Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 7, 1994 TAG: 9402070015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A 7-month old cougar cub that has been in the foster care of the Wildlife Center of Virginia has found a home.
A privately run wildlife preserve in Rapid City, N.D., has agreed to take the animal free of charge, Ed Clark, director of the Augusta County center, said last week.
"The cat has gotten a stay of execution," Clark said. The center had contemplated euthanizing the cat as a last resort if no proper home could be found. The cougar - which the center received after authorities seized it from a Virginia Tech student - cannot be returned to the wild, nor can the center keep it.
Callers flooded the center with offers to take the cat after an article appeared about the animal's plight in the newspaper last month, Clark said. Someone in Colorado heard about the story, and put Clark in touch with the North Dakota facility.
The cat will live in a two-acre fenced area with a couple of other cougars at the preserve, where visitors drive through to see uncaged wildlife. Clark hopes to put the cat on a flight out of town as soon as the weather warms up.
No babka for bubba
Babka: A yeast cake with raisins, sometimes glazed with rum, sprinkled with almonds.
"Seinfeld" characters Elaine and Jerry must have said the word 20 times on Thursday night's show, as they tried to buy one for a dinner party. First, somebody beat them to a chocolate babka, then they realized their cinnamon babka had a hair on it.
A couple of people called the Wildflour Cafe and bakery at Towers Mall on\ Friday to find out what a babka is. The staff knew, but nope, not a babka in\ the house.
A new gunslinger in town
Gov. George Allen created a mild stir in Washington last week when he revealed he owns a handgun.
The subject came up at a meeting of the National Governors Association, where the governors talked about programs to buy back handguns as a way to curb street crime.
Allen let it be known he was lukewarm about such buy-back programs. Furthermore, he noted that he's got a small arsenal of his own - a six-shot revolver, plus a .22-caliber rifle, a .30-.06-caliber rifle, and "I'm trying to remember how many shotguns . . . a couple of operating shotguns."
The governor soon found himself being asked by reporters why he packs so much heat, particularly the handgun.
"I had the revolver when I `buckarooed' on [a] ranch out West. I didn't want to carry a rifle around. It's just easier to carry a revolver and shoot rattlesnakes. I shot a couple," Allen said.
Why does he have the handgun now?
"I guess it's just because they're handy," he said.
He also mentioned sport shooting.
"You can use the handgun, it's fun to plink with it, just target-shooting."
The new occupant of the Executive Mansion in Richmond refused to say where he keeps his firearms.
The check's in the mail
Speaking of our new governor, Allen fulfilled a campaign promise last week: He returned 10 percent of his first paycheck to the state.
Allen wrote a check for $461.22 to cover his first bimonthly pay and even faxed out a copy of the check to reporters, just to prove it. "This is a promise Gov. Allen made to the taxpayers of Virginia," said press secretary Ken Stroupe.
However, Allen may have been reminded of the promise before he remembered to keep it. Early Tuesday, the Washington Post inquired of the payroll office whether Allen had returned the 10 percent of his pay.
Allen's annual salary is $110,000. The $11,000 he plans to return will be placed in the state's general fund and not in his office budget. Beginning next month, Allen will have the deduction made automatically, Stroupe said.
Patrick Henry's homework hot line
It's a new homework and school news hot line. A marriage of technology and the basics in education.
In case Patrick Henry High School students with push-button phones forget their homework assignments, they will no longer have to bother their classmates or teachers.
They can just dial 224-3075 or 224-3076 to get their assignment and course information.
They will also be able to hear important dates and times for upcoming academic events and weekly sports schedules. And they can get information on the cancellation and rescheduling of events.
Callers with a rotary phone will be able to hear all the schools news, but they will not have access to the homework line.
The service is part of an automated-communication pilot project that started at the school this year. Automated phone calls have been made to students' homes with important messages and attendance notifications in the event of absences.
In Thaxton, the law of the jungle
The fiberglass rhino and its baby have stood guard at the corner of Wheatland Road and U.S. 460 in Bedford County for years, providing Thaxton with an an unmistakable landmark and unofficial neighborhood mascot.
The occupants of the building may come and go (first it was the Wheatland Market, now it's the Smith Mountain Tabernacle), but the rhino is a permanent fixture.
Just before Christmas, when someone driving a car with out-of-state license plates tried to heist the baby rhino, one of the monument's neighbors - Folly Overstreet - stepped in and foiled the potential thief.
The out-of-staters claimed to have bought the baby. Overstreet responded he didn't think so and asked them to leave.
After all, one of the conditions the church insisted on when it bought the property was that the rhino must remain.
Folly was in such a huff that he forgot to get the license plate number, said his mother, Dorothy Overstreet.
But earlier, a Lynchburg teen-ager broke off the blue bird from the big rhino's shoulder. He was traced through his license plate and returned the bird. But it disappeared again a week later.
So jungle animal bandits, beware - there's a band of rhino watchers just waiting to write down your plate number.
by CNB