Good News with Brad Schmitt: Prickly pigs, Metro's most muscled man and a great greeter

Good morning, friends! So happy to see you here for our third weekly feel-good newsletter. Feeling good? Hooray! It's working!

Let's start off by gettin' piggy wit' it. 🐷

Off duty, the 911 supervisor who rescues ALL the animals!

Would you babysit a 200-pound petulant pig?

Natalie Williams would. And she has. Turns out Natalie — a Nashville 911 supervisor who lives in Dickson, Tenn. — has a neighbor who keeps a huge hog in the garage, a pet pig named Shiloh. (Check out this video to see Shiloh and Natalie.)

The neighbors go out of town from time to time, and they call Natalie to come over and feed Shiloh and talk to the pig — even though Shiloh bit Natalie's hand the first time the two met. (Natalie is quick to point out that the bite didn't break her skin.)

But Natalie, 42, kept coming back because, well, she has loved on and rescued animals since she was a teen. Some of her more unusual moves:

► After finding three freezing felines in the winter woods, Natalie brought them inside her house, put them on a heating pad and blasted them with warm air from a hair dryer. Only one survived. Natalie named that cat John Snow (yes, from "Game of Thrones") and kept it.

► Natalie adopted a pug who is deaf, named it Puddin' and came up with hand signals to communicate with the pug.

► In one day, Natalie stopped her car twice to move turtles off the road. "Always point them in the direction they were going," she offers, "or they'll just crawl right back out on the road."

► Natalie once stepped in front of school students who were throwing rocks at a pit bull puppy and made the kids stop.

"She has a humongous heart for animals," one of her longtime 911 center colleagues, Alisa Franklin, said, "and would rather be around animals than deal with people."

Ha! That may be true, but after being around Natalie for 20 minutes, I can tell you she's fun, upbeat and super kind. Natalie's a blessing to all creatures.

Bet he doesn't get attitude from his students

About 13 years ago, Hunters Lane High School teacher Clay Meacham — like many adults do — decided to live healthier.

He quit drinking, changed his diet and started to hit the gym.

But unlike most adults, Clay got super ripped and won second place last month in a bodybuilding contest. In the competitive open heavyweight category at a National Physique Committee contest in Chattanooga, to be specific.

He got supercharged about weightlifting a few years back when he found out a Hunters Lane alum won the 2019 Mr. Olympia title, the most prestigious prize in bodybuilding. Clay found that alum, Brandon Curry, and got him to come back to Hunters Lane to speak with about 600 students and staff.

"He's the most humble dude in the world," Clay said. "I was attracted to how he represented the sport."

So Clay, 41, decided to jump into the sport with both feet.

Turns out teaching high school geography, being a dad and husband and spending tons of time in the gym at the same time is pretty tough. But so is Clay, who says he got lots of support at Hunters Lane.

"Some of the kids were pretty supportive," he said, "and the teachers were super supportive."

Meet Kenny, the smiley Y guy

Here's my nominee for Middle Tennessee Human of the Week: downtown YMCA greeter Kenny Holley.

For three years, Kenny has been smiling and greeting most daytime regulars by name, always asking how they're doing, always bringing the love and the good juju.

"He brings a smile to every face," said Courtney Smith, a fellow downtown YMCA membership team member.

How does Kenny keep bringing the positive vibes? He points skyward and smiles again: "To God be the glory."

Tell me something good

OK, friends, now it's your turn. What's the good news in your life?

Get a promotion you've been going after for a while? Pregnant with your first child? About to be the first in your family to graduate college? Did you meet your favorite celebrity?

Shoot me an email at brad@tennessean.com, and we'll put in a section from time to time called — you guessed it — "Tell Me Something Good."

And please ask your friends to sign up for this email newsletter. If they're Tennessean subscribers, they can sign up here.

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Hope you have an awesome weekend, and please be in touch and tell me something good. 😀

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Prickly pigs, Metro's most muscled man and a great greeter