Rescuers coaxed five ducklings out of a storm drain by playing duck noises on their phones. The flock, trapped in Pontypridd, Wales, is now being cared for by the RSPCA.
Metro (Amanda Welles)
[See also: This England: Story of my life]
A man’s best friend
A derelict cottage in the Cornish countryside has been put up for sale. But a knackered appearance hides a beautiful story.
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Pontious Piece Cottages, now empty and up for auction, used to be the home of Tony Trewin and Scrunch, a roughly half-ton Highland cross bull.
Trewin shared the cottage with Scrunch, who he hand-raised after finding the bull freezing to death. The inseparable pair kept each other company for years, and even watched TV together.
Cornwall Live (Kate McIntosh)
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What’s in a name?
An owner is “distraught” at being ordered to change his horse’s name, which was dubbed “inappropriate” by racing chiefs. Nick Rhodes called his two-year-old colt Buggerlugs, in memory of his late father Les. The “informal, old-fashioned” term is “for referring or speaking to someone in a slightly insulting but friendly way,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary.
However, just a day before the juvenile horse’s debut at Beverley Racecourse, Rhodes was told he would have to think of a new name.
He said: “We are distraught by being told to change the name of the horse. My late father used to call me ‘little Buggerlugs’ as a child.”
Daily Mirror (Nigel Huddleston)
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This article appears in the 18 May 2022 issue of the New Statesman, Putin vs Nato