A 17-year-old girl got an unpleasant shock two weeks ago when she found an anonymous gift-wrapped package left on the doorsteps of her home. According to authorities, the box contained the severed head of Crystal Brown's 4-year-old Australian shepherd mix, Chevy, that went missing in February. "This was extraordinarily heinous," Dale Bartlett, deputy manager of the Humane Society's for animal cruelty issues, said, according to AP. "I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it took my breath away. It's horrible. "

Cats and dogs are the worst enemies but a mother cat has proved this notion wrong by nursing a six-day-old abandoned Rottweiler puppy along with her own kittens. Workers at the Meriden Humane Society have named the pup Charlie and he now nurses and plays alongside the black and gray kittens recently born to Satin - the mother cat. A couple of months ago, Charlie's mother was spotted by neighbors near a road after she gave birth to two puppies; one of which was stillborn. It is believed that the presence of a stillborn in the litter makes it difficult for the mother dog to adopt the healthier pup.

How to deal with a barking puppy while you are robbing a home? Put him in a freezer - that's the way burglars do. Five burglars who ransacked a house in Lancaster, New York were charged with animal cruelty for placing a Chihuahua in the deep freeze while robbing house. According to the New York Daily News, police say the burglars were apparently annoyed by little Roxy's barking and silenced her by freezing her. However, police rescued Roxy alive after a few hours when they were alerted to the break-in by a neighbor.