Angel at the Post Office

From the Best of Craigslist:

This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service. Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God, Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am wherever there is love.

Love, God

Rent-A-Puppy

Most college students can't have pets, so when the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society at Lyon College came up with the great idea of teaming up with the Humane Society of Independence County to hold the first ever Rent-A-Puppy fundraiser.

They raised $405. Half went to the humane society and half to the SAACS. The going rate - 30 minutes of playtime for $10, or 15 minutes for $5. Even better, two of the puppies found permanent homes that day - a win-win situation for sure.

Jingle Bells the Elephant Way

This Christmas, three Asian elephants are set to help spread the Christmas cheer by performing "Jingle Bells" for crowds in Japan. Christmas + elephants = the biggest cute news this holiday season

Love on the 5 Train

So you're on the subway and you see "her" - the heavens part, angels sing and you know you have found the girl of your dreams. The problem is, you loose her in the crowd - knowing that in a city of 8 million people you'll probably never see her again. That is unless you're a creative web developer like Patrick Moberg. When he lost the girl of his dreams on the subway, he drew her picture and created a website nygirlofmydreams.com to find her.

And it worked. In a matter of days he knew that the girl with a flower in her hair was Camille Hayton, a 22 year old intern from Melbourne, Australia. She and Mr. Moberg are now in touch, but they will pursue any relationship without a webfull of onlookers. Posted on the website they say:

"In our best interest, there will be no more updates to this website,"

"Unlike all the romantic comedies and bad pop songs, you'll have to make up your own ending for this."

Who knows, perhaps next time we'll see them hand in hand on the 5 Train, pushing a pram.

happy hens lay the tastiest eggs, apparently.

And the best babysitters are alpacas. I'm betting your kids would rather have an alpaca that the snarly teenager you usually get. They are supposedly fierce and loyal. This is news to me, and it is very cute, so I think it qualifies as Cute News!

:-) Happy happy happy

It's the 25th anniversary of the smiley face emoticon today. Can you believe it? It seems nearly impossible to me that I am that old, but I remember my Dad's trash 80 compy and the text based adventures we would play with much fondness. My favorite smiley lately is the shock and awe one that goes like this 0.o ... So send some smilies today to someone you want to visualize turning their head sideways to read them. Such power!

Who knew?

Who knew that guys who train dogs at a prison could be so cute? And brave? And immune to dog germs? Steve Tugwell, I salute you!
Auugh! I've been kissed by a dog! I have dog germs! Get some hot water! Get some disinfectant! Get some iodine!

Real live Mermaid

This is the best story I have heard for months. A woman who is a double amputee, was asked all the usual "why?" questions about her prosthetic legs by a curious 4 year old. With a sparkle in her eye, she told the child she was a mermaid! Spurred on by the idea, she contacted a special effects company to make her a real functional mermaid tail. Since she is an avid swimmer, it will even be useful in giving her some thrust as she swims. Brilliance!

As Shel Silverstein once pointed out, all the magic I've ever seen, I've had to make myself. Way to make some magic, Nadya!

Diamond in the rough

Want to see something that will make you cry, and then smile all day? Watch Paul sing.

It's space, baby.

A mom is picking up the signal from inside the space shuttle Atlantis on her baby monitor. Maybe baby Jack has big plans to be an astronaut and is trying to tell you something, mom:

"I put the kids down and I put the baby monitor on like I always do and I saw two people floating in space," said the primary school science teacher.

Meilinger joked that her parents believed that her son, three-month-old Jack, had acquired magical powers since they started picking up the video footage from the Atlantis."

Space is not as deep as you think, I guess.

attribution: www.dailymail.co.uk

11 year old saves his teacher from choking

We salute you, Gimundo.com, for having good news every day! This article about an eleven year old boy who saved his teacher warms the cockles of my heart:

Hines says she is amazed by Lester’s courage and grace under pressure. “I told him, ‘You’re not just my student, you’re my hero,’” she said. “I think we will always be joined by the heart.”

Attribution: Gimundo.com

Cinnamon makes you thin!

I have just read something that says when a dessert contains cinnamon, ginger, or cloves, the spices make the sugar hit your bloodstream slower, which in turn keeps your insulin lower, which means the sugar is less likely to be stored as fat! Yes! This means we are making my famous Ginger snaps today. These are better than chocolate, and make grown men cry.

Ginger snaps:

Cream: 2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups shortening
Add: 1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
Mix dry ingredients and stir in:
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. ginger
Roll in balls the size of walnuts. Roll in sugar. Bake 350 for 12-14 minute. Don't overbake, they should be slightly chewy.

Moms rule the world

We don't usually do crime stories on the cute news, because we are too busy staring out the window thinking how lovely it is, but this story makes me feel like all is right in the world, and the natural order of things is in place:

Robber caught - by mum

A Czech armed robber who targeted McDonald's restaurants was grabbed by the ear and marched to the police station by his mum.

Katka Zahradnikova, 44, from Prague, recognised her 20-year-old son Michal on CCTV footage screened on the local version of Crimewatch.

A police spokesman said: "He admitted he was responsible for robbing a number of the fast-food stores and put up no resistance when she marched him down here by the ear and made him give us a full statement.

"We couldn't have done it better ourselves."

Attribution: Ananova.com

Quote of the day:

Perhaps it is corny, but I love inspirational quotes, so here is the first one for The Cute News:

"A careless word may kindle strife; a cruel word may wreck a life; a timely word may level stress; a loving word may heal and bless."

Angel Cat

I want one of these real bad:

Granny Feng's tom cat has sprouted two hairy 4ins long wings, reports the Huashang News.

"At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings," she said.

Feng, of Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, says the wings, which contain bones, make her pet look like a 'cat angel'.

Heavenly.

Attribution: Ananova

Chocolate Improves your Memory!

Of course it does! Chocolate cures all ills:

"The chemical epicatechin is also found in cocoa, tea, grapes and blueberries and the researchers believe it improves the blood flow in the brain especially in combination with extra exercise.

The study is not the first to suggest a link between 'flavanol' chemicals in certain foods and health benefits; other studies have also suggested that cardiovascular health can be improved by including them in the diet."

It says you need to excercise and you could probably eat blueberries and get the same effect, but I don't believe it. It's the chocolate, do you hear me? Now give me your Hershey's and nobody gets hurt!

attribution: News-medical.net

Polynesia Strikes Again

Remember that old movie Dr. Doolittle, where his parrot, named Polynesia, teaches him how to talk with the animals?

"An autistic boy who could not speak has learned his first words with the help of his family's pet parrot.

Dylan Hargreaves, four, has severe learning difficulties and had never uttered a single word.

But after listening to macaw Barney, he can now say "Night, night", "Dad", "Mum", "Ta", "Hello" and "Bye", reports The Sun.

"Every time I gave the bird something to say, Dylan started trying to say the same thing. I think it's because the bird says things slower than me, which helps Dylan understand.

"Now when I put him to bed he says, 'Night, night, mum'. It means the world to me."

Attribution: Ananova

Interspecies Love

Dr. Peter Venkman: predicted dogs and cats living together, but who'd have thought?

Today we have:

• a dog raising kittens
• a cat raising puppies
• and my favorite, a cat raising chicks. Probably my favorite because of the video of her carrying the chicks back to their box. In her mouth.

Cat has puppy?

Anaova reports that 'people in China are flocking to see a pet cat which has reportedly given birth to a puppy.

The cat, in Zhengzhou city, gave birth to four kittens, one of which looks like a white poodle.

"It looks very different from the other kittens, and its mouth, nose and paws are all dog-like," says owner Zhang Qiming.'

Check it you in the lower left hand corner of the picture - what do you think - puppy or kitten?

Put your fur and sandals on....

Because we're going to all be cavemen soon.



I think I *need* one of these.

Baby saves whole family from fire

While house fires are definitely not cute ( we suffered one ourselves several years ago- it was devastating and scary.) babies saving their whole fambly from one is. Way to go Baby!

Doing the bus stop hop

This savvy kitty rides the bus to the fish market every day. No one knows who she belongs to, or how she knows when to get off the bus. It's an x-file folks, but the truth is out there.
What we do know: the bus people have named the cat Macavity, after the mystery cat in T.S. Eliot's poem, which is awesome.

Domo Arigato Chicken Roboto

Holy Poultry Batman! These are incredibly cute. With an army of these chicks we could speak Cute to power, and definitely rule the world through Superior Chicken Power! bock bock!

Cute TV

Looks like we are addicted to cute. It's a conspiracy!

Cuter than Beanie Babies?

Apparently Webkinz are. They sound a lot like the characters my kids like to play with on their gamecube game Animal Crossing, except they come with a stuffed animal to snuggle once the computer is shut off. Some people worry about kids spending too much time on the computer, but parents who are smart already limit their kids computer time, and it sounds like there are great lessons to learn about caring for animals and budgeting money. I think I want one!

MVP -Most Valuable Puppy

There are still lots of good people in this world. Get a load of the people lining up to help a Vietnam Vet pay for the medical care of his dog, Shadow. He says:

"This is the best thing that ever happened to me | all these people chipping to help out Shadow. He's my MVP | most valuable puppy," Burke said.

If you would like to help Robert Burke get medical treatment for his dog Shadow, You can send donations

To: The Shadow Fund

Where: c/o of Massachusetts School of Law, 500 Federal St., Andover, MA 01810.

Ethel Mae Bakes a Cake

Here in lovely Ohio, we have 2 feet of snow, but it is still a good day because we're making cake!
Move over Williams Sonoma- we want cake from the good old days, and the good old days are today!

Cute foxes

Russians have nearly completed a 45 year project to domesticate foxes. They have blue eyes, woffly noses, and floofy tails. Apparently, They are smarter at reading humans than chimps.
I want one, STAT!

Real American Idols

Fred Thompson, of Law and Order fame, and possible presidential candidate, has an article about why bad girls are so five minutes ago and Nice Girls are better.

He says:

"If you tune into the news, you’re going to end up hearing or reading at least the headlines of stories you’d probably rather not know about. Somehow, I know that Paris Hilton may have violated her parole. I’m not sure how it happened, but I even know a little about Britney Spears’s hairdo, divorce, and trip to rehab. These bits of cultural trivia, I really wish I hadn’t digested."

Right on, Fred. More about why Britney, Anna Nicole, and Paris are not worthy but Candace Parker is.

Cure your kids Asthma and allergies

Wow, for anyone with allergies or asthma, this is nice news:
To cure it all you have to do is eat.
I guess my granma was right- you are what you eat and all that.

Acheiving Boyhood Dream

What was your first dream? Didja want to be an astronaut? A ballerina? My son currently wants to be a Jedi. When we were kids my brother loved that book Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, and he wanted to *be* the Steam Shovel. We don't always get to achieve our dreams, but this guy does:

He gets to be a Space Ranger like he always dreamed. That's nice.

Eat all the Easter candy you want...

...chocolate is good for you.

Because Hershey says so.

We knew this *had* to be true.

Canadian Teen Saves Dog in Daring Ice Rescue

When ever I hear people talk about how teenagers are so bad and stupid today, I always think to myself, you just know the wrong kids.
Check out this kid.

Way to go, Max.

The cutest car ever

As always, the Japanese are the cutest people on earth. Nissan is making a car aimed at young women, complete with stuffed animals, stickers and cute pillows. On their site you can design your own interior with sparkly stickers and everything! It's all in Japanese, but that just makes it a challenge. Check out my car! Isn't is sweet?

Check it out here

All the news that's cute to print.

Global warming. Terrorists. Crime. Corruption. Scandal. We don't care about any of that. We're sick of it all. We only print the news that makes you feel better. We could use more niceness in the world, don't you think? Get it all here at The Cute News, where it's a good day, everyday.