Japanese fooled in poodle scam
Friday April 27, 2007
Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.
Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each.
That is a snip compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan.
The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.
She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.
Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.
One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.
Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like.
"We launched an investigation after we were made aware that a company were selling sheep as poodles," Japanese police said, the The Sun reported.
"Sadly we think there is more than one company operating in this way.
"The sheep are believed to have been imported from overseas - Britain, Australia."
Many of the sheep have now been donated to zoos and farms.
©AAP 2007

I don't know why the comments settings had been altered on my blog recently, but I have fixed it now! Maybe I did something to it while my brain was doing something else: that sometimes happens.

Or maybe it was the CIA getting back at me for all the nasty comments I made about the US military keeping Australian citizen David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba? (Who knew they read the Unofficial Australia's Biggest Loser website off-topic forum ??!)

Mystery. Anyway, before I go, does anyone know much about feeding mutant, one-eyed goldfish? I have a small deformed fantail that is the sole survivor of three goldfish we bought on the holidays. Initially, for a few days, they were in an outdoor pot-pond, but when they started looking ill I brought them inside into treated water (with an airstone) in an icecream container. Now, Bobette's one eye is boggly and I'm pretty sure it is not much good to see anything with let alone tiny bits of food. Plus she has no big school of friends anymore to follow around and thereby happily bump into her meals. I have put a skinned pea in there (not interested) and one little bit of floating/sinking fish food but she can't see it. Any suggestions? I don't think she's sick anymore; her slime coat has gone and she swims pretty normally, though slow. I've thought of raining food down, like mortar bombs, but this would affect the water quality. What can I do??!!

Help!

Dear Readers,

Kids suck. They really do, and I am going to get my revenge.

I am going to get that chocolate hedgehog slice out of the fridge (ex-staffroom, magnaminously allotted to my children by me) and stomp on it STOMP STOMP STOMP and grind it into dust and little squidgy bits with the heel of my Foot of Vengeance. Then, I am going to pick it up daintily, by the corners of its plastic wrapping, and drop it into the bin - PLOP! - from a great height above my head as I smile serenely.

MWA HA HARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!

Call it petty-minded. Call it mean! I call it fun and righteous judgement! Unfortunately, the Three Little Pigs are away at school (last day before two weeks' holiday) and so I won't have an audience. However, dog is inside, so I'll let him watch. He's nice.

We were running late this morning, and the Third Little Pig proceeded to chuck a tantrum because I turned off the TV and he DIDN'T GET TO WATCH HIS FAVOURITE COMMERCIAL. Then, after I had locked up, I had to go back inside again with him because he hadn't even done his teeth ... But imagine my delight when I looked in the fridge and discovered he had not packed his piece of chocolate hedgehog slice !

So as the neighbours tut-tutted and we drove away, all the nasty, unacceptable comments made by that little grumble-bum (that I detected with my super sonic sonar) just bounced off me!

"Your bullets cannot harm me", I thought to myself, "My wings are like a shield of steel!"

Where is Karate when you need Karate?

And then I had a little Hugo A-Go-Go moment, dear readers, yes I did, as I formulated my dastardly, brilliant revenge!

All that chocolate - goodbye!
All those little biscuit bits inside - goodbye!
All that sugary, sticky icing on top - goodbye!

HEY!

REVENGE IS SWEET !!