A Loyal Pal: 5 Great Things This Week

Not one but two rescued dogs feature in the week's make-you-smile stories:

• Dog Proves Loyalty to a Buddy: A loyal Washington state dog pulled a Lassie this week, bringing help to an equally adorable pooch stuck at the bottom of a cistern. Tillie and Phoebe had been missing for a week when a resident alerted volunteers that a dog had been approaching them, then heading back into a wooded ravine nearby. They soon discovered why.

• Blind Football Player Takes Field for USC: Eighteen-year-old Jake Olson lost his left eye at 10 months old and his right eye when he was 12. Even so, he earned a spot as the long snapper on his high school's football team. This week, the USC freshman joined his new college teammates on the practice field for the first time. A simple system helps him know his place.
• Reporter Finds Himself in the Story: An AP reporter covering the California wildfires came across a 76-year-old man at a shelter worried about his home and his dog after five days away. The reporter checked things out himself, and wrote a first-person story about a discovery that left him in tears. But happy ones.
• Best Kiss Cam Moment Ever? It's not every day you catch a former president on the Kiss Cam, but that's what happened this week at an Atlanta Braves game. Jimmy Carter was attending with wife Rosalynn, and when the camera turned their way, they didn't disappoint.
• This Land Mine Explosion Sounded Great: Mozambique used to be one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, but it just detonated its last known land mine. This is why Albert Augusto might be the happiest unemployed man in the world.

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