The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

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.

[Karen]

Bless him for seeing and for stopping! She may grow up convinced angels wear baseball caps!

[kuhio98]

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.

[kuhio98]

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."

[Karen]

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!

[kuhio98]

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.

[kuhio98]

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.