The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Miracle on Madison Avenue
From walks in the woods to the busy streets of Manhattan, birds intrigued his late mother. Him, too.
By Marcus M. Silverman, New York, New York

Rain drizzled down on my head. I was early for work and drinking a paper cup of coffee outside the office on Madison Avenue.

I couldn’t sleep the night before or the night before that. My mom had passed away about eight months ago, and though I hadn’t fallen apart completely, I had my good days and bad days. Most of all, I just missed her.

At night, when it was clear outside, I’d look up at the sky and try to imagine her looking down on me. But more often than not, I couldn’t quite get that picture in my head.

I took another sip of coffee and sighed. Everything else seemed to be falling into place in my life. I had a good job, a decent apartment and a girlfriend I cared about. Why couldn’t I have faith that Mom was up there smiling down on me?

From behind a potted plant I could see movement on the sidewalk. A black bird hopped a couple inches toward me. Even the most common birds held my attention, partly because my mom was an avid bird-watcher herself.

I had a photo she’d taken of her favorite–a red-winged blackbird–tacked up on the bulletin board over my desk at work.

In free moments, the picture took me back to happy afternoons with my mom, going for walks around the woods by our house and trying to name as many species of birds as we could.

I tried to identify this one.

The bird hopped right up to my shoe. Could it be? A red-winged blackbird! What an unlikely visitor in the middle of a big city. The bird hopped past me and continued along Madison Avenue.

I looked up at the sky and smiled. All those nights staring overhead, I’d missed the signs right on the ground in front of me.

[kuhio98]

Meet the World's First Dog with Four Prosthetic Legs



http://orthopets.com/

[phesina]

Oh, how good and sweet that is! Well done, Orthopets and Naki'o!!!

[kuhio98]

Lost Teddy Bear Tours Disney Before Heading Home to Alabama


Toby the teddy bear isn't just any old stuffed animal to Brooklyn Andrews.

He's a cherished link to a father who died far too young.

"She's slept with it every night since she got it when she was 3 years old," says her mother, Marsha Andrews, 39, of Chunchula, Ala.

It even has a special message in it recorded from her father, Tony Andrews, a police officer who died of a heart attack on duty in 2006.

"She presses the button every night before she goes to bed and listens to her daddy," says Marsha.

So when the 14-year-old girl lost him on a visit to Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa last month, she was devastated.

After we got home "we were unpacking," says Marsha. "And Brooklyn said, 'Where's Toby?' She was freaking out."

Luckily, Mom saved the day. When a phone call to the resort didn't yield any results, she took to social media.

"Very special bear (Toby) is lost!!" wrote Marsha on January 15. "Toby was given to the little girl by her by her daddy before he left for Iraq with his voice recorded in the bear telling her how much he loves her."

Marsha also belongs to a Facebook group for spouses of police officers who have died in the line of duty.

"I posted in there for them to pray," she says. "They were sharing it everywhere."

That posting somehow caught the eye of a Disney employee who called two days later to say they found Toby.

"Brooklyn was ecstatic," she says. "She was jumping up and down."

Disney not only found the bear, they sent him on a fun-filled day around the park before shipping him home with photographs of his adventures.

"She loved it," says Marsha of the photos. "She said the next time she goes to Disney she's going to take him to the park with her and get more pictures."

The whole experience has been amazing, says Marsha.

"I was shocked how much people cared," she says.

"You'd think people would say, 'He's just a bear.' But he's not just a bear to us – and especially to her."

[Karen]

How sweet! I bet the Disney employees were tickled that that got to return him to his person, I am sure they see many lost toys that never get home again!

[kuhio98]

7-Year-Old Has Raised Over $600,000 to Help Cure His Best Friend's Disease

The next time you think about the power of friendship, think about Dylan Siegel.

Dylan is 7 years old. His best friend, Jonah, has an extremely rare liver disease, and funding for his treatment almost dried up at one point. So Dylan decided to help by writing a book, The Chocolate Bar Book, which has helped raise over $600,000 for research into Jonah's disease.

Jonah has Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1b, which is a rare liver disorder that causes dangerously low blood sugar. As one of 500 children in the world with the disease, Jonah has to be fed every few hours through a feeding tube in his stomach. There is currently no cure.

Dylan describes his friendship with Jonah as "awesome as a chocolate bar," which is where he got the title of his book. People in all 50 states and 42 countries have purchased copies of The Chocolate Bar Book, with every cent going to Dr. David Weinstein's Florida lab, where a cure for the disease is apparently near to being reached.

"It is now reality. It's not just a dream that these children can be cured," Dr. Weinstein told ABC affiliate KGO-TV.

Dylan seems to think so, anyway. Asked where he and Jonah would be 10-15 years from now, he told KGO-TV, "Um, high school and probably [Jonah's] disease would be cured."

Jonah's answer to the same question?

"Friends."

Dylan and Jonah http://chocolatebarbook.com/

[kuhio98]

Backes returns from Sochi with stray dogs

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)– A star St. Louis Blues player who was part of Team USA in the Olympics brought back much more from Sochi than just memories of playing on Olympic ice.

Blues captain David Backes and his wife rescued two of the thousands of stray dogs that were all around Sochi.

We were there as the charter plane with the Backes`, the dogs and others landed at Lambert.

Backes says the two dogs he rescued and other animals kept on showing up at the resort where the players` families were staying.

As the days went by, Sochi Junior and Sochi Jake as Backes calls them, just wouldn`t leave.

So the Backes` went through all the red tape to get them out of Russia.

“By the end of it those two were living in hotel rooms where they shouldn`t have been getting baths in bath tubs where they shouldn`t have been,” explained Backes.

The Backes` are animal lovers. In fact, they run a foundation called Athletes for Animals.

Backes says all the stray animals in Sochi and the amount that were reportedly killed or euthanized touched him.

“When they`re timid and you can kind of tell they`ve been mistreated or you see one with mange or that`s really skinny or fighting over some scraps of food that really tears your heart out because we feel that every dog should have a great home that`s well fed,” explained Backes.

The dogs stayed with the Backes` on the 13 hour plane ride home.

They even tweeted out a picture of them smiling with the dogs while on the flight.

“It`s almost like they knew they were going to somewhere where they wouldn`t have to worry about food or fighting over food or worried about who was coming after them next,” said Backes about the dogs.

After a quick potty break when they landed, the dogs were taken away by the Five Acres Animal Shelter from St. Charles.

They will stay there for 30 days to make sure they are healthy before becoming available for adoption.

“We`re going to be caring for them in that time, socializing them, teaching them English, you know fun things like that,” said Brittany Broombaugh with Five Acres.

Backes added, ‘The story being told of how these dogs are just like yours and mine at home and how you know we should treat our animals with respect and be responsible pet owners is a story that a lot of people wanted to tell and I think we`re telling it now.”

[kuhio98]

An update to this story. Dylan has now raised nearly $1,000,000 for research. And he and Jonah are still best friends. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/...e/?hpt=us_bn10

7-Year-Old Has Raised Over $600,000 to Help Cure His Best Friend's Disease

The next time you think about the power of friendship, think about Dylan Siegel.

Dylan is 7 years old. His best friend, Jonah, has an extremely rare liver disease, and funding for his treatment almost dried up at one point. So Dylan decided to help by writing a book, The Chocolate Bar Book, which has helped raise over $600,000 for research into Jonah's disease.

Jonah has Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1b, which is a rare liver disorder that causes dangerously low blood sugar. As one of 500 children in the world with the disease, Jonah has to be fed every few hours through a feeding tube in his stomach. There is currently no cure.

Dylan describes his friendship with Jonah as "awesome as a chocolate bar," which is where he got the title of his book. People in all 50 states and 42 countries have purchased copies of The Chocolate Bar Book, with every cent going to Dr. David Weinstein's Florida lab, where a cure for the disease is apparently near to being reached.

"It is now reality. It's not just a dream that these children can be cured," Dr. Weinstein told ABC affiliate KGO-TV.

Dylan seems to think so, anyway. Asked where he and Jonah would be 10-15 years from now, he told KGO-TV, "Um, high school and probably [Jonah's] disease would be cured."

Jonah's answer to the same question?

"Friends."

Dylan and Jonah http://chocolatebarbook.com/