JUNEAU, Alaska- Black bears in residential Juneau neighborhoods aren’t unheard of. While many people stay inside when bears are nearby one local woman just couldn't after seeing her dog in the mouth of a bear. Brooke Collins let her dogs out as she usually does but this time son saw a black bear taking hold of her dachshund Fudge. Instantly, she dropped her yogurt smoothie, ran out and punched the bear right in the face. "All I could think was my dog was going to die," said Collins, who didn't look outside until hearing "The most horrible sound in the world." When Collins got outside she saw a bear with little Fudge in its mouth. "That bear was carrying Fudge like a salmon," she said. "Damn thing was fishing in my driveway." Collins ran up and did the first thing she thought of. She punched the bear’s face and then scooped up her dog when the stunned beast let Fudge loose. Aside from a few superficial wounds to Fudge, Collins called the whole experience a positive one. "I always suspected I could, but now I can honestly say I can beat up a bear."

MERCED, California- Hundreds of egrets have taken over the neighborhood near Margaret Sheehy Elementary School turning life upside down for the residents there. First there's the noise. "It's like trying to sleep with a bird party in your head," said Florence Garcia. "It's just cheep, cheep, cheep, all day long. They're loud and boring, too." Then, there's the constant threat of being poop bombed. "Oh, they know what they are doing. When children head to the playground the filthy things let loose right when the kids pass under," added the addled grandmother. And then there is the smell. It seems the egrets are prolific at catching fish but not so good at getting them all the way back to the nest because hundreds of rotting fish get strewn across rooftops and lawns and really stink up the place. What can be done? Not much. Egrets are a protected species so they can’t be disturbed until the young leave the nest. "I think they know they are protected and use that against us," whispered Garcia, before climbing a step ladder to get a rotting mackerel out of her downspout.

BENTON, Louisiana- Paul Levesque and his family were visiting the zoo in Benton and one of the highlights was when a park ranger rode by on a horse and gave his son a “Junior Park Ranger” badge, then rode off. Just moments later the ranger got off his trusty steed to give his mount a drink but instead of being appreciative the horse kicked the ranger, hitting his gun, which fired a round into the ranger's leg. After seeing the man helicoptered out the park Levesque reports "My son will never go near that zoo or a horse again. In fact, he worries that the other animals in the zoo saw what this horse did and are going to break out one day and get after us. He wants us to move to the country to get away from the zoo but I told him there were more animals out there than in the zoo. That was a mistake. Now he's not sleeping."

MILFORD, Connecticut- Wildlife officials using DNA analysis of scat and hair have confirmed that a cougar killed on a Connecticut highway was born in South Dakota and passed through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada on the way to the east coast. The cougar’s 1,055-mile trek is a record for a wild cat, said Adrian Wydeven, with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Biologists said the young male originated in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and like all young male cougars got kicked out of its mother’s territory and began roaming, looking for habitat with food and female cougars. “As he traveled east, he found lots of deer but no females because there aren't any every place he went. What a long, frustrating trip that must have been." But James J. Moran of the Milford Evangelical Unity Church said "This could be a gay cougar that just wanted to get to New York. Usually these animals have a pretty good nose for where the females are but this one was either really bad at finding females or gay. No wonder they are endangered."

WATERLOO, Iowa- Family Fourth of July celebrations often include fireworks but rarely are children traumatized after seeing a cicada shoot into the dusk on a bottle rocket. "My four year old Nina loves bugs and hates it if I even kill a spider so seeing that cicada blast off put her over the top. She hasn't talked to me in three days. I shouldn't have lit the thing but it was too perfect. The rocket was ready to go and the damn bug sat down like it wanted a ride. It was real funny then but I am payin' for it now," said Nina's father, Al Bachuber.

TOLEDO, Ohio- Police in Ohio have discovered that flags being swiped from a police memorial were being squirreled away. Two Toledo officers staked out the crime scene and observed a squirrel snatching a flag and running off with it. But, Lt. James Brown told reporters the bushy-tailed critter was too quick to apprehend. Upon further investigation, several known associates were spotted in possession of the stolen property sitting in their squirrel's nest made of at least two of the flags. Brown's pointed out he can't prove all the thefts were the work of the same squirrel, but added, "They are stealing, then degrading our nation's symbol. When we will be allowed to fight back?"

GRANTS PASS, Oregon- An 80 year old Josephine County woman found herself in a sudden struggle to save her life as an aggressive buck repeatedly attacked her. Eva Speicher lives with deer around her home so did not expect her life might be in danger. But on Tuesday one four-legged neighbor knocked her unconscious right in her front yard and when she awoke the angry deer was still poking at her. The buck even bit her. That's when Eva grabbed its antlers causing the buck to fall, giving her a chance to get away. But the crazed animal wasn’t finished; he continued to attack her as she headed for the house. And that's when her sharp shooter husband Bert leveled his rifle out of a front room window and stopped the demonic deer in its tracks. "I never liked him keeping loaded guns all over the place when we were younger and these days he is a little shaky but it still worked out in my favor," said his grateful but bruised wife.

CLINTON, Wisconsin- The driver of a semitrailer truck carrying milk escaped serious injury after his rig hit a cow on U.S. 51 about two miles south of Clinton. Larry Foster was traveling north when his milk truck struck a cow that darted out onto the roadway. After the impact, Foster’s truck spun into the median, flipped over, and lost it's entire load of milk, said Deputy David Lansford of the DeWitt County Sheriff’s Department. "I swear the look in that cow's eyes right before impact said, 'How dare you sell our milk without profit sharing for the cows," declared Foster, a union member.

SEAL ISLAND, South Africa- A group of researchers attempting to lure sharks close to their boat went too far when a ten-foot-long great white leapt onto their vessel. “I hear a splash, turned and saw a white shark breach the water and then hover, literally, hover over the crew member who was chumming [throwing food bait] on the port side,” Dorien Schroeder, the study's team leader, told reporters. Schroeder said she managed to pull her colleague to safety before the half-ton shark landed and then became wedged between equipment on the boat’s deck. The researchers believe the shark probably mistook the vessel’s shadow for prey. "Apparently great whites will eat just about anything because our boat is way bigger than them. Or, maybe this shark was just tired of being researched by us. Maybe they don't want us to know much about them. But if people hear that great whites can leap up and hover over targeted humans there goes the sport fishing industry."

ENSENADA, Mexico- Pat McGuire had been to Rosarita Beach on vacation and was chased into the water by a bull. So he and his friends decided to try Ensenada and see if things were a littler calmer there. And when they pulled into town they say saw a bull chasing vacationers into the harbor. "Next time we are going stay inland or go to a beach where they don't have bulls anywhere nearby," said the bewildered McGuire.