She's been at our shelter since 2013. Eleven years. Every person who met her said she was wonderful. Every person walked past her kennel and chose a younger dog. She stopped coming to the front of her kennel a few years ago. Stopped performing. Made a quiet peace with being where she was." Last Tuesday a veteran came in. He said — "I need a calm dog. I'm still learning how to be still myself." I showed him three dogs. He was putting his jacket on to leave. He stopped outside kennel seven. Luna looked at him from her bed. Didn't perform. Didn't come to the front. Just looked at him the way she looks at people when she decides they're worth seeing. He said — "Can I sit with her?" He sat on the concrete floor at her level. Not the bench. The floor. That was 11am. At 3pm I looked in. He was still there. Her white muzzle was in his hand. Their breathing had synchronized. At 3:15 he came to the front desk and said — "I'd like to take her home. I think we need each other." I excused myself to the back room and sat on an overturned bucket and cried for a long time. He texted me yesterday — "First time I've slept through the night in three years. I think she was saving that for me." She was. Eleven years of saving it. For one Tuesday. For him. Drop a ❤️ for Luna. Share this for every senior dog still waiting for their Tuesday. They're saving everything they have for the right person to walk through that door.
Class Act: Pat McAfee says he gave his employees backpacks with $250K in cash after negotiating a nine-figure contract with ESPN.
"I negotiated a hundred and some million dollar contract. That was a cool moment that I could have never fathomed in my entire life. Then you talk about the boys. I gave them backpacks with $250,000 in it. That's a cool thing that I could have never guessed."
McAfee is the definition of a class act ❤️
🚨 EPIC! Apache helicopters in South Carolina just went LOW FORMATION along the beach in Charleston on America 250, directly in front of Americans on the ground
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Happy Independence Day!
There’s a story from the end of the Revolutionary War I want to tell as we celebrate America’s 250th Birthday, and it’s one everyone in the world can learn from.
George Washington, at that moment, after commanding the American forces to victory, was the most powerful man in the new country. Many people talked about making him King of America.
Across the ocean, King George was sitting with an American painter, and asked what he thought Washington would do now that the war was ending. The painter said he believed he would go back to his farm.
The King said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
As the war officially ended, Washington came to speak to Congress and said, “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of Action.” He returned his commission they’d given him in 1775 - after more than 8 years of leading the Americans to victory without pay, and he was home at Mount Vernon for Christmas.
Of course, he was elected as our first President a few years later, and after two terms, showed the same selflessness again when he willingly gave up his power and went back to Mount Vernon again.
That’s true greatness. He had all the power in the world. But power, alone, does not make you great.
Washington’s greatness came from being a true servant - to a cause much bigger than himself. His greatness was his complete lack of selfishness.
The whole story of American Independence is a story of selflessness. It’s a story of people who set their self-interest aside and worked for each other.
We’ve all heard the line about “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Apparently, Ben Franklin might have actually never said that.
But that’s fine, because the same mentality is right there in the last line of the Declaration of Independence, published on this day 250 years ago:
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
We mutually pledge to each other.
No one was in this alone. No one was in it for themselves. This was a group of people with different backgrounds who were in it for each other.
Today is a reminder: greatness comes from what we do for each other, never what we do for ourselves.
That’s a lesson that applies no matter what country you call home.
It’s a lesson that doesn’t require any law passed by a politician, because, let’s be honest, if you’re waiting for selfless politicians, I really hope you are not holding your breath.
All of us have the power to be there for the people around us. For our families and friends. For our neighbors. For everyone.
All of us can reach for greatness.
It’s as simple as looking beyond yourself, seeing past the mirror, picking your eyes up from your phone, and pledging to be there for each other.
Happy Fourth. May you all find your own version of greatness today by lifting each other up.
Lift up your neighborhood. Lift up America. Lift up the World.
"Their owner passed away alone in his apartment. Nobody found him for three days. The dogs waited the whole time." When animal control finally arrived, Max and Buddy were sitting by the front door. Not destructive. Not panicked. Just sitting. Waiting. Doing what he had always taught them to do. They came to our shelter with nothing. No records. No vet history. No family contact. Just each other. And one old tennis ball that somebody thought to grab on the way out. That was eleven days ago. Every morning they sit at the kennel door and wait. Every time they hear footsteps they both stand up. Every time those footsteps pass — they go back and lie down together. They don't know he's not coming. They just know he always came back before. Max is 6. Buddy is 5. Both healthy. Both gentle. Both heartbreakingly good dogs. Neither one will do well separated. They have never spent a night apart. They were somebody's whole world. Now they need somebody to be theirs. If you are in the USA and you have room in your home and your heart — please share this until it reaches the right person. They've already waited long enough. Drop a ❤️ for Max and Buddy. And please — SHARE. One share could be everything.
Meet Lucky, he protected his home from the intruders and got shot multiple times.
This is the moment of him leaving the hospital after 54 days and 3 surgical operations.