Tuesday, April 21, 2026 — Edition No. 67 — The Cornmill Intelligencer

← Past Editions · Edition No. 67 · Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Today’s outlook: Forever homes, quiet heroes and a giraffe with a best mate

Dogs & Animals

Butters the 'special boy' finds his forever home after 500 days in kennels

After more than 500 days at the Scottish SPCA's Lanarkshire centre, a big-hearted rescue dog — and one very squeaky fish — have landed on their feet

By Helen Cooper

For 500 days, Butters watched other dogs leave the Scottish SPCA's Lanarkshire centre with new families. This month, at last, it was his turn.

The big, handsome American Bulldog — originally named Fury — has finally been adopted after more than a year and a half in kennels. His new owners, Cat and her partner Drew, say he has slipped into family life so easily that visitors are often astonished to learn he is a rescue dog at all.

"When Fury first arrived at our Lanarkshire centre, it was clear he was a special boy," Scottish SPCA staff wrote in an announcement on social media. "Big, handsome, and full of personality, he quickly won hearts with his gentle manners and playful nature."

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Community

Five quiet giants: the Glasgow neighbours holding the city together

From an 11-year-old fundraiser in Maryhill to a Paisley youth worker on her 23rd Christmas shift — meet the unsung heroes keeping Glasgow's communities going

By Damien Day

You won't see their faces on a billboard. Most of them would rather you didn't.

But ask anyone in Maryhill, Knightswood, Govan, Pollok or Paisley who keeps the lights on in their corner of the city, and one of these five names will come up.

Glasgow Live's Rachel Cronin rounded up five "unsung heroes" at the close of 2025, and the more you read about them, the harder it is to call them unsung. They're the spine of the city.

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Dogs & Animals

The giraffe and the zebra: an unlikely friendship that has the internet in bits

At a Georgia theme park, a 2,500lb giraffe called Bakari and a small zebra called Kurtsie have chosen each other — and scientists say it tells us something quietly remarkable about how animals bond

Community

Comic-book kids conquer Downing Street: Clydebank pupils make history

Second-years from St Peter the Apostle High School become the first West Dunbartonshire pupils to set foot on the famous black-and-white tiles of Number 10 — and they left the Prime Minister with homework

By Damien Day

The black-and-white tiles of Number 10 Downing Street have been walked by prime ministers, presidents, pop stars and the occasional royal corgi. On Monday 16 March, they were walked by a cluster of slightly awestruck second-years from Clydebank — and history was made.

Pupils from St Peter the Apostle High School became the first children from any West Dunbartonshire school to be welcomed inside the most famous front door in Britain, rounding off a day that took them from Parliament's education centre to the green benches of the Commons and finally up Whitehall to Number 10 itself.

For a group of teenagers who spent last year writing comic books about poverty and inequality in their own community, it was a long way from an S1 classroom in Clydebank.

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