Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

After roe, women are no longer free.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The willow is too close to the house.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Consistently wrong since 2002

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Make The World A Better Place / Acts of Kindness: Get the Kleenex

Acts of Kindness: Get the Kleenex

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I’m waiting for a callback from a client, so while I twiddle my thumbs, it’s time enough to do a kindness post.

I ran across this, this morning. It’s two years old, but that doesn’t matter. The twists! The turns! The tears!

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As I wait for baseball opening day, time for some basketball stories.

From Steeplejack:

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I feel like someone sent this to me, but I didn’t mark it when I saved it. Please identify yourself in the comments.

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If Annie Lennox likes it, I’m not going to argue. These talented and adorable kids:

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Two Three longer stories. One from Dangerman:

Big hearted: Cartoonist Leigh Rubin keeps drawing while caring for friend who had heart transplant

The creator of “Rubes” has been friends with the recipient of the new heart for 50 years.

PAT PEMBERTON / January 28, 2023

Leigh Rubin poses with a life-sized cow based on his cartoons outside his home in Nipomo, Calif. Rubin created the cow for a CowParade public art and charity event with friend Ryan Johnson. (Pat Pemberton/Courthouse News)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (CN) — After landing in Portland with a 3-month stash of art supplies, syndicated cartoonist Leigh Rubin immediately headed to the Providence Heart Clinic, where his childhood friend was waiting on a heart transplant.

“As it turns out, his new heart arrived the day I did, which was very thoughtful of him because he knows how much I hate to be kept waiting,” Rubin joked.

While many were holiday shopping on Dec. 8, Rubin had committed to becoming a caretaker for his friend Steve Ulrich, whom he has known since sixth grade. But Ulrich’s new heart, he said, was the perfect gift for both of them.

“He got the gift of life, and I got to keep a friend around for hopefully many more years,” Rubin said.

The entire story is a joy, read here.

 

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This story and the photos from Melissa is a great read:

Miraculous Search-and-Rescue of a Lost Child

As storms raged, a four-year-old boy from Asa went missing in the surrounding wilderness. While ground teams tried to track his tiny footprints, our fixed-wing pilot supported the search party from the air. One lost night stretched into several, and it seemed increasingly impossible that the child would be found alive in such a vast, unforgiving landscape. But then, on the sixth day, a miracle happened. This account is told by the SWT pilot who joined the search party, Roan Carr-Hartley.

On the evening of 29th November, we received a call from the chief of Asa, a community 52 kilometres east of the northern Tsavo East park boundary. He reported that a four-year-old boy had gone missing during a storm the day prior, while out herding livestock with his brothers. The chief had heard people from the neighbouring town speaking about a pilot who helped find a missing child just a few days prior. After hearing these stories, he too asked for aerial assistance.

It was too late to initiate a search that night, but the following morning, I left Kaluku HQ at around 6:15am and flew 70 minutes to reach the boy’s village. By the time I was overhead, a search party of 70 men were fanning through the wild scrubland in search of the little boy. I had a rough direction of the search party’s location given to me by the Chief. The party had tracked the boy to an area 7 kilometres from his village, but then the tracks started to become unreadable.

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This from siubhanduinne is both heartbreaking and heartwarming:

Shelter Reunites Homeless Woman with Her Dog and Vows to Help Both After Finding Pet with Note

Dog Left with Note from Homeless Owner Who Couldn't Afford to Keep Her

McKamey Animal Center shared a message on Facebook reaching out to the dog’s owner, after the canine was found with a note, and is now helping the pet parent and her family

A Tennessee animal shelter reunited a homeless woman with her beloved dog, Lilo, after the rescue found the canine left with a note from the owner saying she couldn’t afford to keep her.

According to a Jan. 24 Facebook post from McKamey Animal Center (MAC), Lilo was found wandering around Chattanooga with a note attached to her collar by a Good Samaritan, who brought the pup to the shelter.

“Please keep my name. My name is Lilo,” read the note attached to Lilo’s collar, according to the McKamey Animal Center’s post, which also included a photo of the dog. “Please love me. My mom can’t keep me and is homeless with 2 kids. She tried her best but can’t get help. I cost too much for her.”

“She really loves me, and I’m a great dog and loved to be loved on,” the note continued, adding, “Please don’t abuse me.”

Read the entire story here

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Okay, that should get you through the week.  I’m trying to decide between more coffee or right to the diet coke to get through the afternoon. Sigh, it’s 4 degrees out, sinking to subzero by sundown. You know what that means, right?

Acts of Kindness: Get the Kleenex

It’s getting old. This is the 5 or 6th  time in the past year they’ve had to stay in the house. By comparison, Maddie and Mabel were maybe in the house 3 times over the five years I had them.

And here’s Jasper – look at this chubby boy:

Acts of Kindness: Get the Kleenex 1

 

If you’ve forgotten, here’s where he started when he arrived on my birthday in August. I should do an update on him, but the short version is, he’s a joy. He’s very sweet and very stubborn. Fits right in here.

(added note: reading through the comments on the original Jasper post, I should answer some Qs – he’s come a long way with counter surfing – hardly ever an issue. The cats have not only adjusted to him but are happy to go to him for nuzzles. While Scout has come around, I’m still not sure she “likes” him.  And Nick, who is still much in love with the now spayed Trixie, views him as a rival and is constantly chasing him around the yard and biting at his ankles. Silly duck is lucky Jasper is a kind soul).

Remember, be kind to yourself.

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  2. 2.

    HumboldtBlue

    Has Betty been eaten by an alligator yet?

    It’s snowing in Freshwater, about a mile outside of town, and the weather remains foul with high winds and squalls of heavy rain and hail while the temps remain in the low to mid 30s.

    I will, however, be able to puppy sit the new pupper. Gary, who showed up yesterday for an introduction.

  5. 5.

    HinTN

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: There is plenty of goodness here in dead red Tennessee. Just like the indefatigable Ms Cracker and her beloved/benighted Florida, some of us just can’t quit this place.

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    How horrible is to see “Boulder High School” trending and not needing to click on a link to discover why.

  11. 11.

    CaseyL

    Thanks, as always, TaMara.  The stories of kindness you find are incredibly precious to those of us who have a lot of trouble loving, or even liking, the human species.  It’s good to be reminded that Great Souls do walk among us.

    I’m sorry, but I have to laugh at your Duck Dilemma.  Hopefully your new house (whenever you get one) will have a large extra bathroom, or a family room with a floor that could tolerate a kiddy pool  when the weather gets icy.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I had no idea orange cat females are rare.  Are they really?  For a couple of years, we had an orange female feral who hung around our house.  She had several litters, almost all of them also orange.  In fact, I suspect that our Cleo (who is a tabby) is one of her progeny.  Cleo has a big orange blotch on her back that really stands out among the gray and black stripes.

    And by the way, congratulations on the new kitteh!

  18. 18.

    pluky

    @geg6: Did a quick Google. Evidently, the gene for ginger is an X-linked recessive (like the most common form of hemophilia in humans). Therefore a female cat needs a double whammy to express the color. Also, since she is then homozygous for the trait, all her sons will be ginger, and all her daughters will be carriers at the very least (the daughters will be ginger if dad is also ginger).

  19. 19.

    eclare

    What a sweet post.  That woman who gave up her dog, I can’t imagine.  Similar story in Mississippi was in the news here about six months ago.

  21. 21.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog

    Not going to bother trying to blame the dust. Lilo’s story just left me in tears.

    Glad every day we give to help support a local shelter.

  23. 23.

    kalakal

    that story about Lilo has left me in tears.

    I’m so glad she was reunited with her mom. Well done that shelter

  24. 24.

    Major Major Major Major

    @FelonyGovt: He’s coming around slowly. They can now be in the same room with no barriers. He hisses when she gets too close, which the agency says is to be expected, and the worst he does is run away (we pull her back though). I’m not sure she knows what hissing means.

Comments are closed.