13 Good News Stories: Horse Pen Pals; Sharks’ BFF; Flying Cat

ACROSS AMERICA — The discovery of Herculean strength in an emergency isn’t a new phenomenon, but it’s welcome when someone finds it, as a Virginia sheriff’s deputy did while investigating a rollover accident.

The driver was pinned under her vehicle when Gloucester County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Holt arrived. Her young son was distraught.

"She can't breathe. She can't breathe," he said, pleading with Holt to help him. "Mommy, Mommy!"

Holt got everyone out of the vehicle, then turned his attention to the woman trapped beneath it, her head caught in the sunroof. He lifted the vehicle single-handedly, “through sheer will and determination,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. By Mark Hand for Fredericksburg, Virginia, Patch

Lifting Food Trucks

Food Truck Thursdays (top photo) started out as a way to help businesses in Herndon, Virginia, survive the loss of foot traffic to their establishments during the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s so popular that it could become a permanent fixture, with a different food truck every Thursday. Middle school science teacher Missy Jakovcic Galus, who helped get Food Truck Thursdays off the ground, said supporting small, local businesses navigate the pandemic “was my big thing.” By Michael O’Connell for Herndon, Virginia, Patch

Hennessy’s Death-Defying Leap

Before we get to the rest of this week’s good news stories, open this one to see Hennessy the cat’s death-defying leap from a burning fifth-floor apartment in Chicago. When firefighters first arrived but were unable to reach him, the cat took matters into his own, ahem, paws. Hennessy nearly hit a wall on the way down to the street but landed safely and casually walked away. By Eileen O’Gorman for Chicago Patch

Anthem For A Smile

When the coronavirus pandemic kept him from his local church, Ben Hack was devastated. The 22-year-old Maplewood, New Jersey, man living with autism, missed seeing his priest, the Rev. Jim Worth, one of a few people with whom he has formed a deep relationship. The priest missed him, too, and is singing Hack’s favorite songs — some hymns, but also American standards — in regular Facebook Live concerts. “When Father Jim sings Ben’s favorite song, ‘God Bless America,’ it is amazing to see the smile spread across Ben’s face,” his mom said. By Caren Lissner for Maplewood, New Jersey, Patch

It’s A Match!

The family of Joliet, Illinois, teenager Lizzie Reyes got the call they’ve been waiting for Wednesday and headed for Chicago. Her surgeon thinks a kidney from an organ donor is a “perfect fit,” the family said on social media. “All we know is it is a young, viable donor, which means while we are celebrating another family is mourning. So we ask for prayers for this family.” By John Ferak for Joliet Patch

Charity Beyond Borders

In India, where Reston, Virginia, resident Afzal Memon grew up, the numbers of new coronavirus cases are staggering — on a single day in May, for example, 414,000 new cases were reported. Memon answered a call asking for help from the Gujarat Sarvajanik Welfare Trust, an NGO that runs hospitals and schools for underprivileged children in the town. “Every day, they were running out of oxygen around 5 p.m., and they had to wait four or five hours for the next batch to arrive,” said Memon, who joined with four others to establish a crowdfunding campaign to ship more than 100 oxygen containers to his hometown. By Michael O’Connell for Reston, Virginia, Patch

Setting Competition Aside

On the field, the Rockville and Ellington high school girls lacrosse teams are fierce adversaries. Every year, the two Connecticut high school teams set their rivalry aside and turn their attention to people who lack some of their advantages and collect food for a local pantry that helps people struggling to feed their families. By Chris Dehnel for Vernon, Connecticut, Patch

Sharks’ Best Friend Forever

Every day, Capt. John Moore sees sharks with bullet wounds, but he wants the world to know how vital apex predators are to the ocean’s health. “The lack of compassion and disrespect for wildlife is baffling to me,” the boat captain for Florida Shark Diving wrote in a recent Instagram post describing how he removed a hook and leader from a female bull shark’s pec fin. By Beth Dalbey for Miami Patch

Horse Pen Pals

Some Dallas first- and second-graders are pen pals with horses after a pair of ponies visited their classroom as part of an exploratory program to help improve their reading skills offered by Equest, a therapeutic horsemanship center. They’ll get to visit their 30 horse pen pals at the end of the sessions. By Kevin Phinney for Dallas Patch

A Buck For Pools For Pups

Valerie Sanks of Rocky Point, New York, papered her wall with the $1 bills she collected from people all over town, then turned the cash into wading pools to provide relief from the heat for dogs at 15 Long Island animal shelters. Sanks is known for her charity for animals and for the creative ways she’s gone about attracting donors. “We’ve built a wall of blankets, we built a wall of birthday cards, we built a wall of peanut butter, and we even built a wall of dog and cat treats,” she said. “Now I would like to wallpaper my dining room with dollar bills, because soon it will be the 'dog days of summer' and I would love to try to do something amazing for dogs in town shelters on Long Island." By Lisa Finn for Shirley-Mastic, New York, Patch

This Cat Has Quite A Tale

Cats do get themselves in predicaments — often, as the old saw goes, because of their curiosity. A driver in Bloomfield, New Jersey, was shocked to discover a cat stowed away under the car's hood earlier this month, but not before driving around town for a while. The cat was jostled around in the car ride, suffering a broken jaw, bumps and bruises. The staff at Bloomfield Animal Shelter has been unable to locate the owner of the cat, now called Jaws, and is giving him the royal treatment as he awaits adoption. By Eric Kiefer for Bloomfield, New Jersey, Patch

This Dog Has A Tale, Too

Cats aren’t the only animals that get themselves into a pickle. Last week, Ty McIntyre of Cobb County Animal Services happened on a dog trapped in a large, deep hole. A local fire crew showed up with ladders to rescue the dog, which was unharmed and returned to its owner. By Kara McIntyre for Marietta, Georgia, Patch

And So Does This Bird

Firefighters often help free cats and dogs from the situations they get themselves in, but a bird stuck out on a ledge? The Chicago Fire Department’s Truck No. 1 was headed back to the station from a call when the bird’s owner flagged down the crew and asked for a ladder, explaining the bird was a pet with clipped wings. The rescue is on video that shows the brightly colored bird perched on a fireman’s hook as it was lowered to the street level, where 30 people raised their voices in a cheer. By Eileen O’Gorman for Chicago Patch