While there was an unexpected uptick in the February sales of existing homes at 2. 9 percent, home foreclosure filings across the U. S. grew by 60 percent and bank seizures more than doubled for the second month of the year. Aside from Americans struggling with the economy, the subprime crisis also hit a vulnerable sector who could do nothing about losing their roof, except whimper. Homeowners and their pets are being separated by escalating incidents of home foreclosures across America. According to USA Today, thousands of pets are being sent to animal shelters although no exact figures are available due to the lack of accounting standards for recording pets affected by foreclosures.

A 200-pound potbellied pig named Romeo is living as a major part of the household of a family in St. Albans, Queens. The part-Vietnamese potbellied, who was bought from a farm in Long Island, was described by the Cummings family to be completely housebroken, and has never brought any complaints from the neighbors. He was reported to consume three pounds of pellet food daily, and is taken for a walk four times a day without a leash.

A couple in Pittsburgh has put their house up for sale with a full refund guaranteed to the buyer when they die. Bob and Ricki Husick, both in their mid-50s, want to move to their retirement home in Arizona and for that they need to sell their Pittsburgh home first. They have been trying to sell it unsuccessfully for the past year due to the current housing market slump.

In Japan, the Internet café has become a substitute for home. A survey of Japan's ministry of health indicated that the number of people who sleeps over at 24-hour Internet cafes for having no home or job total 5,400 nationwide, the Kyodo News reported. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's findings disclosed on Tuesday reveals what could be a widening of the rich-poor gap in Asia's richest country.

The pastor of a Times Square Church has asked the state court to bar a bidet company from showing off it's cheeky advertising. At the center of the issue is a billboard, which would run on both sides of the building housing the church, featuring several nude bottoms with a smiley on them. The head of the 8,000-member church complains that the bidet company's plan to put up a giant billboard will interfere with the consecration of the church goers.