Snake among sewerage system finds

A LIVE snake, badger and a dead cow were among the bizarre things found in Scotland’s sewer network in the past year, water chiefs have said.
Scottish Water staff have also found a platoon of toy soldiers, a live frog and a goldfish clogging the pipes.
The firm spends £6m a year clearing system blockages and urged people to think about what they flush away.
Many items also enter the system by falling into drains or manholes found in fields and roads.
A worker at the Dunfermline waste water treatment works was stunned to see a Mexican desert kingsnake curled beneath a metal grid boardwalk he was strolling along.
He contacted the Scottish SPCA, who collected the non-venomous constrictor snake and took it away.
A live badger found in a pumping station well at Drongan in Ayrshire also made a full recovery after it was rescued by the SSPCA.
A goldfish named Pooh, recovered in East Kilbride, and a frog found in a pump in Dornoch, Highlands, were none the worse for their time inside the sewer system.
However, a sheep found in a manhole chamber and a cow recovered from a storm tank were not so lucky.

Soldiering on in the danger zone

FOR many local families, last week was a week to be dreaded.
One which saw the start of the major deployment of soldiers from the Borders’ own infantry regiment to the most dangerous place in the world – Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
During the next few weeks a total of 400 troops of the Royal Scots Borderers will fly out to the war zone where just last week six British soldiers lost their lives in one of the grimmest periods for our army since being first sent to Afghanistan in 2001.
Nearly a decade on and with another bloody conflict having been fought in Iraq at the same time, it is becoming almost a tragic weekly occurrence to hear of more deaths of British soldiers in combat.
A decade ago few in the Borders would have known where Helmand was, yet now it is a name seared into our national consciousness. And rightly so. Because whether you agree or not about British forces being in Afghanistan, the men and women sent to war by our government are there on our behalf, doing a job most of us would run a mile from if asked.
Helmand is the largest of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Mainly desert, it is the world’s largest opium-producing region and one which the Taliban has made a key battleground.
The next six months will be an anxious period for those Borders families with loved ones serving with the battalion. As they depart, we wish them well, knowing they will uphold the finest traditions of the Scottish infantry – professionalism, courage, compassion and steadfastness.
And we will long for the day, which seems so far off today, when we see them return home to their proud Borderland.