A California girl was left with a rare bacterial infection after an iguana in Costa Rica bit her and stole her cake, CNN reported.

"Our daughter ... is still recovering from the surgery ... the whole healing process has taken more strength than the bite itself," the Mars family told the outlet in a statement.

"Lena is the bravest child we can imagine, and she is handling the situation pretty well. ... She will probably never forget the experience, but we hope that someday we can all laugh about what happened."

Then 3-year-old Lena Mars and her parents, Julian and Luisa, were visiting a beach in Costa Rica in March 2022 when they stopped for a snack break by the water.

As little Lena was enjoying some cake, an iguana ran up and bit her on the finger. The girl lost her grip on the morsel, and the sweets-snatching reptile skittered off with it.

Though the bite appeared superficial, her parents took her to a local medical facility just to be sure. The clinic disinfected the bite and sent the family on their way with a round of amoxicillin, an antibiotic, the Guardian reported.

Though the wound initially seemed to clear up, five months later, a coin-sized lump appeared on the back of the tot's hand. The lump, which was not painful at first, grew larger and turned colors, the outlet reported.

Doctors first thought the lump to be a ganglion cyst and advised parents to keep a watch on it. A later consult with an orthopedist led to a biopsy and then surgery to remove a two-centimeter mass.

Lab results on the pus-filled mass showed little Lena had contracted a rare infection of Mycobacterium marinum.

"Typically, with these infections, because they take a very long time to grow and they’re a little bit more fastidious, you need to treat them for a longer period of time, sometimes several months," said Dr. Jordan Mah.

Mah is a Stanford-trained microbiology expert authoring a scientific presentation on Mars' case to be delivered at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases later this month.

Mah told CNN he believes this is the first time a human has gotten this sort of infection from an iguana bite.

Mah also says the youngster is improving.

"I wouldn't say 100%, but she's doing a lot better than she was initially."

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'A First Amendment victory': Christian baker can refuse to make a cake for lesbian wedding, California court says

A Christian baker can refuse to make a cake for an event, such as a same-sex wedding, that conflicts with her religious beliefs, a California judge has determined.

In 2017, Cathy Miller — the owner of Tastries Bakery and Boutique in Bakersfield, California — was approached to bake a customized cake for an upcoming lesbian wedding. Because the event conflicted with Miller's Christian beliefs regarding the nature of marriage, she refused to lend her artistry to a customized cake. However, she did offer the couple, Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-del Rio, two alternatives: She could bake them a generic, pre-made cake that would not require her personal artistry, or she could recommend to them other bakeries which could accommodate their request.

Miller's attorneys at the Thomas More Society claim that after this "polite refusal," Miller was then "targeted by gay activists" and sued for discrimination by the state Department of Fair Housing and Employment.

In multiple lawsuits, the DFHE argued that, by denying the lesbian couple a customized cake, Tasteries and Cathy’s Creations, Inc. had violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, a California law passed in 1959 and since expanded to protect consumers against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion.

Paul Jonna, TMS special counsel and partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, noted that there is "a certain irony ... that a law intended to protect individuals from religious discrimination was used to discriminate against Cathy for her religious beliefs."

And, based on excerpts of cross-examination from the civil trial held in July, it appears that the state's attorneys did indeed "discriminate against Cathy," probing her about the depth and sincerity of her Christian beliefs. According to a statement from TMS, attorney for the state Gregory Mann even asked Miller whether she adhered to Old Testament dietary laws "in terms of not eating pigs, not eating shellfish, et cetera" in an effort to cast doubt on Miller's testimony that she does her "best" to follow "everything that the Bible says."

Despite the state's best legal efforts, Judge Eric Bradshaw of the Superior Court of California in Kern County ruled in favor of Miller. The DFHE "is barred by defendants' rights to Free Speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution from enforcing the Unruh Civil Rights Act to compel or prohibit defendants' speech," Bradshaw's ruling said in part.

TMS, which provided legal counsel to Miller pro bono, has celebrated the ruling as "a First Amendment victory."

"The freedom to practice one’s religion is enshrined in the First Amendment, and the United States Supreme Court has long upheld the freedom of artistic expression," said Charles LiMandri, special counsel at TMS and partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP.

Miller has always insisted that she never meant to discriminate against anyone. She wanted only to run her business in accordance with the precepts of her religion. Back in 2017, she told news reporters, "Here at Tastries, we love everyone. My husband and I are Christians, and we know that God created everyone, and He created everyone equal, so it's not that we don't like people of certain groups. There is just certain things that violate my conscience."

The Associated Press reported that the Rodriguez-del Rios expect the decision to be appealed.

Below is a news segment from July about the civil trial:

'Coffee, Corruption, Donuts': Cake celebrating cop's years of service uses decoration mocking police. Bakery says it was unintentional.

Tina Jones wanted to give her friend — a Philadelphia police officer — a cake to help him celebrate 25 years of service to the department, so she decided to have a local bakery decorate it for the occasion, WPVI-TV reported.

It was a pretty simple design: "Happy 25th Anniversary" written to the officer in blue atop white frosting, his badge number — and a Philadelphia police badge with the motto, "Honor, Integrity, Service," the station said.