The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Couple Find Forever Love Thanks to Seeing-Eye Dogs

This ain't no puppy love – though it literally started out as such.

It seems Claire Johnson, 50, and Mark Gaffey, 52, were destined to be together. The two, both visually impaired, were brought together when their seeing-eye dogs, Rodd and Venice, fell in love during a 2012 training course in Shrewsbury, England.

No matter how hard people tried to keep them apart, the pups would manage to "snuggle together under a table and give each other dog kisses," Today.com reports.

Soon, their infectious puppy love spread to their owners, who decided to give romance a shot once training was over. And much to Rodd and Venice's glee, Johnson and Gaffey will be tying the knot next spring.

"It's going to be as much [the dogs'] day as it is ours," Gaffey tells Today.com. "They're central to the whole thing because, at the end of the day, they brought us together."

She's serious: Rodd and Venice will walk down the aisle wearing harnesses covered in flowers, and Johnson and Gaffey's wedding cake will be decked out with bones and paw prints.

Here's wishing all four of them a happy life that's never too ruff!

[kuhio98]

Something a little different ~ a sweet story in MP3 format. Please let me know if you can't access it and I'll see if I can find a different way to link it.

http://www.airsla.org/broadcasts/Goo...ping110915.mp3

[kuhio98]

COLLEGE STUDENT BARRETT BABER, 19
At a crash site inferno, his cool action saves lives

On the night of June 1, Barrett Baber, a sophomore at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, had settled back in his seat on American Airlines Flight 1420, eagerly awaiting his arrival home in Little Rock after a two-week tour of Germany performing with 24 other members of his college choir. But as the plane approached the runway, it was jolted by winds from a violent thunderstorm. "I was sitting there, buckled up, and we were shaking," says Baber. "I thought, 'Here we go. We're coming down.' "

The plane, carrying 139 passengers and six crew members, touched down hard, then went into a gut-wrenching skid. "They turned those back-thrusters on full blast, but we kept going forward," he says. "Then the lights flashed off and on, and the stewardess screamed, 'Brace yourself!' " The plane careered toward the end of the runway and, just short of the Arkansas River, crashed into a metal support for approach beacons and split apart. "I looked out, and I could see flames outside the airplane," says Baber.

Escape wouldn't be easy. As fire began engulfing the plane, panicked passengers tugged at a jammed exit door. "I grabbed the door and pulled on it as hard as I could," says Baber. "It wasn't budging." But through the thickening smoke, he spied an 18-inch break in the fuselage. "I picked a stewardess up and pushed her through the hole," says Baber, who quickly did the same for three others. "Then it got really smoky," he says. "I couldn't breathe or see, and I got really scared." In spite of that and despite cuts on his legs and torso, Barrett squeezed his 6'4", 225-lb. frame headfirst through the crack and found himself outside the plane knee-deep in water near the river's edge. "I thought for a while I was the only survivor because I couldn't see anybody. All I could see, taste or breathe was black smoke," he says. "It was freezing cold and hailing something terrible."

After helping two more survivors out of the same hole in the fuselage, Baber joined three fellow passengers, including the flight attendant, in the cold water. "I got to the stewardess and started sobbing, just crying uncontrollably," he says. "She said, 'Come on, Barrett. Stay with me.' " He shook off his terror and helped guide others away from the fiery wreck.

In the end the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420 killed 11, injured 80 and changed Barrett Baber's life forever. "You hear it all the time, people saying that every day is a gift. But it really is, you know," he says. "I drive the speed limit. I spend more time with people. And relationships mean a lot more to me now." As they no doubt do to those whose lives he helped save. Says Luke Hollingsworth, Baber's friend and fellow passenger: "The Bible says to sacrifice your life for a friend is the greatest gift. But to do it for a stranger takes it a step farther. And that's what Barrett did."

[lizbud]

Seeing humans rescuing animals (all kinds) in distress makes me think better of the human race.
p.s. Love seeing the baby elephant.


http://now.msn.com/animal-rescue-com...deo-goes-viral

[kuhio98]

TECHNICIAN WILLIE GANTT, 42
Carrying precious cargo from a raging house fire

Working on his tax returns in the wee hours of Feb. 28, Willie Gantt was startled by an urgent banging at the door of his Wichita, Kans., home. It was a breathless Sharanda Beard, 12, clutching a baby and shaking with fear as she blurted out that the house next door, where she was babysitting seven younger cousins and siblings, was on fire. Gantt, 42, barefoot and in boxer shorts, dashed out the door and "leaped over the fence," says his wife, Vera, 32. "He looked like a lion." Opening the door to the neighbor's house, "the fire knocked me to my knees," says Gantt, the father of three. Racing to the side of the house and crawling through the basement window that Sharanda had broken to escape, Gantt found the children and carried them to safety one by one. The fire, started by clothes near a space heater, gutted the house. "A few more minutes," says fire investigator Don Birmingham, "we'd be talking about eight fatalities."

[kuhio98]

Jonathan Kitto Has Rescued 1,100 Greyhounds Over the Past 13 years



Back in 1999, Jonathan Kitto and his partner, Alonso Saldivar, were running a commercial cleaning company and were growing weary of the grind.

"I came home one day and said, 'I need a dog,' " says Kitto, 58, who is also an Anglican priest.

The next day they went to a local pet supply store, which was having a greyhound meet and greet.

"Alonso was a little scared of dogs," he says. "But a few minutes later I looked over and a big greyhound was sitting in his lap."

Her name was Gigi. They adopted her and took her home.

"She was a wreck," he says. "She was scared of everything."

They called the rescue group for advice about Gigi's behavior.

"They said, 'You need to get another one,' " he recalls.

Mister Buck, who was up on the table about to be put down, soon joined their family. Three more dogs followed. Inspired, Kitto formed Gbark http://www.greyhoundbark.org/ , rescuing 1,100 retired greyhounds who were bred to be racers, some of whom were abused or neglected.

"We have some very unusual cases," says Kitto, who now lives in Bloomfield, Ind. "From one dog that was kept locked in a closet for two years to another who has a joint disease that leaves him barely able to walk."

But he always found them homes.

"I have never met anyone like him," says Kathy Murray, 47, who adopted Moose through his rescue. "Everything he does is for the dogs. He has a huge heart."

Kitto eventually shifted the focus of the rescue to being a "last stop" for unadoptable dogs. He's kept 60 greyhounds and mixed breed rescues who were about to be put down over the years.

"Some were elderly or sick or had a leg amputated," he says. "In some cases they'd bitten somebody. When we get them, that's their last stop. They stay with us forever."

To keep costs down, Kitto began making his own dog food, which led to him starting Mr. Buck's Genuinely Good Pet Food Company, http://www.mrbuckspetfood.com/ named in honor of his now deceased dog pal, Mr. Buck. Proceeds from the sale of the food go to support Kitto's rescue efforts and other rescue organizations.

Nicole Graves, foster coordinator for American Greyhound in Hobart, Ind., http://www.americangreyhound.org/ met Kitto a year ago and has since sent three unadoptable greyhounds his way.

"Gbark is a great home for dogs that need a special home," she says. "Jon has just dedicated his life to caring for these dogs. I would be lost without him."

But Kitto says he is the lucky one.

"It's a huge selfish pursuit," he says. "I'm sure some people don't quite get that but these dogs, starting with the first ones, were life changing."

[phesina]

God bless Mr. Kitto and his partner and all the dogs they have saved.