Very little in the news today. That’s because everyone was busy staying out of trouble yesterday.
The big news appears to be that Americans can get quite cranky on Black Friday, jostling, growling, and even shooting their neighbor while standing in line to get those great deals.
Solution: Shop online, idiots.
But there is one story in the news guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Down the road a piece from where I live is Washington, IL — a sleepy little dot on the map that, until 9 days ago, nobody ever heard of.
Then a tornado roared through the area and leveled most of the town. Most of the people lost everything. And for one National Guardsman, the storm took his beloved 6 month old Pit Bull puppy Dexter.
Jacob Montgomery was working his civilian job when the storm hit on November 17. His third floor apartment disappeared along with, he thought, his puppy Dexter. Jacob was called to duty to help with the aftermath of the storm and went off to help his fellow central Illinoisans, but still managed to stop by the ruins of his home every day, calling for Dexter.
Then, a miracle:
“Apparently he [Dexter] waited in the apartment for nine days,” Montgomery said in a telephone interview Thursday. “I don’t know how or why he did that, but he just did.”
A member of Rescuing Animals in Need of Central Illinois Inc. was looking for Dexter and other animals that vanished after the tornado and “saw his ears sticking up” from the rubble of the apartment building’s top floor, said Randy Wheat, the president of the group based in Downstate Danvers.
The volunteer who spotted the dog called for the building’s maintenance worker, who brought a ladder to reach Dexter, Wheat said. The building’s roof and walls were blown off, he said. Dexter was found near the spot on the apartment’s floor where the kitchen sink had ended up after the tornado.
The dog “was emaciated,” Wheat said. “You could see his ribs. That said, he checked out OK. He had nothing to eat and drink except snow.”
Wheat said Montgomery had stood outside the ruined apartment building calling out Dexter’s name every day since the tornado.
A neighbor sent a Facebook message, “I’ve got your dog right here,” to Montgomery, according to a news release from the Illinois Army National Guard.
“It was a feeling of crazy relief,” Montgomery said. “I did not give up. I just had a feeling.”
A remarkable story. An indication of how nothing much bad is happening in the world is when the two main stories of the day include Zombie Shoppers from Hell and a persevering Pit Bull.
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