Elvis Presley to Scooby Doo’s Mystery Machine went trick-or-treating in Michigan’s capital Friday as part of the annual Howloween event organized by a local pet store. The costumed canines made a loop through Lansing’s Old Town arts district, stopping outside restaurants, gift shops and jewelry stores, where owners were waiting to provide treats and a scratch behind the ears. Wendy Beck’s pooch, Bella, “got filled up on biscuits” and had to stop along the route for a power nap. It was the 9-year-old St. Bernard’s first Howloween, but Alicia Town’s dog, Mojo, is a veteran in more ways than one. The 13-year-old Pomeranian was a tank driver, rolling around in a little green tank – an ode to Town’s husband serving in the Army. “There are so many dogs and so many people. You see the cutest things,” Town said. “People go above and beyond on their costumes, and you get everything. It’s amazing.” Makenzie Smith-Emrich accompanied her pit bull, Sadie, who was dressed up as a kissing booth pumpkin. “This is something we wait for all year, because it’s something that we can do with our dogs that they absolutely adore,” the Lansing resident said. “And they get to dress up, and people give them attention.”
Gone to the Cats
The island of cats has a cat problem. Officials in Cyprus, the small island nation in the eastern corner of the Mediterranean, estimate there is roughly one feral cat for every one of its 1 million inhabitants — though activists contend the actual population is hundreds of thousands higher. In late September, the island’s parliamentary committee on the environment was told that an existing sterilization program is too limited to contain the burgeoning cat population. “It’s a good program, but it needs to expand,” said Environment Commissioner Antonia Theodosiou, noting that the program conducts only about 2,000 sterilizations annually on a budget of just 100,000 euros ($117,000). While there is no official comparative data, Theodosiou said Cyprus has gained a reputation for having a cat population that is exceptionally large relative to its human inhabitants. Charalambos Theopemptou, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment Committee, warned against relying on money alone. “There has to be a plan,” he said. “We can’t just go ahead with sterilizations without having a plan,” he said.
Given cats’ predatory nature, a large population not only has the potential to wreak havoc with the island’s ecosystem, but it could cause undue suffering for feral felines roaming car-choked streets in search of food and shelter.