Strange but True

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — A basement remodeling project left Jany Chumas with one unsettling question after the drywalling was all done — where’s the cat?

Mary Poppins, Chumas’ pet cat, was nowhere to be found after the workers installed drywall in a room Jan. 2.

Chumas said the cat is "the sweetest little thing but quite shy,” so she assumed at first that she had run away.

As more time passed, she suspected the 7-pound cat could be trapped, and she and her daughter headed for the basement to search.

"I called her — ’Here, kitty, kitty’ — and I could hear this faint, weak meow coming from behind the walls where they had just drywalled,” Chumas said Tuesday.

She called the Eau Claire Fire Department on Friday and a crew went to the home — about five days after the remodeling work.

First they cut a small hole in the drywall near where Chumas heard the cat’s cries, but they found only insulation. Later they cut into the ceiling and Chumas called into the hole.

Soon a weak, hungry, tired and dusty Mary Poppins "came tumbling out of the ceiling,” Chumas said.

Some food and water put Mary Poppins on the road to recovery.

Shirt full of money

SHIRLEY, N.Y. — Police say one New York man had more than his arm up his sleeve.

John Howard, 36, was arrested after police found more than $10,000 in cash in his sleeve, money allegedly stolen from a Long Island post office, authorities said Wednesday.

Howard was stopped by police on Tuesday after he was observed behaving strangely on a street in Shirley, said Suffolk County Police Detective Lt. James Maher. Howard was wet and dirty and had a large bulge protruding from his left sleeve, he said.

In addition to finding $10,203 in cash — ranging from $1 to $100 bills — wrapped in a towel up his sleeve, Maher said police found crack cocaine and a BB gun that resembled a real firearm on Howard’s body.

Howard allegedly robbed the Wyandanch post office of more than $12,000 on Monday, Maher said. He was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Following an investigation, Howard also was charged in connection with two earlier armed robberies, said Lt. Gerard Gigante.

Blind penguins

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — This march of the penguins ended up at the eye doctor.

Three nearly blind penguins at the Detroit Zoo underwent cataract operations Wednesday at a veterinary center, said Scott Carter, the zoo’s director of conservation and animal welfare.

Carter said the procedure went well — but admitted it might be hard to tell. "We’re not going to show them an eye chart or anything like that,” he said.

The surgery isn’t unusual for zoo animals, said Dan Lorimer, a founder of the Michigan Veterinary Specialists in Southfield, which performed two of the operations. He’s also operated on a goose and a polar bear.

Cataracts develop in animals — humans included — as a cloudy abnormality on the eye’s lens that can lead to blurry vision or blindness. "The penguins bump into walls or their friends and they’ll damage themselves because they can’t see,” Lorimer said.

The outcome of the operation isn’t always easy to predict. A few years ago, Lorimer surgically removed one penguin’s cataracts. The bird’s vision improved, but its attitude did not.

"He went back to being his grumpy self,” Lorimer said.

Acting no more

TRENTON, N.J. — Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey didn’t wait long to remove the word "acting” from his title.

Minutes after a bill was passed Monday afternoon allowing anyone who served six months as acting governor to officially be called "governor,” Codey sat down at a table in the hall outside his office and signed the measure.

Codey then took a razor scraper and removed the word "Acting” from the glass door to his office.

"I’ve got a future in building management,” quipped the Democrat, who became acting governor Nov. 16, 2004, following the resignation of Gov. James E. McGreevey. He will step down as governor on Jan. 17.

"It’s not about ego. It’s the right thing to do,” said Codey, with a fleck of gold paint glinting on his cheek. "When I meet people on the street, they say, ‘Good morning, Governor.”’

Codey became acting governor because he was president of the state Senate and next in line when a governor is out of state or leaves office early.<