STRICTLY POSITIVE

I wish we could have a week, just one week, when I didn't feel the need to do this column. That the news was so full of puppies and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that this would just be unnecessary gravy on the cake. Alas, that is not this week, so here you go, some fun and frivolous things I saw, heard or read since last Friday:

Exhibit A:  Smiley is a Golden Retriever born with dwarfism and without eyes. He spent his first few years stuck in a puppy mill before being rescued, and now he's spending the rest of his life helping others as a Certified Therapy Dog. His owner takes him to visit the old and the young, particularly those with mental or physical disabilities, with tear-worthy results. She reckons Smiley has helped hundreds. As the article says, "What a dog."

Exhibit B:  Hat tip to Katrina Niidas Holm for this video of a poor drunk squirrel trying to make his way through the snow. I feel bad, but I laughed really hard at this poor character. Time to lay off the crabapples, little guy.

Exhibit C:  Guinea pigs like to swim. And now I have to buy a pool. And a guinea pig. Wait. MULTIPLE guinea pigs, because how can you have a pool and a guinea pig and not go full synchronized swimming team? Who volunteers to sew suits and caps?:

Exhibit D:  This one gave me chills. As usual, I needed a reminder there are good people in the world. Muharrem lives in a town of them. The young man is hearing impaired and on a normal day has trouble communicating. In a surprise set up by his sister, his entire town learned sign language so they could communicate with him easily for one perfect day. Granted, this is also an advertisement for Samsung, but still worth watching.

Exhibit E:  I struggled whether to include this one as it starts off with a big downer and a particular short-torquer of mine - bullies. But since it ends with jocks standing up to said bullies, I wanted to celebrate their actions. Desiree Andrews is a middle schooler in Wisconsin who happens to have Down Syndrome. While performing with the cheerleaders at a recent basketball game, she was bullied by some aholes in the stands. Luckily, the players on her school's team are stand-up guys. These gentlemen called a timeout, walked off the court and told the bullies to stop.  Not only did Desiree make new friends, but the gym has been renamed D's House in her honor. Huzzah. We Are Not Doomed.

Exhibit F:  Shark photo bomb! (big thanks to Julie Summerell for this one.) Look at that smile. He really does just want to be friends:

Exhibit G:  I love Will Ferrell, whether I love all of his movies or not. Yesterday, as part of his efforts to raise cancer awareness (and he ultimately raised $1 million on the day), Ferrell visited five different major league spring training games and eventually played all nine positions. This feat also honored former A's legend Bert Campaneris, the first major leaguer ever to play all nine positions in one game. Bert did it in 1965, and not only did he pitch an inning, he pitched both left-handed and right-handed (for those of you unfamiliar with Campy, his regular trade was shortstop). Ferrell's time with the Oakland A's was particularly fun for me to watch, as they are my hometown favorites and Campy was in town:

Exhibit H:  Obligatory Bird shots:

Max loves Bird:

Bird loves ball:

I love coming home to this:

That's all for this week, folks. Who knows if we will meet again next week, as the world may just explode in one huge nerdgasm on Pi day tomorrow. But it shall be glorious.  TGIF, y'all.