13 Good News Stories: 1 Heart Beats As 2; Dog Dad; Change Agents

ACROSS AMERICA — Loki isn’t just a family pet. Trent Tweddale proudly wears a T-shirt that reads “Best. Dog Dad. Ever.”

After saving Loki from a potentially deadly encounter, the 32-year-old Florida man has earned the right to wear the shirt Sunday and on future Father’s Day observances.

Tweddale and his wife, Kristina, have lived on a sustainable farm for about a year. Their 6-year-old mixed-breed pooch regularly swims in a seasonal stream without encountering danger.

That changed when a 13-foot alligator got ahold on Loki in its powerful jaws and tried to pull the pooch into the water. Loki, a former Army staff sergeant, instinctively followed his training and earned his T-shirt bragging rights in a harrowing encounter. By Jeff Arnold on New Port Richey Patch

Below, scroll through 12 more stories that will lift you up, make you smile and perhaps let you look at things through a different lens.

Why This Dad Is Proud

Northern Virginia dad Mark Felder jokes that he had to ask his daughter, Victoria, for permission to horn in on the Black Lives Matter solidarity march she pulled off in just a week. He was proud of her and supportive of the effort and wanted to be part of it. “We're really blessed to have the passion and the zeal of a lot of our young people who we have seen for the last three weeks across the country like Tori and her friends,” he said in an impassioned speech at the protest. By Mark Hand on Fairfax City Patch

One Heart Beats As Two

Kaitlyn Doorhy would have been 26 on the same day Ruby June Cotter turned 1. On that day, two families celebrated, intertwined by the gift of life. The former Mattituck Strawberry Queen’s heart beats on in the princess to all of us who have read her story. By Lisa Finn on North Fork Patch

Laser Cutter Finds New Focus

Jeremy Nichols was doing good business as a laser cutter and engraver before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now, with many parts of public life restarting, Nichols is busier than ever after spending the last few months pivoting his business to reach the vast and varied demands for plastic partitions. "We're going to start seeing the need for partitions at every desk at school, computer labs, libraries," he said. "It's everywhere where you have possible interaction." By Danny Wicentowski on Tucson Patch

He Beats It, Then Joins The Fight

Daniel Berger brought an unwelcome hitchhiker home with him to New Jersey he got orders in March to return early from a study-abroad semester Barcelona, Spain: the coronavirus. As a senior journalism student, he chronicled his fight against the virus as well as what he’s doing in recovery: donating his plasma, something he’s now done three times. By Eric Kiefer on Livingston Patch

Big Score After Losing Football Gear To Arson

The shed that housed a Florida high school football team’s gear — dummies and other practice equipment, field markers and game-day equipment, all told worth about $11,000 — was intentionally torched. When he heard about it, the Tampa Buccaneers' Rob Gronkowski said he was replacing the equipment through his Gronk Nation Youth Foundation. By D’Ann Lawrence White on Tampa Patch

How They Made The No. 1 Movie In America In Pandemic

The coronavirus isn’t listed in the credits of a Long Island filmmaker’s No. 1 movie. But perhaps the virus that caused a global pandemic should be. Filmmaker Christian Nilsson and YouTuber Eric Tabach were chatting and joked that as movie theaters open, whatever they’re showing is bound to do well. “Realizing the unique situation presented a loophole,” Nilsson said, “we hatched a plan.” By Lisa Finn on Westhampton-Hampton Bays Patch

Say Their Names

“Each one of these names was somebody's baby,” Jennifer Moss wrote on her normally upbeat babynames.com website. The Evanston native indexed the names of some 165 Black Americans, mostly men, whose lives have been cut short by violence over the decades, printed in white-on-black type, one after another, on line after line, each some mother's tragedy. She traces her solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement to formative experiences as one of the first white students at the groundbreaking for the times Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory Schools. By Beth Dalbey on Evanston Patch

Changing The Flow Of Money

“Generally,” said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, “white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation.” They are donating $120 million to scholarships to Spelman College and Morehouse College, both historically black colleges and universities, and the United Negro College Fund. Their hope is that other wealthy individuals will be motivated to do the same. By Andrea V. Watson on Atlanta Patch.

The Art Of Protests, But Also Unity

Several South Bay high school students in support of both the Black Lives Matter movement and their local businesses put their passion for art behind a project that benefits both. They painted messages of support for the movement on businesses windows boarded up as a precaution. “Our aim is not only to promote racial equality and show support for the protest ... but also to use art to unite our community during these trying times and potentially lower the risk of our local businesses getting looted.” By Gideon Rubin on Los Gatos Patch

Baby Hump Times Two: Photos

Over the weekend, Zoo Miami welcomed an adorable baby camel with not one hump but two. That's because the baby is an endangered Bactrian camel, which is distinguished from Dromedary camels by its extra hump. It’s only the sixth time in 40 years that a Bactrian camel has been born at the zoo. By Paul Scicchitano on Miami Patch

It’s Summer, And Coronavirus Can’t Steal That

None of the summer plans made before March are working out as the coronavirus suspends some of Americans’ favorite summer pastimes. OK, so it’ll be a quieter summer, unless you live in one the areas where millions of 17-year cicadas will be coming out. Oh, and it’s also one the best times of the year for meteor showers, backyard fire pits and other simple pleasures. By Beth Dalbey on Across America Patch

Good News/Bad News About Rat Row

We leave you with this news that’s good news for some folks, not so good news for others and just plain confusing for the characters at the center of this tale: New York’s Rat Row is on the move after the coronavirus forced restaurants to close and the rodents’ usual buffet in the alley was no longer there. By Jeff Arnold on New York City Patch

This article originally appeared on the Across America Patch