'Cats are good for something...' Cat purr sound frequency heals people!  [Scientific American via Weird Links: a compendium of weird sites]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Deer Parasomniacs eat raw meat, bark like dogs, have sex without remembering and maybe even kill... By Chip Brown. [New York Times: Health] (man... the dangerous breed)

Dog cosmonauts... In previous space missions, dogs were used as space cosmonauts. In October, 2002, the fate of the first  canine cosmonaut  was revealed...  UK 'Laika, the first dog in space, died after a few hours in orbit, according to new research by a Russian space expert. The Siberian husky mix, rounded up as a stray and trained as the planet's first cosmonaut, probably died from overheating on November 3 1957 when Soviet ground engineers failed to notice the problem.' (Her capsule burned up on re-entry.)  Laika became the most famous 'space dog' or 'muttnick', despite the fact that she was incinerated along with the Russian space capsule on re-entry to the earth's atmosphere. Fate of first canine cosmonaut revealed  (Her name ended up on a name brand cigarette in Russia.)... [UK Guardian Unlimited] Related: BBC: Clues sought for space shuttle disaster, Google news: Columbia space shuttle disaster, CNN: Shuttle Recovery, Space Today: Dogs in Space