MASONVILLE, Colo. | Zoey is a Chihuahua, but when a rattlesnake lunged at her owners’ 1-year-old grandson, she was a real bulldog.
Booker West was splashing his hands in a birdbath in his grandparents’ northern Colorado back yard when the snake slithered up to the toddler, rattled and struck. Five-pound Zoey jumped in the way and took the bites.
The dog required treatment and she survived the bites.
Lawn cutting exposed
MEMPHIS, Tenn. | A lawn-care company is showing a little skin to boost business.
The women of Tiger Time Lawn Care offer to mow customers’ lawns dressed in bikinis — a service that attracts more attention to the ladies than the lawns.
“Oh yeah, they honk and yell. They can do everything you can imagine,” said employee Blair Beckman, 21.
Hemingway look-alike
KEY WEST, Fla. | A white-bearded insurance agent from Florida won the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, a highlight of the annual festival honoring the famed writer, a Kansas City Star alum.
Larry Austin defeated 122 other contenders in the competition at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, Hemingway’s favorite watering hole when he lived in the Keys in the 1930s. The final round was held late Saturday, which would have been Hemingway’s 108th birthday.
Austin of Palm Harbor said he shares Hemingway’s fondness for Key West, cats and having a good time, though he has never attempted writing anything except insurance policies.
Irwin to be honored
BRISBANE, Australia | The late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, killed in a stingray attack last year, will be honored with a new wildlife reserve in Outback Australia, the government announced Sunday.
The 333,585-acre chunk of land near Weipa in the far north of Irwin’s home state of Queensland will be named after the popular television host and managed by his family, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
The area includes habitats for the endangered northern quoll, a carnivorous marsupial, and the speartooth shark, as well as an important gallery of dry vine forests, Turnbull said.
