# Feel good internet stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 29, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097 "2012-03-29T00:19:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/1 "2012-03-29T00:19:11Z")
My favorite for the day, though it made me very teary, was the story of [Fiona, the blind dog found, and rescued from, the trash](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/blind-dog-fiona-in-trash-rescue_n_1379889.html?ref=mostpopular). What’s yours? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/2 "2012-03-29T02:18:00Z")
That’s the one. I cried heartily. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/3 "2012-03-29T03:59:21Z")
Don’t have the brain power to google right now, but there was one about a man going on a trip into the African lowlands to see if he could find the gorilla he’d helped raise. It had been released into the wild several years previously. The man had no idea if the gorilla would even recognize him. The answer was yes. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/4 "2012-03-29T06:19:33Z")
[Here’s my favorite.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VAHy76QO7o) The hardliners who staged a coup against Gorbachev shut down the newspapers, radio, TV and other media…but forgot to shut off the Internet (which at the time was a single 56k line from Moscow to Finland). Volunteers in the West kept that 56k line busy with compressed collections of news reports, and the folks at Relcom provided free and uncensored news from inside Russia during the coup. So that makes me feel good. The guy interviewed is Vadim Antonov, who was with the first commercial ISP in the Soviet Union, demos.su. With a typical hacker sense of humor, the mail machine at Demos was named “kremvax” after the rumored machine at the Kremlin that all e-mail had to pass through. **Equipoise** would want me to point out the Happy Rhodes t-shirt Vadim was wearing. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/5 "2012-03-29T07:02:33Z")
I hadn’t heard the story about Batman getting stopped for not having tags on Rt. 29, but a lot of other people had. It turns out he’s this guy who dresses up like Batman and goes around to visit children in hospitals on his own dime: > **[Who is the Route 29 Batman? This guy.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/rosenwald-md/post/who-is-the-route-29-batman-this-guy/2012/03/28/gIQA8nPjgS_blog.html?hpid=z5)** > > The Batman pulled over last week on Route 29 in Silver Spring is a Baltimore County businessman who visits hospitals to entertain sick children. “It feels like I have a responsibility that’s beyond a normal person,” he says. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/6 "2012-03-29T12:38:37Z")
[Christian the Lion.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCjyWp3rEk&feature=related) Two men bought a lion cub in a department store in England (!), and once he got too big to keep, re-integrated him in the wild. Some time later they came to visit him, and he literally ran up and hugged them. D’awww. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/7 "2012-03-29T14:18:23Z")
With respect to the OP, stories like that kinda make me mad that they happened at all as much as they make me feel good that someone stepped in to fix things. If you liked that story, how about the case of Patrick the dog, wrapped in a trash bag and stuffed down a trash chute to die: WARNING: The gruesome pictures of Patrick in the first link are about as bad as you’ll ever see of a starved animal who survived. [Patrick at rescue](http://www.ahscares.org/showarchive.asp?id=772) – Warning, shocking and horrible photos! Looks terrible, right? But he was rescued! Happily ever after@ Well, not quite. After Patrick became an Internet celebrity, the welfare organization that helped in his rescue went to court to seize him from his caretakers _specifically because he would be a financially valuable “property”_ [their word!] for their fundraising efforts. [Story](http://www.dogster.com/the-scoop/group-wants-miracle-dog-patrick-moved-to-rescue-zoo) [More details on why this is a bad idea](http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=6919) It was so obviously a bad idea the _mayor_ stepped in and ordered the Associated Humane Societies to desist. [-------------------------------------------------------------- A story that I found moved me with fewer negative emotions was the reunion of Cheryl and Roxy on the show _Pit Bulls & Parolees_. Short version: Roxy the dog was left behind after her human Cheryl, a young addict, was hauled off to jail for heroin possession. The Villalobos Rescue folks from the TV show found Roxy, fending for herself, desperately defending her puppies. After rescuing them all, for the next _year_ (a long time for a dog) Villalobos kept Roxy, knowing nothing of Cheryl. Roxy was a “problem dog” for them – endlessly restless, pulling on her leash, throwing herself from side to side, relentlessly trying to get away. Obviously she could not be placed in a home, and she languished in the rescue, spurning the efforts of the staff to bond with her. It seemed she might become a “lifer,” stuck in the rescue’s kennels forever, driven by some unknown demons. Finally Cheryl got out of prison, and discovered where Roxy was. She called Villalobos and asked for her beloved Roxy back. With considerable reservations, the Villalobos folks brought Roxy out to see Cheryl. [URL=“[http://animal.discovery.com/videos/pit-bulls-parolees-an-emotional-reunion.html](http://animal.discovery.com/videos/pit-bulls-parolees-an-emotional-reunion.html)”]The result.]([Patrick the Dog’s Miraculous Recovery – NBC New York](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/136336328.html?fullSite=y)"Here’s a happier update to Patrick’s story[/URL) Look at how hard Roxy tried to get away from her handler, how she scans and searches in every direction. And then, suddenly, finally, it becomes crystal clear _what_ Roxy had been looking for, and _why_ she’d spent night and day trying to get away and resume her search. She wasn’t an aggressive dog or an untrainable dog or a crazy dog after all – she just had something important to do. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/8 "2012-03-29T14:20:39Z")
With respect to the OP, stories like that kinda make me mad that they happened at all as much as they make me feel good that someone stepped in to fix things. If you liked that story, how about the case of Patrick the dog, wrapped in a trash bag and stuffed down a trash chute to die: WARNING: The gruesome pictures of Patrick in the first link are about as bad as you’ll ever see of a starved animal who survived. [Patrick at rescue](http://www.ahscares.org/showarchive.asp?id=772) – Warning, shocking and horrible photos! Looks terrible, right? But he was rescued! Happily ever after@ Well, not quite. After Patrick became an Internet celebrity, the welfare organization that helped in his rescue went to court to seize him from his caretakers _specifically because he would be a financially valuable “property”_ [their word!] for their fundraising efforts. [Story](http://www.dogster.com/the-scoop/group-wants-miracle-dog-patrick-moved-to-rescue-zoo) [More details on why this is a bad idea](http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=6919) It was so obviously a bad idea the _mayor_ stepped in and ordered the Associated Humane Societies to desist. ["Here’s a happier update to Patrick’s story](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/136336328.html?fullSite=y) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/9 "2012-03-29T14:21:39Z")
A story that I found moved me with fewer negative emotions was the reunion of Cheryl and Roxy on the show _Pit Bulls & Parolees_. Short version: Roxy the dog was left behind after her human Cheryl, a young addict, was hauled off to jail for heroin possession. The Villalobos Rescue folks from the TV show found Roxy, fending for herself, desperately defending her puppies. After rescuing them all, for the next _year_ (a long time for a dog) Villalobos kept Roxy, knowing nothing of Cheryl. Roxy was a “problem dog” for them – endlessly restless, pulling on her leash, throwing herself from side to side, relentlessly trying to get away. Obviously she could not be placed in a home, and she languished in the rescue, spurning the efforts of the staff to bond with her. It seemed she might become a “lifer,” stuck in the rescue’s kennels forever, driven by some unknown demons. Finally Cheryl got out of prison, got herself clean, and discovered where Roxy was. She called Villalobos and asked for her beloved Roxy back. With considerable reservations, the Villalobos folks brought Roxy out to see Cheryl. [The result.](http://animal.discovery.com/videos/pit-bulls-parolees-an-emotional-reunion.html) Look at how hard Roxy tries to get away from her handler, how she scans and searches in every direction. And then, suddenly, finally, it becomes crystal clear _what_ Roxy had been looking for, and _why_ she’d spent night and day trying to get away and resume her search. She wasn’t an aggressive dog or an untrainable dog or a crazy dog after all – she just had something important to do. . ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/10 "2012-03-29T15:00:38Z")
Oh I’m a big giant sap anyway, but that Roxy story made me cry. Really! Sitting here in my office, boo-hoo crying. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feel-good-internet-stories/617097/11 "2012-03-31T01:53:46Z")
There was one a while back about a village in Sudan who started planting trees in their fields, which greatly reduced starvation in the area. Then they started going around teaching other villages to do the same. I dunno, “family and tree” stories are the adult equivalent of “boy and dog/girl and horse” stories to me.