11 Good News Stories: Gem Of An Assist; Whopper Of A Fish Story

ACROSS AMERICA — Let’s start this collection of 11 good news stories from Patch editors across the country with the day Danielle Cifuni had to fire her lifeguards.

Riley the Maltese Pomeranian and Ripley the brown mutt were poolside with Cifuni when a fawn crashed through the fence and landed in the water.

The dogs seemed unfazed and Cifuni joked later, “My little lifeguards? They’re fired.” But the truth is she has a much better story to tell than whether the pooches had been the heroes of the story.

You’ll want to read the whole account, and without spoiling it, we’ll just say that fawn clutched at her as a baby would. But that’s not all — the young deer continued to respond in a way that, well, blew Cifuni’s mind. “It’s surreal,” she said. By Lanning Taliaferro for New City, New York, Patch

Granting A Wish Takes A Village

Four-year-old cancer warrior Lukas Voelz wanted one thing from the Make-A-Wish Foundation: a backyard oasis like the ones in the Animal Planet series "Insane Pools: Off the Deep End." The foundation was able to fulfill part of the wish — a swimming pool in the suburban Chicago family’s back yard — and firefighters stepped in to build a deck to finish the oasis Lukas has been dreaming about. By Emily Rosca for Bolingbrook, Illinois, Patch

Catch Of A Lifetime

Rocky Baker went out on the Roanoke River near Williamston looking for a few "eater" fish Saturday night and came back with a whopper of a story. And a huge blue catfish, too. The 127-pounder that shattered North Carolina’s catfish record was "the hardest pulling fish that I ever dealt with," Baker told Patch. By Marcus K. Garner for Across North Carolina Patch

A Gem Of An Assist

Madison Durrani was bereft as she left for her honeymoon. The Flushing, New York, bride and her husband were on their way to Guam when she noticed the diamond had fallen out of her engagement ring. It had to be somewhere in JFK Airport, but where? “I told them that I knew this was not their job” to help find a lost diamond, the groom wrote in an email to Transportation Security Administration officials. Still, the TSA responded, offering what can rightly be called a gem of an assist. By Jeff Arnold for Queens, New York, Patch

Cheers!

Mike Viselli toasted the staff at the Cape Cod restaurant Shipwrecked after giving some thought to all the rudeness, impatience and outright fury they’ve experienced from customers who don’t understand just how much the pandemic disrupted the restaurant industry. “I just felt bad for them,” he said, explaining why he asked the manger to give the staff a five-minute break so he could buy them a round of drinks. By Mike Carraggi for Wakefield, Massachusetts, Patch

Hero 1.0 And 2.0

An Island Heights, New Jersey, mom was frantic after she accidentally locked her child in a minivan on a hot summer day. She could see her child, securely fastened into the car seat, beginning to sweat as she waited for a tow truck. A police officer earned the mother’s gratitude when he broke the window to save the child. When he learned getting the window repaired would be a financial hardship, he gave the mom another reason to be grateful. By Karen Wall for Toms River, New Jersey, Patch

‘A Brave Boy!’

A dog and his humans recently had a terrible, awful, genuinely bad day. It turned out OK, but in the thick of what police in Milton, Georgia, called “a brazen” crime, the dog Rebel was stolen along with his owner’s car from a grocery store parking lot. Rebel was found unharmed in the abandoned car, and the local police chief said he was “a brave boy!” By Kathleen Sturgeon for Alpharetta-Milton, Georgia, Patch

A Kindle Of Cuteness

When cats aren’t spayed and neutered, populations can quickly explode to unmanageable levels, as was the case with dozens of litters of kittens rescued by a Wisconsin animal shelter from a hoarding situation in Oklahoma. They were given a thorough health screening, shots and so forth, and now this kindle of cuteness is up for adoption. One of the 44 kittens available for adoption is pictured below. By Ethan Duran for Brookfield, Wisconsin, Patch

More Cute Kittens For You

The folks charged with keeping Tampa’s stormwater pipes clear of debris were happy to assist in removing the cutest clog they’ve ever encountered: trio of 2-month-old kittens that had somehow gotten themselves stuck under the water pipe of the city’s concrete mixer truck. These curious characters will get new homes, too. By D’Ann Lawrence White for Tampa, Florida, Patch

Neighbors Protect Rare Swans

If they’d never been domesticated, the predicament a couple of rare Australian black swans found themselves in wouldn’t have been nearly as precarious. They were likely abandoned by someone who no longer wanted them, left to fend for themselves on Southold, New York, creeks. But they were unable to defend themselves against the aggressive wild swans attacking them, something a group of neighbors weren’t about to allow to unfold without intervening. "People need to hear that they are in danger," one of the rescuers said. "These poor things are tame and defenseless. They are not suited for the wild." By Lisa Finn for North Fork Patch

Taco Lover’s Nirvana

This is certainly good news — or perhaps delicious news better sums it up — for whoever gets the job as McCormick’s taco relations expert. The Maryland-based spice maker is offering a tantalizing salary — up to $100,000 for the 20-hour-a-week September-to-December gig — and the job thinking up taco recipes, scouring the country for taco recipes and talking tacos on social media — can be performed remotely. By Elizabeth Janney for Towson, Maryland, Patch

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