[Benjamin]

Seeing as currently a lot of very heavy topics being discussed, here’s a place to refresh your soul.

Feel free to post more happy/upbeat news stories.

Lost Dog Finds Way Home Across 150 Miles of Neighboring State, Villages Hold Feast in His Honor

Yamagarni village in the Karnataka state of India recently witnessed a strange sight. A jubilant crowd paraded a black dog covered in garlands through the streets until they reached a feast prepared in its honor.

For the villagers, the return of the dog, which had been lost, was a miracle.

Fondly called Maharaj, the elderly companion was lost among the crows of pilgrims at a site in the neighboring state of Maharashtra, but managed to navigate by memory back home, traveling nearly 150 miles on its own.


In the last week of June, Maharaj joined its owner Kamalesh Kumbhar on a pilgrimage

Kumbhar told news media that he visits the sacred site of Pandharpur every year on Hindu holy days in July and August.

“Maharaj has always liked listening to bhajans [a devotional song]. Once, he had accompanied me on another padayatra trip to Jyotiba temple near Mahabaleshwar,” Kumbhar told Indian news outlet PTI.

For nearly 150 miles, the dog followed the master, who walked with a group of his friends, chanting these songs.

At a certain point in his devotionals, Kumbhar said he noticed that the dog was missing. When he went looking for him, a group of people told him that the dog had left with another group.

“I still searched for him everywhere and I could not find him. So, I thought maybe the people were right, that he left with someone else. I returned to my hometown on July 14th,” Kumbhar said.

The very next day though, Kumbhar said, to his surprise “Maharaj was standing there in front of my house, wagging his tail as if nothing had happened. He looked well fed and perfectly fine.”

Overcome with happiness, Kumbhar said, he and the villagers celebrated Maharaj’s return with a feast.

“It is such a miracle that the dog could find its way, although it was 250km or so away from home. We think it was Lord Panduranga who guided him.”

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lost...-in-his-honor/

[Glenn.]

Aww like homeward bound

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Glenn.

Aww like homeward bound

Loved that film so much!

[arista]

Kaz will love this.
1st story
Dog returns home in India

[Ninastar]

When the cat fell down the waterfall I think that was the first time I ever wanted to kill myself

[Ninastar]

Trauma inducing ass movie

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Ninastar

Trauma inducing ass movie

Coupled with Lion King, Animals of Farthing Wood and All Dogs go to heaven

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Coupled with Lion King, Animals of Farthing Wood and All Dogs go to heaven

Don’t forget Watership down

Tbh tho the animals of farthing wood was genuinely so distressing and sad, I can’t believe it was made into a movie

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Ninastar

Don’t forget Watership down

Tbh tho the animals of farthing wood was genuinely so distressing and sad, I can’t believe it was made into a movie

Literal childhood and adult nightmares about that.

[Glenn.]

Why don’t we chuck Marley and Me in the mix too. And Hachi!

Thought this was supposed to be a good news thread

[Crimson Dynamo]

The gospel is the “good news” because it contains the exceedingly wonderful
message of God’s redemption of sinful humanity through the death and
resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. The gospel is the heart, the central core
of Christian preaching.

The English noun gospel comes from the Anglo-Saxon term godspell,
meaning “glad tidings.” It is translated from the Greek evangelion, which
means “good message.” Originally, the word was related to news of military
triumph. But when the New Testament was recorded, its writers assigned the
term gospel to the “good news” of salvation in Jesus Christ.

The gospel encompasses the entire communication of redemption and
salvation to humans as preached by Jesus Christ and His followers (Matthew
4:23; Romans 10:15). Later, the term gospel was also applied to the four
historical records of Jesus Christ’s life written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John. These four men are the original “evangelists,” or writers of the
evangelion.

--------------

so repent you vile Tibb sinners

[Benjamin]

Teacher Crochets Personalized 'Mini-Me' Dolls For Each Student As Heartfelt End-Of-Year Gift


A third-grade teacher in Oxford, England, crocheted personalized "mini-me" dolls for each of her students as an end-of-year gift.

The intricate and thoughtful creations have not only delighted the children but also garnered widespread admiration.



Sara Shabir is a third-grade teacher at Tyndale Community School. According to the Oxford Mail, Shabir's inspiration for the project came from her deep affection for her students and her desire to give them a memorable and special gift.

"The idea came from me just wanting to do something special and exciting for my class whom I adore," she shared with the news outlet.

Shabir, who taught herself to crochet during the Covid lockdown, explained that the project was also a way for her to enhance her crocheting skills.

"I learned to crochet - self-taught - during the Covid lockdown and have been creating things since then, so I wanted to push myself and make these dolls to build my own skills as a crocheter," she said.

One appreciative parent took to social media platform X to share a photo of the dolls, praising Shabir's dedication and creativity.

"My daughter's Y3 teacher is the absolute GOAT. She single-handedly crocheted a mini-me of each kid in her class as an end-of-year gift. Approx. 8 hours per doll. Even the hairstyles and clothes are spot on. What a legend," the parent wrote.

https://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/...-Of-Year-Gift#

[Ammi]

Chimpanzees may actually be capable of speech, study of old footage suggests…


A new examination of controversial old footage of chimpanzees suggests the apes may be capable of learning to speak human-like words given the right circumstances.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that chimpanzees likely possess the basic brain building blocks to produce “first words” similar to those spoken by human babies in their babbling stage.

This adds to the notion that great ape vocalisation abilities are underestimated, according to the international team of researchers from the UK, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Scientists have wondered for decades why humans are the only primates to have evolved speech even though some great apes like gorillas and bonobos have learned to communicate via vocal sounds and gestures.

Researchers have speculated this could be due to differences in throat organisation as well as variations within the brain.

Past research has hinted that chimpanzees may be an outlier among apes with the ability to speak human words, albeit at a rudimentary level under special circumstances.

In one study decades ago, a husband–wife duo coaxed their adopted chimp over several years to say simple words like “mama” and “papa”.

The work was discredited, however, because of ethical concerns that the infant chimp was taken away from its mother from the wild.

The new study assessed such documented cases of chimpanzee communication and subjected the recordings to phonetic analysis.

Scientists found three recorded videos suggesting that chimps could be taught to speak human words in a rudimentary way.

In particular, chimpanzees may be capable of utilising their voice, jaw and lips to speak individual syllables.

They may even be capable of achieving a contrast in how they pronounce consonants and vowels, researchers said.

In one of the old videos recorded by the husband and wife team, the adopted chimpanzee can be heard saying “papa” at least three times and the word “cup” once.

Two other videos assessed in the new study, including one shared in 2007 on YouTube, capture chimps uttering the word “mama”.

While the chimp vocalisation methods seem different from human speech, researchers said these attempts are “essentially word-like”.

They further conducted an online experiment in which human listeners naive to the origins of the recordings “reliably perceived” the chimpanzee utterances as syllables “ma-ma”.

However, citing a limitation of the study,, researchers said their analysis is based on secondary data, sourced from historical footage.

They called for controlled ethical experiments to validate the findings and investigate the conditions in which chimpanzees may acquire human speech-like vocalisations.

“Great apes can produce human words; the failure to demonstrate this half a century ago was the fault of the researchers, not the animals,” scientists concluded.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/chimpanzee...093226253.html

[Ammi]

Missing for 12 Years, Beloved Cat Named Artie Finally Reunited with His Family…

A Welshman has been reunited with a family cat who has been lost for 12 years.

Then just 17 years old, Theo-Will McKenna was attending a university near the family’s home in Connah’s Quay, Wales when their cat Artie got out and never came home.

McKenna remembers staying out for hours with a bag of treats but couldn’t locate their beloved white and grey cat. McKenna would visit once a week for months to look some more, but gradually lost hope of ever seeing Artie again.

“It didn’t feel real. I thought there was no way it could be him,” he added. “It had been 12 years—he went missing when I was 17. I thought no cat could survive 12 years on the street.”

Artie then received some much-needed medical treatment, “removed some teeth, treated his hyperthyroidism, and took out some precancerous lumps in his ears,” McKenna said, adding that while Artie’s days on the streets were behind him, new challenges remained—like getting used to McKenna’s other cat.


“I reached the point where I thought that either, God forbid, something had happened to him, or someone else [had] taken him in,” he said.

Then in 2024, residents of a home in Connah’s Quay called a local veterinarian after a grey and white cat appeared in their backyard one day, and stayed put for four days straight.

The respondent vet found that the cat, who turned out to be the missing Artie, was carrying a microchip registered to Theo-Will McKenna’s mother and a contact number for North Clwyd Animal Rescue (NCAR).

NCAR got the call and came to pick up Artie, but with the microchip registered to an old phone number, they took to Facebook to try and find the McKennas. One of Theo-Will’s friends apparently recognized Artie and sent the post to him

“They got him stable and then posted on their Facebook page, explaining that he’d been found… My friend saw it and sent me the post—it took me a second to recognize him, because he looked so bedraggled and skinny,” McKenna said.

“We’re still in the trial period, but he’s been completely fine. He’s purring up a storm every time I go near him… My other cat has been a little bit wary, but we’ve been doing introductory methods and getting her used to his smell. It’s a slow process, but I’m absolutely determined that he’s staying with me.”

Spoiler:

[Ammi]

Black rhino raised in Yorkshire has calf in Rwanda…

A black rhino raised at a North Yorkshire zoo has given birth to a calf after being released in Rwanda.
Olmoti, an eastern black rhinoceros, arrived at Flamingo Land in 2015 with her mother Samira.
In 2019, Olmoti was transferred to Akagera National Park in Central Africa as part of a relationship between Rwanda and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Drew Bantlin, a regional conservation manager for African Parks, confirmed Olmoti recently had her calf, adding: "The team has seen Olmoti and the calf twice this week and report they continue to do well."
The father of the calf is Mandela who, along with Olmoti, was one of five black rhinos transferred through EAZA, Flamingo Land said.
A photo of the mother and baby was taken during an aerial patrol, with a camera trap also capturing them in the national park.

Breeding programmes have taken place across Europe to help boost black rhino numbers, as they are listed as critically endangered by the World Wildlife Fund.
The schemes have been so successful that 10% of the entire world population lives in European zoos, leading to some being sent back to where the animals originally came from.
Olmoti arrived at Flamingo Land when she was nine months old from a zoo in Zurich and was later moved from North Yorkshire to the Czech Republic.
In 2021, Olmoti's mother gave birth to a male named Jabali, the first black rhinoceros to be born at Flamingo Land.

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Ammi

Black rhino raised in Yorkshire has calf in Rwanda…

A black rhino raised at a North Yorkshire zoo has given birth to a calf after being released in Rwanda.
Olmoti, an eastern black rhinoceros, arrived at Flamingo Land in 2015 with her mother Samira.
In 2019, Olmoti was transferred to Akagera National Park in Central Africa as part of a relationship between Rwanda and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
Drew Bantlin, a regional conservation manager for African Parks, confirmed Olmoti recently had her calf, adding: "The team has seen Olmoti and the calf twice this week and report they continue to do well."
The father of the calf is Mandela who, along with Olmoti, was one of five black rhinos transferred through EAZA, Flamingo Land said.
A photo of the mother and baby was taken during an aerial patrol, with a camera trap also capturing them in the national park.

Breeding programmes have taken place across Europe to help boost black rhino numbers, as they are listed as critically endangered by the World Wildlife Fund.
The schemes have been so successful that 10% of the entire world population lives in European zoos, leading to some being sent back to where the animals originally came from.
Olmoti arrived at Flamingo Land when she was nine months old from a zoo in Zurich and was later moved from North Yorkshire to the Czech Republic.
In 2021, Olmoti's mother gave birth to a male named Jabali, the first black rhinoceros to be born at Flamingo Land.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Coupled with Lion King, Animals of Farthing Wood and All Dogs go to heaven

I can't watch anything where animals are harmed even though I know it's not real. I watched Game of Thrones recently and I was genuinely worried for the dragons...

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Livia

I can't watch anything where animals are harmed even though I know it's not real. I watched Game of Thrones recently and I was genuinely worried for the dragons...

Never watch those films I listed then, will destroy you

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Never watch those films I listed then, will destroy you

I never will. I remember watching Bambi as a child and sobbing till my throat hurt.

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Livia

I never will. I remember watching Bambi as a child and sobbing till my throat hurt.

Yeah that was tough. All Dogs Go to Heaven was the saddest but was also a nice story (about them dying).

[Ammi]

…I haven’t watched All Dogs Go to Heaven…but there is also Hachi/A dog’s tail as well, which is obviously based on a true story…and although it’s heartbreaking, it’s also pretty beautiful and uplifting in showing that incredible dog/dog owner bond …

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Yeah that was tough. All Dogs Go to Heaven was the saddest but was also a nice story (about them dying).

It's strange I can watch war films, gangster films, people getting shot and blown up all over the place but if a dog whimpers, I'm finished.

[bots]

The good news is that Ben is now prepared for a riot if one kicks off near him tonight. He bought a balaclava earlier

[Benjamin]

Woman in stitches after realising reason for husband's favourite washing machine cycle

When it comes to picking a washing machine cycle you'll likely take into consideration the material of the clothes being washed, how hot you want the water to be, and how long you want it to go on for.

But for one man, his favourite washing machine cycle has nothing to do with washing clothes. And his wife was recently in stitches after finding out his hilarious reasoning.

Taking to TikTok, content creator Roni Hughes asked her husband to repeat which washing cycle he usually uses, while trying to fight off laughter. Her husband replies that he usually goes "for the Mix one".

"And why, why do you select the Mix one," asked Roni, while giggling. Spoken completely calmly, the husband replies: "When you select the temperature it plays the Harry Potter theme tune."

Roni's husband demonstrates, and sure enough, the beeps made by the machine sound like Hedwig's Theme from the Wizarding World film franchise. Understandably, Roni, who "wasn't expecting that", she starts laughing.

Other social media users were also in fits of laughter, with one person saying: "This man has life figured out. Respect." Another commented saying: "I ran so quickly to our washing machine to try this. Mindblown!" "Omg. We have this washing machine I have just found my new cycle," said a third.

The washing machine brand appears to be Hisense. Mix washing machine cycles are usually designed for washing a mix of different fabrics and colours.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-l...eason-33360106

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-l...eason-33360106

……delicates, regular, cool wash or Hedwig’s…?…

Youtube video