For a short article, the following from The Telegraph certainly covers all definitions of bizarre for me :

Cat ordered to do jury service

A cat has been summoned to do jury service, even after his owners told the court he was “unable to speak and understand English”.

Anna Esposito, wrote to Suffolk Superior Crown Court in Boston, US, to explain that a mistake had been made, but a jury commissioner replied saying the cat, named Tabby Sal, “must attend” on March 23.

Mrs Esposito had included a letter from her vet confirming that the cat was “a domestic short-haired neutered feline”.

Tabby Sal had been entered by Mrs Esposito under the ‘pets’ section of the last census. “When they ask him guilty or not guilty? What’s he supposed to say – miaow?” She said.

“Sal is a member of the family so I listed him on the last Census form under pets but there has clearly been a mix-up.”

A website for the US judicial system states that jurors are “not expected to speak perfect English”.

Not only does the US census have a section for pets but people actually take the time making up full names for their creatures to put in there.

They also have a census system where the data seems to have gone a little astray (no, not a stray even though it’s about cats) with pet names ending up on potential juror rolls.

And finally, a court system that is either rigidly bureaucratic (how I hate spelling that word) or just plain stupid when it demands the presence of a “vet certified pussy” in court (not a phrase I ever envisaged writing but it works).

Personally, I would have listed the cat under an assumed name such as Fu Kinthing or just plian old Cooking Fat.

I am wondering now whether the US census is processed by the same firm that will be getting their grubby mitts on our data this spring (Lockheed Martin I believe).