Pope Francis meets his littlest fan!

When Pope Francis spoke at the Vatican at St. Peter Square last week, a six-year-old boy climbed onstage and hugged him, tugging his robes and kissing the cross around his neck. Eventually, the Pope convinced the boy to take a seat… in the Pope’s chair!

It was a very touching look at just how patient and compassionate all church leaders (or any adult) should be. As a nonreligious person, even I can’t help but be inspired by the kindness, open-mindedness, and humbleness of the new Pope. To all my Catholic friends… you really got a good one this time!

Photo from Yahoo! News.

Mental Floss's host John Green shares 35 facts about Mr. Rogers

It’s very hard to watch this video without smiling at all of the heartwarming facts about the man who many of us grew up watching! Mr. Rogers was an emblem of compassion, and his show is what taught many children patience and gave them their first understanding of morality and kindheartedness.

Without further ado, here’s author (and all around awesome guy) John Green sharing thirty-five facts about the beloved Mr. Rogers. And, in the words of Mr. Green, don’t forget to be awesome.

10 ways to reconnect with nature.

According to a recent article published by the BBC, frequent exposure to nature can improve cognitive function and alleviate depression. It can also help reduce aggression and behavioral problems in children.

Don’t have a forest nearby? No problem, says Lorna Fox of the London Wildlife Trust. “All of us can be guilty of thinking that nature is only in certain places and that tarmac and bricks and dense urban environments mean nature’s not there. Nature is actually everywhere, and as soon as you step through your front door, you’re outside.”

Here’s some tips the article provides for engaging in nature:

1. Stop, look, and listen! Take some time to notice the wildlife around you.
2. Take a walk in the park. Autumn is the perfect time to take a walk and see the leaves.
3. Use your senses. Don’t just use your sight. Touch the bark of a tree, listen for migrant birds, and smell the damp leaves.
4. Make space for nature. Build a birdhouse.
5. Feed your local wildlife. Autumn is the time when animals need to fatten up for winter! Put out food for birds, hedgehogs, or other local non-evasive critters.
6. Take time for the trees. Collect leaves as they fall.

To see the remaining four tips for enjoying the outdoors and more ideas, check out the original BBC article here.

Photography by me. To see more of my photos, please visit Off The Road Photo on tumblr.

Community (and President Obama!) stands behind server after anti-gaycustomers leave nasty note.

It started as a normal workday for a 20-year-old waiter at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Overland Park, Kansas. However, after demonstrating impeccable service, the waiter discovered a message of hate left for him on the back of the guests’ check.

What started as a compliment from the couple (Thank you for your service, it was excellent) quickly turned vile: That being said, we cannot in good conscience tip you, for your homosexual lifestyle is an affront to GOD. Q***rs do not share in the wealth of GOD, and you will not share in ours. We hope you will see the tip your f** choices made you lose out on, and plan accordingly. It is never too late for GOD’s love, but none shall be spared for f**s. May GOD have mercy on you.

Apparently, the couple decided that their faith prevented them from tipping the waiter for his service, although they had no qualms regarding acceptance of his hard work and had no issue enjoying the food he served them.

“This is not Christian as I know it,” said Dr. Marvin Baker, a local pastor who leads a Bible study group for LGBT members. “God really loves us. God does not advertise or promote hate. That is not love.”

The server (and his mother, who works as a hostess) declined to appear in televised interviews, not wanting to out the hateful couple or cause a fuss. Either way, members of the community are flocking to Carrabba’s, requesting to be seated in the waiter’s section so that they can tip him for his service.

“The offers to help pay me back are much appreciated,” the waiter responded to the vast amount of local community support, “but not at all needed. I’d prefer to let my work ethic and my service do the talking, nothing else.”

Within a few days, the story of the hateful, anti-gay message had spread across the nation. Carrabba’s was in for a surprise when President Obama arrived a few days later unannounced, asking to be seated in the server’s section along with children he’d brought from the Muslim Outreach Program – a program aimed at making it easier for Muslim Americans to assimilate into American society, and improve their quality of life for their families. After enjoying his meal and speaking with the waiter, Obama shook his hand and left a generous tip.

Since the incident, the restaurant’s franchise company has spoken about about discrimination, but there is no work if service will be denied to the hateful couple of they return.

"So Squee! Friday" edition… the fennec fox!

It’s almost the weekend! And to help you hang in there, we’re introducing our new So Squee! Fridays to the Something Positive For Your Day blog! Each Friday, we will educate you on a different, ridiculously adorable animal to help you make it through the day until the weekend starts!

Today’s So Squee! animal is the fennec fox, the national animal of Algeria! Aw, such a cutie! Look at those adorable ears!!!

Fennec foxes are nocturnal foxes that live in the Sahara of North Africa. Those ears aren’t just for looking ridiculously cute… they’re used to help dissipate heat! As you can imagine, they also hear exceptionally well with these huge ears, listening for small, tasty insects moving underground. If you see one staring at the ground and turning its head from side to side, he is pinpointing the location of a sound! Their fur, which is creamy colored and delightfully fluffy, also helps deflect heat during the day (while keeping them toasty warm at night).

Awww, fennec kissies!

These foxes live for about 14 squee-inducing years in captivity, and are sometimes kept as exotic pets. And unlike the poor red pandas, they aren’t endangered! Yay! They’re too small to bother livestock, which keeps them from being harmed by farmers. 

Photo by Francisco Mingorance.

Fennec foxes are very social with one another, remaining with their family even after bearing and raising their young. They mate for life, with each family living in its own territory.  They breed and make more adorable squee-inducing foxes about once per year in litters of 1-4 kits.

Young boy in London is the first to be successfully treated with amismatched bone-marrow transplant.

Mohammed Ahmed, nearly five, was born with a very weak immune system. A bone-marrow transplant is the only known treatment, but he was on a very long transplant waiting list. When he came down with the swine flu in 2011 at the age of only one, doctors knew his only chance for survival would be an experimental bone-marrow transplant… using bone-marrow that wasn’t a match to his.

Rejection organs and organic materials is a serious risk among transplant patients. Even in cases of matching transplants, the body can still reject the transplant if the tissue is not 100% perfectly matched.

Mohammed’s father, Jamil, agreed to act as a donor, even though his bone-marrow did not match his son’s. Using a brand new method of modifying immune cells (referred to as “T-cells”), the lab was able to create a sort of “self-destruct” option to kill off transplanted cells in Mohammed’s body the case of the donated cells being either rejected, which could result in a deadly viral infection.

By a great stroke of luck, the self-destructing option was not necessary. Mohammed’s body accepted the mismatched donor cells and, despite still needing regular medical checkups, his health has greatly improved.

This new approach to tissue transplants gives patients a far greater chance for successful transplants in the future, especially given how rare it is for a patient to find a matching donor within their family. In time, we can hope that we will live in an age where patents requiring a bone-marrow transplant will no longer need to watch their own health deteriorate while waiting on a list.

Photo courtesy of BBC News Online.

100 people show up to have lunch with a bullied student.

Haley Parkerson, a high-school Junior at South Salem High School in Oregon, decided to turn his own experience with bullying into an awareness-raising campaign.

Persistently taunted by another student claiming that he had no friends, Parkerson’s aunt set up an anti-bullying rally of sorts, asking her local online club to show up to the school for lunch the next day on Friday, October 19^th.

The turnout was astonishing, especially given the one-day notice beforehand; approximately 100 people turned up to the school. Unaware of the event, the Principal was taken by surprise, but allowed it to continue when he learned the reason behind it.

The public display intended to raise awareness towards bullying in schools certainly had an effect – the student bullying Parkerson came up to him and personally apologized.

Since Friday, Parkerson has received support from many students at South Salem High. On his Facebook page, he’s reached out to his classmates, saying, “Thanks, guys, for standing up with me and helping me make a difference.”

Stratford cat rescued from fire after owner begs firemen to give hisown oxygen mask to her.

Four-year-old Gert is one lucky kitty.

Responding to a house fire in Stratford, east London earlier this September, firefighters found a cat inside the house, unconscious from smoke inhalation. Her owner, Michael, was so desperate to save her life that he begged firefighters to use his own oxygen mask to save her.

She did resume breathing, and was taken to the Celia Hammond Animal Trust in Lewisham where she spent two days in an oxygen tent, getting her food via tubes in her stomach.

When she could breath normally, her owner and animal trust staff were concerned about her motor skills. Today, only a few short weeks since the fire, she can now walk again, use her litter box, and eat all without assistance.

As mentioned in a post earlier this month, please note that most fire departments are not equipped with oxygen masks tailored specifically for pets like cats and dogs. Please consider talking to your local fire chief about contacting Project Breath; they will provide one free kit (which includes three differently sized animal oxygen masks) per fire station. Local fire chiefs can request a kit here.

Photo courtesy of the Celia Hammond Animal Trust.

High school football coach in Dallas, Georgia promoting compassionamong his students by having special needs students participate duringgames.

Coach Scott Hamilton has spend the last two years of his career making sure that special needs students at his high school can be a part of his football team. He developed a Player of the Day program, where a special needs athlete gets his own jersey and takes a part on the team’s pep rally, rides the bus to the event, and runs onto the field pre-game.

“It gives them a chance to be a part of something they don’t normally get to be a part of” Hamilton told Today News.

Hamilton has made it his goal to help his players and other students at Paulding County High School realize that victory isn’t always about winning; it’s about developing empathy and kindness towards others. “I’m showing these boys how to be men,” he says. “How to be the big tough guy, and still have a compassionate side.”

Local parents are very pleased with Hamilton’s actions. “We don’t get the opportunity to see our children [on the field] like everybody else does,” says one mother of a special needs student who recently participated in Player of the Day. Her words are vibrant despite the tears of happiness in her eyes. “I don’t think Coach Hamilton even realizes what [having these students participate] does.”

“For them and us,” her friend, another parent of a special needs student, adds thankfully.

Coach Hamilton hopes to be remembered for his actions, not just for his win-loss football records.

Burglars return stolen computers when they realize it belonged to anonprofit organization.

On the night of July 31^st, 2013, thieves broke into the Sexual Assault Services office in San Bernardino, California and stole a laptop, along with several computer towers and monitors.

When police arrived to document the scene, they began talking to people on the street, explaining what had happened and that the local nonprofit center for helping victims of sexual violence had been robbed.

Word quickly reached the thieves, who, the following morning, emptied their stolen goods into a shopping cart and returned the items to the front of the nonprofit under cover of darkness. While investigating for evidence, the police came across a handwritten note from the robbers, stating, “We had no idea what we were taking. Here[‘s] your stuff back. We hope that you guys can continue to make a difference in peoples’ lives.”

Image courtesy of Candy Stallings, executive director of the San Bernardino County Sexual Assault Services.

Viral sensation 'BatDad' offers humorous advice for parents.

Blake Wilson (@batdadvine), father of four, first started donning a Batman mask and creating Vines of himself as a family joke. However, in the few weeks that he’s been doing it, his Vines unexpectedly went viral.

When asked why he thinks people are connecting with his silly video clips, Blake responded, “I’m poking fun at everything parents have to go through: brushing your teeth, going to a birthday party, being late for the bus.” “[These are] little situations that everyone can relate to.

While gratingly annoying to some and hilarious to others, BatDad does more than just poke fun at his situation as a parent. He also (whether consciously or not) provides very simple and sound advice to his followers:

Make sure your children are eating their carrots!

Take an interest in their creations.

Always wish them a good day.

Teach them the importance of being on time.

Teach them to say “please”.

Cover your mouth when you cough.

If you aren’t on a mobile device, you can view more of Bat Dad’s Vines on Seenive here.

Pit Bull saves his family's cat from coyote attack

Pit bulls have a feared reputation as many people harbor negative stereotypical views about the breed, but in this story, our pit bull is the protagonist.

Jack is a rescue dog. His owner Peter Lewis is currently deployed in Afghanistan, so for the time being, Jack lives in Seminole, Florida with Peter’s mother, Sherree.

Jack also lives with Sherree’s rescue cat, Kitty. “He checks on her every day,” says Sherree, noting Jack’s protectiveness over Kitty.

Jack’s vigilance over Kitty has only increased since an attack she suffered in the previous week. Two coyotes on the family’s property had attacked her. Sherree describes walking to the window and seeing one coyote holding Kitty by the neck, the other by either the tail or back leg, shaking her violently.

“I never knew Jack could run that fast,” Sherree says, in awe of the memory of Jack rushing to save Kitty. Both coyotes took off at the site of him, and Kitty was rushed to the vet where she was successfully treated for her injuries.

“Jack is a hero,” Sherree said. “He saved the kitty’s life, and je just shows how good dogs can be.” Jack currently spends his days by Kitty’s side, keeping a watchful eye out the window in case any coyotes return.

Wealthy couple donates $10 million to keep seven Head Start programs open.

Wealthy couple Laura and John Arnold donated $10 million last week to fund seven Head Start programs in six states, which were closed due to the currently ongoing government shutdown.

Many Head Start centers expecting their federally allotted grants were forced to shut their doors when the government closed down its offices earlier this month.

Despite congressmen and women still receiving their salaries and Congress’s gym still open, the government offers no such exemptions for the Head Start programs, which provide education and nutrition to needy children of low-income families and prepare these children for kindergarten. Many also offer parents of Head Start children information on meeting and maintaining their financial goals. With centers around the United States closed or closing, and no alternative method of care for the children, parents already working full-time at minimum wage jobs are forced to miss work in order to care for their children.

“We believe that it is especially unfair that young children from underprivileged communities and working families pay the price for the legislature’s collective failures,” Laura and John stated in The Association. With their generous contribution, several Head Start programs will be able to avoid closing their doors on children in need.

To learn more about Head Start, you can view their official site here.

Canadian author Alice Munro's final novel wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

Alice Munro published her first short story, The Dimension of a Shadow, in 1950. Her big break came in 1968 when her first short story collection, Dance of the Happy Shades, won the Governor General’s Award in Canada… a prize she would go on to win a second time ten years later, and a third time after that.

Since her writing debut, she has written more than a dozen collection of short stories set in her home of southwest Ontario. Her works are heralded as an insight to the human spirit, wrought with clarity and compassion for our race.

Dear Life, her most recent novel published in 2012, (which is partly-autobiographical) will be her last  - at 82, she’s decided that she doesn’t want to spend her remaining time in the solitude of a writer’s life.

This October, Alice Munro became the 13^th female to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Peter Englund of the Nobel committee referred to her as a “master of the contemporary short story”. Unable to reach her before the announcement, the Nobel committee left a message on Munro’s answering machine, which went overlooked – when Munro’s win was announced the next night, her daughter rushed to her room to wake her to inform her of the achievement she’d gained with her final book.

“It’s nice to go out with a bang” Munro said.

Ziggy the cat reunited with his humans thanks to his microchip.

Pets can easily lose their collars and, without any additional identification, may never find their way home if they are injured, lost, or picked up by good Samaritans assuming the cat is either homeless or unable to find the original owners.

Luckily for the Woodrow family, their cat Ziggy had a microchip – an integrated circuit the size of a grain of rice that is injected under a cat or dog’s skin between the shoulder blades.

The family had recently moved and thought that their cat was well settled in their new home. After a few weeks, however, Ziggy failed to come home one day for his dinner.

For two months, the Woodrow family combed the streets with fliers and rattling cat treat bags, hoping to find their lost Ziggy. Just when they were giving up, they receive a call from the Bilton Veterinary Centre – Ziggy had been found, alive and well.

When a cat, dog, or other pet shows up at a shelter or veterinarian, they scan the pet for the possibility of a microchip, which contains the animal’s unique ID code, their name and description, owner contact information, primary veterinarian and alternate emergency contact information. Microchips use RFID technology and never wear out or need replacing… microchip scanners emit a low radio frequency that provides the chip power to transmit its code.

Without his microchip to identify him, it’s likely Ziggy never would have found his way home. Less than two percent of lost cats that enter animal shelters without a microchip are reunited with their families. For microchipped cats, that number rises dramatically to over 38%.

The Woodrows were ecstatic over the discovery and return of their beloved pet. When you microchip your pet, you give them the absolute best chance of coming back home to you.

To find out more about microchipping, visit HomeAgain’s FAQ page here.

Red Pandas: So Squee!

Look at this little cutie!

Photo by Robert Mooney.

Red pandas (sometimes referred to as the lesser panda, the cat-bear, and the firefox) are much smaller than their giant black-and-white namesake. Once thought to be related to raccoons and bears, the small tree-dwelling mammals are actually a part of the previously thought extinct Ailuridae family.

Photo by Greg Hume.

They resemble fluffy brown/red cats with shaggy tails and a shuffling walk due to their short front legs. They spend their days sleeping and eat bamboo, bird eggs, fruit, and insects. They even clean themselves similarly to wild and domestic cats.

Photo by ryonouske. 

Although they are typically solitary animals, overlapping territories and shared resources are typical – these creatures conserve their energy, so they only cover up to 1,000 feet of their home territories within any given day, making contact and interaction with other red pandas in their area rare.

So sleepy! Photo by William Scot.

Red pandas are native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. Their population is declining due to habitat loss and poaching, with scientists unable to gauge an accurate number of the remaining population. Zoos around the world are taking part in the Red Panda Species Survival Program, housing red pandas for long-term research of the species in hopes to preserve their survival.

Watch a group of red pandas in captivity playing together in the snow.

UPS driver saves woman trapped in burning vehicle.

30-year-veteran UPS driver Lawrence Sanchez used quick thinking to save the life of a female passenger trapped in a burning truck.

The passenger in question was struck by a black Lexus when the pickup truck she was in stalled on the Freeway in the Mira Loma area of Los Angeles. The truck exploded on collision – the driver of the pickup was able to escape, but the fire made escape difficult for the female passenger.

Sanchez, who was driving his UPS delivery truck on the freeway at the time, saw the accident and used his truck to shield the injured driver from traffic. Once he realized that the female passenger was still trapped inside, Sanchez used his truck’s tiny fire extinguisher to fight the blaze back enough for the woman to escape. When she emerged from the wreckage, her head was on fire; Sanchez rushed to help extinguish the flames as best he could.

Both passengers were taken to the hospital with moderate to major injuries. People have hailed Sanchez as a hero for his actions, to which he has responded, “These CHP guys do it every day. They’re the heroes.”

Watch the NBC news video here.

Fabled Leonardo da Vinci painting discovered in Swiss vault after 500years.

A pencil sketch of Isabella d’Este, one of the most influential women of the Italian Renaissance, hangs in the Louvre. The sketch was drawn by the famous polymath Leonardo da Vinci as a prelude to a commission for a finished painting.

Art historians have long been in disagreement over whether a finished version of this sketch was ever created. Now, after five centuries, da Vinci’s fabled masterpiece has been found – unearthed in a Swiss bank vault earlier this year.

 

The piece was begun in 1499, four years before da Vinci began work on the Mona Lisa.

Police Officer buys groceries for family in need.

Earlier this September in Albuquerque, New Mexico, officer Hector Marquez Jr. was dispatched to solve a family dispute in the home of a 63-year-old grandmother. Once the situation settled down, Officer Marquez was surprised to learn that the woman was raising her grandchildren* entirely on a fixed income.

With the children’s parents out of the picture (no father is mentioned and the mother is frequently in and out of prison), their care was entirely dependent on their grandmother’s fixed income and food stamps. The family had also not eaten since that morning, and did not have any more food available. Unable to pick up food stamps for another eight days, they would be forced to go hungry for over a week.

Unable to leave them without helping in some way, Officer Marquez drove to a nearby grocery store and used his own money to purchase the family milk, bread, eggs, sandwich meat, and snacks to last them through the week. Although Marquez stayed silent about his actions, a fellow officer reported the act of compassion to the squad Sergeant, and the media has now recognized him for his kindness.

Watch KOAT’s coverage of the story here.

*News sources disagree on the number of children being raised in the home. Several news sources claim there were six grandchildren, but Albuquerque’s Police Department Facebook page state that there were two. 

High school choir director with dementia taken in by old student.

Thirty-five years after being in Marty Hayes’ high school choir class, ex-student Carolyn James decided to drop in on her old teacher for a visit.

James describes Hayes as having been a potent influencer in her classmates’ lives, always going out of her way to make pupils feel cared for, and motivating them each to discover their own potential.

Upon her visit, James sadly discovered that her once favorite teacher, now in her 70’s, wasn’t doing so well. Unknown to them, Hayes was suffering from the early stages of Lewy Body Dementia. She would often momentarily forget how to perform certain tasks, and frequently found herself disorientated.

James was devastated by her former teacher’s condition, so she and her husband began helping Hayes pay for medical consultations and bills. Within the next three years, Hayes’ health worsened – she began experiencing difficulty with her memory and motor functions. After the news of her LBD diagnosis, the Jameses decided to take her into their home and give her the full-time care she required.

Hayes, with no children of her own, treated her students like family. James sees her actions as paying back her old teacher for the years of inspiration she provided. She and her husband started a fund, “We Are Her Kids”, to raise money for Hayes’ care. Other former students have chipped in to help, and still visit Hayes, who, despite it all, still harbors a bond with her students, as well as a love of music.

Photos courtesy of Carolyn James.

Patient pup demonstrates compassion and camaraderie towards little boy with Downs Syndrome.

Hernan is a little boy from Buenos Aires with Downs Syndrome. In this video, he received attention from a dog named Himalaya. However, the cautious child is unsure how to react towards Himalaya’s attentions – normally, he avoids physical contact. After several minutes of apprehension towards Himalaya’s patient affections, Hernan eventually hugs her and even begins to demonstrate ease towards her persistent company.



Hernan’s mother, Ana Marta Vegas, has the following to say about her video:

[tentative translation from Spanish]

“What’s happening here is that Hernan is a little shy and avoids physical contact. He does not like being touched, but Himalaya is determined and patience, which is why [the video] is so touching.”

Selfless firefighter makes heroic attempt to save kitten's life.

Today’s post doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending, but it does have a very strong and inspiring message.

Earlier this year, in July of 2013, a YouTube video of Cory Kalanick, a Fresno California firefighter, went viral.

Kalanick entered a burning home, searching for anyone who might need help. Inside the house lay an unconscious kitten. Kalanick immediately grabbed the tiny animal, rushed outside, and, using a child’s oxygen mask, began working to resuscitate him. After using a combination of oxygen, cool water and massage, he managed to revive the kitten. All of this is caught on the GoPro camera attached to his helmet.

Here is the video from Kalanick’s helmet, recut as an ad for GoPro HD Hero3.



Sadly, the kitten - which GoPro had dubbed “Lucky” - didn’t make it. He was taken to an emergency veterinarian and passed away later that night due to lung damage sustained in the fire.

However, Kalanick’s actions show just how compassionate a person can be; sometimes our efforts fail, but that doesn’t make our struggles to help others any less worthwhile. As Redditor Sternutation posts, "[W]hat’s crucial here is that, to my knowledge, GoPro wasn’t using the footage to show a firefighter ensure the kitten life a long and happy life, but rather show the great work the firefighter did in his/hers efforts to save the kitten."

If you have pets of your own, then you know that they are so much more than animals – they are valued members of your family. Most fire departments are not equipped with gear tailored specifically for cats and dogs. Please consider donating to charities like Invisible Fence’s Project Breathe, whose Pet Oxygen Mask Donation Program seeks to supply every fire departments with a pet oxygen mask kit nationwide.