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Thread: The good guys thread

  1. #691
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    My Four-Legged Guardian Angel
    By Gayle Trent

    Had you seen Duke, it isn’t likely you’d have called him an angel. In fact, not even I called him “angel.” I called him “my baby.” Duke was a St. Bernard, a gift to me from my parents on my tenth birthday.

    I arrived home from school that day and was immediately sent to the garage. And there he was, quite an armful already, but I gleefully picked him up and buried my face in his neck.

    Early on, I taught Duke to rub noses with me. This kept me from getting drooly dog kisses, and it was our own special way of showing affection. When Duke was relegated to a doghouse in the backyard, I’d slip outside to sing him to sleep at night. We had a special relationship. He was “my dog”; I was “his girl.”

    One summer night after Duke was fully grown, I went out to refill his water bowl. I retrieved the bowl and filled it at an outside spigot. “There you go, baby,” I said, putting the bowl on the ground in front of him.

    I hugged him around the neck, and he growled. Taken aback and more than a little hurt, I went to stand beside his house. “You might growl at other people, mister,” I said, as he was extremely protective of me and had been known to growl at others,“but you do not growl at me.”

    My lecture was silenced when Duke came to me, jumped up and placed a massive paw at either side of my waist. He emitted another low, menacing growl. I was unable to move, and my dog’s behavior was beginning to frighten me. He was my best friend, my guardian. Was he going to turn on me now? I noticed that his face was turned away from me and that he was staring toward the road that ran in front of our house.

    As I watched in the direction of Duke’s gaze, I spotted a man emerge from the shadows and walk down the road. Duke held me against the side of his doghouse until the man was gone. When he was satisfied that there was no longer a threat, he touched his nose to mine and let me go. As he thirstily drank from his water bowl, I hugged him and thanked him for his continued protection.

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  2. #692
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    This story brought tears to my eyes.

    Big Brother’s Umbrella Assist Outshined Sun For Marathon Runner With Lupus

    WEST BRIDGEWATER (CBS) – A West Bridgewater man gave a big assist to his little sister running the Boston Marathon.

    Jeffrey Russell, 30, ran the last 12 miles of the course holding a child’s umbrella over his sister Jessie’s head to keep her from quitting.

    “He knew I would have been very upset had I not finished,” said Jessie, 26.

    Jessie was diagnosed with Lupus during her junior year of high school. The sun often bothers people with Lupus, so running a marathon was a gamble. By mile 14, Jessie felt terrible and thought she might need to stop.

    “I thought, ‘the medical tent is up there. I just got to get a little further and I can stop for a bit.’ Out of the corner of my eye, I see this person running at me.”

    Big brother Jeff had followed her along the route, taking pictures and yelling encouragement. Jessie looked like she was fading and medical tent volunteers told her to be proud she made it to Wellesley. The course was about to be opened up to traffic and water stops would soon be picked up. Jeff told Jessie to stop if she needed to.

    “But he said ‘if it’s just the sun, I don’t want you to stop. I can be your medical tent. I can be your water stop. Don’t worry about any of that’,” Jessie recalled with tears in her eyes.

    Jeff ran into Littlebits Toys in Wellesley and bought a children’s umbrella with sharks on it. He said the sharks reminded him of Jessie’s tenacity.

    In jeans and work boots, Jeff speed-walked next to Jessie wearing her runner’s fanny pack. The pair took it step by step until finally reaching the finish line at 7:16 p.m.

    “I just love him. I absolutely could not have finished without him there,” Jessie said.

    http://boston.cbslocal.com/video?aut...lipId=10097769
    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  3. #693
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    DAMASCUS, OR (KPTV) - It had been five days since a Damascus family last saw their dog Sampson.

    The 5-year-old black lab mix went missing on New Year's Day. Greg Herbst, the dog's owner, said they searched around their property every day, posted fliers and created a Facebook page in hopes someone would see their beloved pet.

    On Monday, Damascus Officer Jerry Rippe discussed that Facebook post with the family to see what more could be done to help. That's when a call came across the emergency dispatch radio that the family had been hoping for.

    A dog was trapped, but alive, several miles away near Carver.

    A man in the area called police to report a dog whimpering in the woods near The Stone Cliff Inn Restaurant.

    Rippe responded to the scene and found the dog. It was Sampson.

    Sampson was trapped about six feet down a very rocky ravine. Obviously unable to get out on its own, Rippe took off his patrol gear, put on a helmet and knee pads and climbed down the ravine to rescue the dog.

    The officer said it appeared the dog had been trapped down there for several days, at least. However, Sampson is still in good spirits and should be OK.

    "It feels really good to get the dog back to its owner," Rippe said.

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  4. #694
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    AZ grandpa plans to walk 75 miles to thank Red Cross

    PHOENIX, Arizona: A Cottonwood grandfather plans to pay back the American Red Cross for the help it provided after fire destroyed his family's mobile home in northern Arizona.

    Al Slusser, 75, said will walk 75 miles through the Verde Valley to raise money for the organization.

    It's been nearly 40 years since that tragedy but the retired Camp Verde United Christian School principal said he remains grateful to this day for the assistance given by first responders and Red Cross volunteers.

    "My wife and I escaped with our two young children. But we lost everything in the fire," Slusser said.

    The Red Cross Verde Valley Benefit Walk will be the Cottonwood resident's fourth long-distance trek. He began walking expeditions at age 70 in 2009.

    By 2012, he had covered more than 5,000 miles walking the width and length of the U.S. as well as the width and length of Arizona.

    Slusser will begin his walk on May 5 at the Jerome Fire Station and end May 11 at the Verde Valley Fire District Station 31 in Cottonwood.

    He said he will move at a relaxed pace, stopping in communities along his route to encourage individuals and groups to make tax-deductible donations to the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter's disaster relief fund.

    The walk will take the U.S. Navy veteran through Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Cornville, Page Springs, Sedona, Village of Oak Creek, McQuireville, Rimrock, Lake Montezuma and Camp Verde.

    He encourages people to join him inside the city limits but says the rural roads will be too narrow for escorts.

    A Red Cross emergency response vehicle will accompany Slusser during portions of his trip.

    To prepare for the upcoming journey, Slusser said he walks about 5 to 7 miles each morning after sunrise. His knees bother him so he takes pain relievers before his stints. Slusser also battles chronic bronchitis but he said walking helps him breathe better.

    "It's challenging at my age to keep a positive mental attitude about walking alone knowing the risks I will face on the roads, especially when it would be so easy to just retire,'' Slusser said.

    Tax-deductible donations in honor of the Red Cross Verde Valley Benefit Walk can be made out to the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter and mailed to 6135 N. Black Canyon Highway, Phoenix, AZ, 85015.

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  5. #695
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    Man running 100 races in 52 weeks to raise money for Alzheimer's

    SAGINAW, MI - A local man is attempting to run 100 races in 52 weeks. It's a goal not many runners could accomplish, but Brad Kloha is taking that challenge.

    Kloha started his charity Run to Remember last year to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer's disease. Now he is heading back to Mid-Michigan for the final stretch and that includes Midland's Dow weekend of races.

    Kloha will run races number 92 and 93 at the Dow weekend of races in Midland. Most of the races he does are obstacle races which include carrying weights, climbing over walls and crawling through the mud.

    He's putting his body through so much exhaustion for a cause that has affected his life and many others.

    "I think probably most people would think I'm crazy, that's probably the word I've heard the most throughout this," Kloha said.

    Kloha is putting his body through the rigors for the health of others, both raising money and awareness for Alzheimer's disease.

    "Alzheimer's disease is one of the top six killers in America and it's the only one without a cure, and it's the only one that's not preventable, and it's the only one that can't be slowed, and it's only going to get worse. So we need to do something about it now," Kloha said.

    He has been doing something about it, with his great-grandmother and his grandmother, who both suffered through the disease, as his inspiration. He even wears a picture of him and his grandma on his sleeve to help get him through.

    "It's shown its damage. It's been through the mud. It's been through barbed wire. It's a constant reminder of why I do it. It's a constant reminder of what she went through and what my family went through and what those millions of families who are affected by the disease, what they're going through now. So whenever I'm feeling that pain or exhaustion during a race, I can just look down at that picture and remember her and remember what her and my family went through, and then I can get through the race," he said.

    Kloha's had to get through a lot, even ending up in the emergency room following his seventh race of his 100 race journey.

    "The doctors said 'you know what, you just need to stop what you're doing.' And I said 'woah, we need a different plan because I have 93 races to go," Kloha said.

    Now 87 races in he has just 13 more to go, with the pain of each race only serving as a reminder of why he's doing this in the first place.

    "Knowing that there are families out there going through a lot more emotionally, and physically, and people who have had the disease, what they're going through. Any sickness, any minor injury it didn't matter," Kloha said.

    His 100th race will be June 15 in Mount Pleasant. So far Kloha has raised a little more than $20,000 for Alzheimer's Association. If you want to support the cause you can go to his foundation's website runtorember.net to donate.
    http://www.wnem.com/story/25403535/l...lipId=10110213
    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  6. #696
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    Dog Drifting at Sea on Log Rescued by New Zealand Navy



    Last week, Tiny the dog found himself in big trouble.

    The Royal New Zealand Navy rescued the small pooch from a log drifting out to sea on Thursday.

    According to the New Zealand Herald, crew from the Inshore Patrol Vessel HMNZS Hawea spotted the distressed pup standing on floating driftwood in Smokehouse Bay, Great Barrier Island.

    An inflatable boat with four crew members onboard retrieved the dog, and he was taken ashore, where the sailors found someone who knew his owner, said Lieutenant Anthony Norris.

    The Sunday Star Times reports the pup's name is Tiny and that he's a sea dog owned by 20-year-old Ben Ngawaka, who works in the crayfishing business. The pair were headed to Great Barrier Island's Port Fitzroy when Tiny jumped onto a log that Ngawaka had stopped to examine.

    "I was going into Fitzroy to get some supplies – I just carried on and thought I'd pick him up on the way home," he said. Before Ngawaka could do that, the Navy had spotted the 8-year-old dog and suspected he was washed out to sea during an intense storm earlier in the week.

    For more inspiring stories about real-life heroes and can't-miss articles found only in PEOPLE subscribe now.

    Ngawaka described the cattle dog mix as "pretty quiet," and added that the ordeal – and subsequent media attention – hadn't change him much: "He's still the same. He just got a feed and that was it."

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  7. #697
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    Quote Originally Posted by kuhio98 View Post
    [SIZE=3]My Four-Legged Guardian Angel
    By Gayle Trent

    Had you seen Duke, it isn’t likely you’d have called him an angel. In fact, not even I called him “angel.” I called him “my baby.” Duke was a St. Bernard, a gift to me from my parents on my tenth birthday.
    Hee hee - bet no one knew angels could drool! That made me smile!
    I've Been Frosted

  8. #698
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    Madison Co. man saves child crawling near highway

    MADISON COUNTY, GA -- Long ago, Bryant Collins learned the value of choosing the right path.

    "I've been in a lot of bad situations," he told 11Alive's Matt Pearl.

    But this past Friday, Collins found, on the side of the road, a chance to save a life.

    "I had seen something out of the corner of my eye, and I thought it was a baby," Collins recalled. "I just stopped and, when I got out, there was a baby … almost in the highway."

    Collins' reaction? "The same that yours would have been, man … 'What the hell is going on? A baby?'"

    It was a 15-month-old baby that had crawled through the woods, 300 yards from home, and nearly onto Highway 72.

    Collins called 911, and emergency crews arrived. Police arrested the child's father, Timothy Pickens, and will likely arrest the child's mother as well.

    Thankfully, the child was not hurt, according to Madison County sheriff Kip Thomas.

    "Everything was pretty much superficial that we saw," Thomas said, "Honestly that's almost a miracle: that a 15-month-old can go that far from her house, into the woods, fall down an embankment, wind up near a major highway, and really not get hurt that bad."

    And Bryant Collins? He stayed with the baby for two hours.

    "The baby started crying," Collins said, "so I turned my phone on and let her listen to some gospel music, and she calmed right down."

    On this day he is a hero. But Collins could never have saved the life of this baby if he had not, long ago, saved his own.

    "I did ten years in the federal institution for manufacturing cocaine," he said. "When I was in prison, I made a very conscientious effort to change, and I did."

    Collins has been free and clean for five years. And it was in his new job, as an auto repairman, that he found himself on the side of the road, a baby's life literally in his hands.

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  9. #699
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    Bless him for seeing and for stopping! She may grow up convinced angels wear baseball caps!
    I've Been Frosted

  10. #700
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    One of a Kind Feline
    She was usually allergic to cats, but not the one who entered her life to look after her.

    By Patty Darsnek, Aitkin, Minnesota

    "Girlie must be the one cat you’re not allergic to,” my husband, Jim, said. It didn’t make any sense. I’d agreed to keep a friend’s cat for three weeks, knowing I was highly allergic.

    I figured I’d just add allergy pills to my daily medical regimen, since I was already managing type 1 diabetes. But a week had passed and I hadn’t taken one allergy pill. Even with Girlie curled up on our bed at night, none of my usual symptoms had shown up.

    “What is it about you?” I asked her one night when I climbed in bed.

    Later I woke up to Jim’s gentle shakes. “We have to check your blood sugar!” he was saying. The sheets were wet. I was covered in sweat. My blood sugar was dangerously low–life threatening. Jim gave me a shot to raise it quickly.

    “I would have slept through the crisis if Girlie hadn’t batted me in the face with her paws,” Jim said.

    Girlie never went back to my friend’s house. She curls up with me every night, like a guardian angel watching over me. And, of course, no one is allergic to angels.

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  11. #701
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    JUNEAU, Alaska — A 7-month-old Maltese puppy owned by Bonnie and Brad Gruening likes to retrieve.

    On Monday, Lady Bunny came home with an unexpected prize — a wallet its owner didn't know was lost.
    The puppy found and brought home a wallet belonging to Rudy Vonda, a sanitation worker with Pacific Waste Management who drives a route in the Gruenings' North Douglas Island neighborhood, the Juneau Empire reported.

    The Gruenings called Vonda to report their pooch had found his property."I didn't even know my wallet was missing. I checked my back pocket to make sure," Vonda said.

    "When the lady said a dog brought my wallet home, I figured it was a Labrador or German Shepherd."He drove to the Gruenings' home and instead saw a little white dog.

    "When I pulled up to her place, she's coming out and she's got her little dog in her arms and my wallet," Vonda said with a laugh.The dog's head was barely bigger than his wallet, Vonda said.

    Lady Bunny has a good nose. She has brought home other treasures, Bonnie Gruening said. "She particularly likes to take our neighbors' shoes.

    "The puppy took the wallet directly to Brad Gruening."It was really neat because we were able to get it back to the owner," Bonnie Gruening said, "Then to find out he's our sanitation guy, which is so awesome — they work so hard and do such a good job.

    "Vonda figures his wallet fell as he slid out of his truck cab to adjust a can for pickup. The wallet's drab olive green color could easily have kept it lost."That was a real surprise," Vonda said of its return. "It was like a dog from heaven."

    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  12. #702
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    Good job, Lady Bunny! It's not the size of the dog that matters - dogs noses are so much more powerful than ours that the tiniest one still puts ours to shame!
    I've Been Frosted

  13. #703
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    From a random acts of kindness website:

    Little Old Lady
    I used to work at a grocery store and this little old lady would always come in to do her shopping. Many of my co-workers did not like helping this old lady out to her car because she would talk for a very long time about her life and my co-workers would lose their patience with her. So I decided to take her out to her car and unload her groceries and in the process of doing so I listened to her conversation. She was basically venting. From that conversation I learned that her two kids lived out of state and her husband was dead. This old lady had no one to talk to which is why she just wanted to talk to someone about her life. After that conversation she went back into the store and told my boss what a good employee I was. That made my day, but I also made her day because I took the time to understand why she always talked so much. Anytime an older person approaches you to talk, don't feel weird about it because they have no one else to talk to. Be kind and engage in a conversation with them; it will make their day.


    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  14. #704
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    Youth of America

    This happened years ago but just found site. My uncle complained a lot about how young people were so disrespectful and often lamented about our Country's decline. One evening he and his wife got a flat tire and managed to get their truck stuck half-way in a ditch. This was in Phoenix and even though it was in the evening over 90 degrees. Dozens of cars passed by this elderly couple without a second look. They had sat there for over an hour when a car full of kids stopped. They changed the tire and helped get the truck back on the road. When finished my uncle tried to pay these kids. You guessed it, they wouldn't take a dime. These kids completely changed my uncle's opinion on a whole generation.
    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

  15. #705
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    Inspiring Therapy Dog Dropout

    Hi! I'm Chipper, a rescued shelter mutt. A few years ago I passed the test to become a certified therapy dog so I could bring happiness to people in nursing homes, children's hospitals, homeless youth shelters, disabled group homes, etc. Unfortunately I failed out of the program when I reached my rebellious adolescent stage and started barking at sweet little old ladies. I felt like a four legged "failure" until I realized that when one doggy door closes, another one opens. I published an autobiDOGraphy about my life as a therapy dog dropout, and it teaches that you don't have to be perfect to make a difference. I'm very excited because my story has inspired people all over the world to do nice things for others! A woman from Washington State read about the paw-printed valentines that I made for some lonely seniors, and decided to make handprinted cards with the help of her one-year-old daughter, Kayt. The mother-daughter team delivered the cards to friends and neighbors who needed cheering up. That fun day inspired Kayt and her mom to keep bringing smiles to others, so they started a tradition of visiting a nursing home twice a month. A retired seizure alert dog in Kentucky followed in my footsteps by cheerfully standing still while his family painted his paw with bright colors to make Thanksgiving turkey cards for some kids at an orphanage. It's nice to know that I can help make the world a better place even though I'm imperfect!
    Ask your vet about microchipping. ~ It could have saved Kuhio's life.

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