Videos of touching rescues of abused and abandoned dogs

I'm a cat person, not very familiar with dogs and never interested in having one as a pet, but someone sent me this touching story of the rescue of a couple of abandoned dogs trying to survive in a park in Southern California, and I fell in love with the dogs and got hooked on this rescue operation, Hope for Paws.  I then watched other videos they'd put up on the web, mostly done by this one guy named Eldad Hagar who runs Hope for Paws with his wife Audrey.  Awfully touching stories.  I have certain videos I like to watch to settle me in the midst of irritating or disturbing experiences, such as a grueling battle in my blogging life for instance, and these have now joined the list for their happy endings. 

This is the first one I saw, The rescue of Sky and Apollo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=basvgzCSNyk
(Blogger has new formatting which is driving me crazy.  Getting the links to reduce to their titles is impossible for me so I'm leaving them in code)

This one is the rescue of blind Fiona, which is one of two I watch most frequently for its feel-good ending, the story of Edie being the other:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJkZXh9v_i4

This one is about Chase, a little abused dog that had been brought to the shelter that they were going to put down because she was so vicious.  It's shorter than the others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4giaORFP5M

This is about Edie, a terrified little dog that would also have been euthanized if she hadn't been rescued:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LqSHfkLvHk

And here's the happy ending for Edie as she is adopted and turns out to be a delightful, pretty, obedient pet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmDmSrW33w&feature=related

Story after story shows pathetically miserable, hungry, injured, flea-infested and mange-ridden, frightened, abused, neglected dogs that at first hit you as probably unredeemable, but patience and affection, food and medical care bring all of them around and transform them into great pets.  It's SO touching.

This is Eldad Hagar's You Tube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/eldad75  

There are many other rescue stories at this link.

Don't know why I seem to have chosen only stories of little white fluffy dogs but that's what they are.  There are plenty of other stories of big dogs, brown dogs, etc. etc., all touching stories.  (Some of them were so cruelly abused it's too sad to post their stories even though they too have somewhat happy endings -- sometines the scars from the abuse can't be completely erased.)

Henri, Le Chat Noir, a little film in French Existentialist style

Okay, I've been passing this little gem around by email and finally decided to post it. There are three in the series but this one, #2, is the best, a perfect expression of the genre. The visuals are perfect, the French narrator is perfect, the music is perfect (something called Nothing Has Changed by Vi Hart according to another You Tube video in tribute to Henri.)

P.S.  For my friends who aren't familiar with the genre and dislike poor Henri for his self-pity and conceit, hey, it's supposed to be FUNNY!

Another Susan Boyle moment on Britain's Got Talent

Love these Cinderella type stories, or in this case perhaps "Frog Prince type stories" would be more appropriate. Here's the one of Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli.

She's good but he's great, and you'd never have guessed it, and just as what happened with Susan Boyle, nobody did suspect any greatness at first, everybody groaning when they come out on stage, and Simon Cowell saying to the judge next to him, "just when you thought it couldn't get worse."

You see faces in the audience dying of embarrassment for them, until they start singing and then they are "gobsmacked" -- to use Susan Boyle's expression -- and beside themselves with admiration.

And it's always a joy to see Simon Cowell be impressed with a contestant, especially when he'd expected something dreadful instead.

Love this stuff.

Little ministry in India needs help

To Whom It May Concern:
I used to send money from time to time to the pastor of this little ministry in India who sent me the email I've quoted below. Some friends also help out from time to time and it was through them that I found out about him.

I think the letter speaks for the genuineness of this Indian pastor and his concerns for his people. He is working hard among the Dalits (sometimes known as the "untouchables"). As of a few months ago I had to stop working and no longer have the means to send money as I used to do, but I'm glad they still stay in touch with me.

So I'm putting up his most recent email hoping someone might like to help them out. A money order for $50 or $100 goes a very very long way in India. Anyone who is at all interested can email me and I can send you more information about them including pictures of the pastor and the people he works among.

Blessings in the Lord,
Connie

Hello sister Connie, Greetings from India.

How are you doing sister? How is your health? We daily remember you all in our prayers.

By the grace of our great God we are all doing well and we hope this email finds you well there. Children in the school, orphan children, neglected and old aged widows, pastors and their families, my family and all the brethren with me are sending their heartiest greetings to you and all saints with you. By the grace of our great God We have been provided good education for hundreds of children and now we have 300 children in this year. We are promoting 30 more children to the High School this year. And many parents are coming to join their children in our school in this academic year. They are very interested to join their children. Some parents are very happy about our education. You know we are also teaching Bible and its stories and some do not like that. We are preaching the truths to the children. Our goal is to make them well and educated so that they can preach in later days. Yesterday we reopened our school and already 30 new children joined. We are inviting all dalit children and poor children to come and join in our school. Please pray for our school and children. We hope, we will make new generation with these children. Pro 22:6 ` Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it.` So we are doing our best to reach as many poor dalits as we can. Now we are struggling for the school needs. Please pray for these needs and Lord willing please stretch your blessed helping hand to reach these needs.

1. Books (text books and note books) , Slates and slate pencils.
2. Uniform for the children and Shoes, belt, tie for the poor children in the school.
3. We are planning to provide a `T- shirt for the children` we have already ordered 100 Tshirts. We need to buy 200 more T shirts. The cost of the 200 T`shirts are $ 450. Please pray for these needs of our school.
orphan Home is running well. We are providing good food and accommodation for them all. Now they are enjoying summer holidays and now we will join them in the schools. All are promoted to next classes. So we have to provide clothes, books, bags etc. And also we have to pay their term school fee.
I am planning to bring them to my village so that they can study in our school and live with us.

I have to finish the record work of this year and have to submit to the Educational office. I am doing that. Please pray for me, for my health too. My two daughters, my wife and I are praying for you, for your home and house hold and all the saints with you. Please show the Lord`s love and compassion upon us, our school and children.
We are waiting for your kind reply.
Servant, Samuel.

Under His Wings

Implications of last words before death

At good ol EvC there's a thread now about Steve Jobs' supposedly saying "Wow wow wow" just before he died, and they're wondering if that proves anything about the afterlife.

Unbelievers are saying no, it could just be a chemical or physical effect of the dying process or of the drugs given him for pain. Believers in Christ are claiming yes, but get themselves all tangled up in the untenable implication that Steve Jobs must therefore have been saved at the very end.

My guess would be that Jobs WAS seeing into another realm just before he died, just because of how he's described as having a faraway look, and it must have been a pleasant other realm because the expression "Wow" does not sound unhappy.

I don't know what general condition his mind was in at the end but I do know that some kinds of illness affect the mind and produce hallucinations. A relative of mine saw long-dead family members in her room a day or two before she died, and kept talking about a "party going on downstairs" that she wished she could go to. Its being "downstairs" was disturbing to me as that's the wrong direction for a Christian's last wishes to be directed. It wasn't her last words, she became more or less comatose right before she died, but the point is that even a happy vision of another world isn't necessarily a sign of salvation. Since she was a Christian what she experienced (heard?) of a party going on "downstairs" (her apartment was on the ground floor) does bother me and I won't know until I see the Lord myself if that said anything about whether or not she was really saved, or was simply the toxins of the cancer in her liver affecting her brain.

If Jobs was fairly lucid when he exclaimed his "Wow" and it was RIGHT before he died, I'd guess he did see into the other world he was going to but that it was a counterfeit show put on by the demons waiting to receive him into their company, to convince him and the people with him that he was going to a good place. Anything to call the Bible into doubt.

Long warm Autumn

Trees out my window -- Chinese elms -- are still GREEN and we're already into November! What a strange long warm Fall we've been having. It's that way all over town, green green green with just the occasional blazing gold or red tree here and there. The trees normally start turning color by the middle of September and are completely bare by now.

The temperature is dropping, though, so it shouldn't be long now. I hope we still get some color before the snow or we'll have depressingly dead brown leaves on the trees all winter.

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Nov 3
Yep, lots of trees just fading and turning brown without turning bright colors and without dropping their leaves. Still a lot of green ones out there though, but it's freezing overnight now -- going down to 23F tonight, and we're also to get some snow. The wind is knocking the trees around outside my window, which often means something wet is coming over the mountains. All the leaves are still on those trees even in the wind. Weird.

Some are saying the strange weather seems to be part of an overall changed weather pattern but I don't see it. Just seems like we're having an unusual pattern this particular year. We've had every kind of winter over the last twenty years, from very cold to mild years, heavy snow and light snow years, a couple of years when it's rained in January -- huge flooding one of those years -- that's when the weather comes over from Hawaii. If it comes down from Alaska then it can get down to -10 or so with or without snow.

And everything in between. If there's a pattern here I guess I don't know what to look for.

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Nov 6
Odd to see white roofs framed by green though fading leaves, skipping Fall this year.

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Nov 18
Yesterday the trees around town were still mostly green although there were more yellow and red than before. Out my window the leaves were mostly green with a little yellowish among them, and one tree all withered though greenish still. At last leaves were falling but still a lot of green remained on the branches. Then this morning a big wind just about denuded them all. Now it looks the way it should look at this time of year. Almost. Oddly there are still a few green leaves clinging to branches. But most are on the ground where they should be.

What I don't get is how the green has held out so long considering how cold it has been for the last few weeks. My computer corner seems to collect the cold air. Been piling on the layers until I'm finally almost warm enough but the keyboard is cold and my hands are cold too.

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January 14,2012 Not only a very strange Fall -- or a skipping of Fall altogether, but we've also been skipping Winter. No snow has fallen since Thanksgiving! Nor rain either. It goes down to the low 20s and 'teens at night and some days it's pretty cold as well but it's also been up around 60 way too often for winter. Finally we're to get some rain/snow this coming week, starting Wednesday.

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April 15. But since then we've been having wintry weather, at least all through March, rain and snow and it's still very cold. There are blossoms out but the basic feel is more like winter than spring. Everything's out of order still.