It wasn’t all bad

A dog that went missing in California nine months ago has been found 2,300 miles away. Mishka, a three-year-old terrier cross, vanished in July from its owner Mehrad Houman’s workplace in San Diego. He and his wife Liz pleaded for information about their “sweet girl” on social media, but got nowhere. Last week, however, authorities in Detroit found Mishka wandering the streets, and took it to a vet, where its chip was scanned. “I’ve been missing my kid,” Houman said.

A 27-year-old from Worthing in West Sussex has raised more than £775,000 for charity by running the length of Africa. Russ Cook, who styles himself the “Hardest Geezer”, set off from South Africa’s most southerly point on 22 April last year, and crossed the finish line in Tunisia, some 10,190 miles away, last Sunday. Along the way, he was robbed at gunpoint in Angola, held by men with machetes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and had to contend with health scares, sand storms and visa complications. He finished the run to cheers of “Geezer, Geezer, Geezer”, and told Sky News: “I’m a little bit tired.”

A flat in Merseyside that was secretly converted into a “fantasy world” by its tenant has been given Grade II status after volunteers campaigned to save it. The ground-floor flat in Oxton was decorated by the late Ron Gittins, who covered the walls in brightly coloured murals, fashioned a Roman altar in the kitchen and crafted fireplaces in the shape of a lion and a minotaur. Gittins’ niece, Jan Williams, said she thought her uncle would be “thrilled” about the listing. “He said to my dad once:

‘I will not be ignored.’”