yesterday was a ...

Good Day for Dean Gould, 32, a student from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who has set a new world record by sticking 209 stamps on envelopes in five minutes. Earlier it had been reported that he was hoping to stick 250 stamps, but it seems that the last 41 stamps licked him.

Bad Day for Rocket the rooster, who has been forced to leave the quiet market town of Bromyard in Herefordshire after council officials measured his morning cock-a-doodle at 65 decibels. After complaints from neighbours, Rocket's owner had previously tried to soundproof her garden with polystyrene, but the cockerel and his hens pecked it away. Rocket has now been banished to a small breeds farm 25 miles away.

Litigious Day for cats, as a Brazilian judge was called upon to rule whether Puppy, Laika and Branquinho, three felines from Sao Paulo, should be allowed to remain in the flat of their late owner. One of the last wishes of Luci Carmen Bianchi was that her pets should maintain their creature comforts after her death, but part of the family is contesting the will on the grounds that "animals do not have legal rights or obligations".