This one is sort of sad, but has a good ending:

[link]

Lewis Hurshman, 80, was freezing, seriously dehydrated and unable to move when police found him lying on the floor of his small south-end apartment on Thursday afternoon.

He had been there for four days.

Mr. Hurshman would likely still be lying on that floor if it hadn’t been for Jennifer Clarke, a waitress at Gatsby’s restaurant on Spring Garden Road. She called police when Mr. Hurshman failed to show up for his daily glasses of beer.

"Every day he has two Alpines," said the 26-year-old, who recently graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University. According to Ms. Clarke, Mr. Hurshman’s routine had become somewhat legendary at Gatsby’s. Every morning at exactly 11 a.m., he would stroll through the door, sit down at the bar and order his drink in a chilled glass. Clutching the beer in one hand and the television remote in the other, he would spend the next three hours watching CNN and chatting with the staff.

"He’s always very interested in us and what’s going on in our lives," said Ms. Clarke, adding that "Lew" was the first person she served when she began working at the restaurant a year ago.

Because he lives alone and has no immediate family in the area, she said the employees at the restaurant have become like Mr. Hurshman’s surrogate family.

His pattern never varies, which is why Ms. Clarke was shocked when she arrived for her first shift of the week on Thursday morning and Mr. Hurshman was not there to greet her. In fact, no one remembered seeing him all week. Someone had phoned his house on Wednesday to check on him, but they had gotten a busy signal.

Growing increasingly concerned, Ms. Clarke tried calling him herself and was also greeted with the busy tone. That’s when she sensed that something was seriously wrong and immediately called police.

"About an hour later, a police officer came in looking for me, pretty much saying, ‘Thank goodness you called us,’ " she said. "I started to cry right away."

Mr. Hurshman was rushed to hospital, where he remains in fair condition.

"If she hadn’t called, it’s very likely he would have died," Const. Carr said. "She, in all likelihood, saved his life."

I deleted my Horrible Human story link upthread. Sorry to pull it in here.

I'm in a horrid mood today.

Good job, Jennifer Clarke!

Humanity 1, Despair 0!

ok, here's the plan, go get mac and never let go of him, take the shuttle to Boston, shower Nora with hugs and good cheer, grab the red-eye to LA and do the same with ita.

"If she hadn’t called, it’s very likely he would have died," Const. Carr said. "She, in all likelihood, saved his life."

aww I love that story!

ok, here's the plan, go get mac and never let go of him, take the shuttle to Boston, shower Nora with hugs and good cheer, grab the red-eye to LA and do the same with ita.

whoo! Urge to kill... fading!

whoo! Urge to kill... fading!

This is the power of the Mac hug.

I don't know about heartwarming, but it's odd and a little charming. Yay?

Here's a quick fix for despair. Type "dog saves" into Google News and you get all kinds of stories. Okay, mostly started barking when the house caught fire, but also...

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Dog saves hunter

An Austrian hunter's faithful dog saved his life after a crippling fall - by fetching his mobile phone.

Albert Hoffman, 59, was left with severe back injuries and a punctured lung after plunging 20 feet out of a tree while bird shooting.

Unable to move, he called for his pet Labrador to fetch his mobile phone from his nearby rucksack.

An emergency services spokesman in Gutau, upper Austria, said: "His dog is a real hero.

"He was in the middle of nowhere and with the injuries he had if he had not called us soon he could have died."

ita, really want to send you a cyberhug, but seem to remember you don't like them. At any rate I hope this story is one you ran into in the news or on-line, not a personal story a story of a friend or relative.