Feel-Good Friday

I'm not sure what it is about this story that hit me so hard, but I was crying while I was reading it and watching the videos. And yes, it IS a Feel-Good Friday story. 

The story is about Carson, a 3 year old boy who went missing from his property in North Dakota earlier this week. 

200 people volunteered to help look for him, and the search went into the middle of the night. After those on foot were called off due to heavy rain, an ATV rider spotted the family dog Cooper, also missing, huddled on the side of the hill.  As he shone his spotlight in that direction, the dog stood up a bit. He rode over there to find Carson under Cooper, protected from the heavy storm. 

What a heroic dog! What might have happened if it were not for Cooper?

 Would the boy have been injured in the storm? Would he have wandered into something far more dangerous? It was 40 degrees outside and raining. Surely Cooper provided desperately needed body heat as he huddled over Carson. It also seems Carson certainly would have been less easy to find were it not for the dog looking out for the rescuers, and alerting them to their location. 

Oh, and the best part of the story. . .  Cooper's a rescued mutt! They found him three years ago abandoned near a relative's property. They found him, and he found Carson, and the rescue cycle goes on and on. 

For additional information, links to the pictures, and videos about Carson and Cooper, click on the links below.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/lost-3-year-old-boy-found-with-family-dog-protecting-him/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/07/dog-protects-missing-boy-carson-urness_n_5282408.html
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/lost-3-old-boy-found-family-dog-protecting-181527501--abc-news-topstories.html



Oh, and how would you like to see a video of animals jumping on trampolines?  Click on the picture below. You won't regret it. 

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Lost and Found

The thought of a pet running away is enough to send many pet parents into a panic.  I assume if you're enough of a pet lover to read the Rescue Dog Blog you are one of those parents. Today's post was prompted by a lost pet, a kitty named Minnie.

 One of my former students lost Minnie last Sunday night when she slipped out the back door super-quickly. Jenny has recently discovered we have a front door, and now when we open it she tries to get out so I could easily see that happening.  Minnie's picture kept coming up in my Facebook newsfeed, and she was constantly on my mind. 

Tuesday after school I went driving around her neighborhood, and then when I came home I started looking for new name tags for Wiley and Jenny. 

Jenny doesn't have one at all, and Wiley's information is starting to wear off his.  I couldn't stop thinking about what I would do if either one of them went missing. Neither is microchipped.  

In my search I found these great tags from PetHub. I'm sure some of you have heard of this company before, but they were new to me. The tags come with a QR code! 

When scanned by a smart phone it will go to an online profile of each pet, with enough information to figure out where he/she belongs! Isn't that a great idea? Why didn't I think of that? I'd be rich! 

 

Anyway, I promptly ordered one for Jenny and Wiley. Then I loaded Wiley in the car and we cruised around in the torrential rain to keep looking for Minnie. Over the course of four days there was about a dozen people looking for Minnie with no luck.  I was starting to lose hope but Minnie's mom found her, hiding under a broken-down shed about a block away from the house.   

Yay for happy endings!

Over the weekend Wiley and Jenny's new tags came in. I am so pleased with them.

 They also came with a promo code for a 20% discount to upgrade the services.   To have the code maintained and linked to on the website there is no cost. But with the upgrade the parents get an alert whenever someone scans the code, and it enables the GPS tracking!  How cool is that? 

I got Wiley and Jenny to model their new bling but it wasn't easy, especially with Jenny.  She was initially interested in it.  This is a picture of her rubbing on it.

This made Wiley very intrigued about what was going on. Heaven forbid Jenny gets anything he doesn't have, including attention. 

With her long fur the tag is not too easy to see.

 Look how mad she is in the picture below because I was holding a treat and wouldn't give it to her.

Eventually I was able to get one nice shot, but not before she stuck her tongue out at me.

Wiley did not want to be outdone.

Anyway, here's Jenny's glamour shot.

As you can see from the above pictures, Wiley was cooperative as always.  Speaking of Wiley, he did something he's never done in the three years we've had him.  I was out on the patio enjoying the sun. Every minute that we are outside he brings me his ball.

 He is relentless. He has never once just relaxed if I or anyone else was available for ball-throwing. He just looks at us with anticipation, like this:

If he sits, it's also never relaxed. It's still like this:

However, for a very brief moment on Saturday, he actually laid down calmly, without caring about the ball. I was so shocked I took a picture because I didn't think my husband would believe me.  Please excuse the "selfie" aspect of this picture but I knew if I wasn't in it myself Hubs might be doubtful as to the authenticity. 

It didn't last long but I was still pleased. We only just got the patio put in near the end of last July, so I hope to spend a lot of time on it this summer, and it would be lovely if Wiley could just learn to relax out there with me.

One more thing. . . notice how Wiley is still wearing his Kutztown Baseball scarf?  Hubs's team won their conference championship and they are heading on to Regional playoffs in two weeks. I discussed the team's conference in this post, where Wiley was showing off his PSAC tshirt he won (seen below).

The winner of regionals advances to the Div II National Championship. We're very proud so Wiley will have to be all decked out for just a bit longer. 

And just because this is my blog, so I can do whatever I want, I'm including this precious picture of my husband and one of his players after the championship game, courtesy of Kutztown's Sports Information Director Bryan Salvadore.

Ok so this was a long post. Go hug your pets and make sure they're all properly ID'd. And don't forget we love to share your own personal rescue stories! Go Kutztown Golden Bears!

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Feel Good Friday

It's been a while since I've delivered a traditional Feel-Good Friday story. Today I have one that was on Good Morning America a few weeks ago, and it is absolutely adorable. 

Lorrie Rivera and her dog Lily, a 90 lb Akita, were out walking when Lily went pushing into the brush and came out with a very tiny kitten in her mouth!  Lorrie tried to take it to the Humane Society, but they said it was too young for adoption.  Lorrie decided to take a chance and take it home.  As you can tell, Lily was a fan!  She has been taking care of this little kitty ever since.

Did I mention Lily was originally given to Lorrie by her daughter to serve as a guard dog for her flower shop? Let's hope no stray kittens try to break into the place, because it doesn't seem like Lily will be much of a guard. 

All of these pictures were taken by Lorrie herself, and shared via Good Morning America/Yahoo and the Huffington Post. I wish I could track down Lorrie to keep tabs on how the pair make out in the long run. When Goldie and Kate, featured here, were adopted their parents started a Facebook page for them so we could get occasional updates. I'm always in favor of happy updates. If anyone hears any let me know!

What I wouldn't give for Jenny and Wiley to get along like Lily and this kitten. 

Here's a picture from Tuesday. Wiley was sitting next to me on the couch clamoring for attention when Jenny decided she wanted some too and walked along the back of the couch. I petted her a bit and then she took a few more steps and laid down. You can see her butt; it's what the red arrow is pointing at. And you can see Wiley's serious side-eye at her proximity. He wasn't digging it too much, so he kept giving me his paw, as if to say "But you're still paying attention to me, right Mom?" 

Ahhhh well. Baby steps, right? I'll take whatever progress I get!

Thanks for checking in. As always, we encourage your personal submissions. Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com.

 

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