This poor girl lives in Estes Park, Colorado, and was caught on camera yesterday wandering around town with that chair around her neck! “She is okay and is able to get around, but has a chair around her neck. She somehow got her head through an arm hole. The Division of Wildlife has been monitoring the female elk but it does not feel she is in any danger. The DOW says it does not want to tranquillize her because of the risks associated with the cold temperatures in Estes Park. They think the chair is broken and expect it will fall or break off in a day or so.” How awful is that! She doesn’t look particularly unhappy or anything, but it must be terribly uncomfortable!

I found some other cool stuff in the news today. Take, for instance, this story out of Clarendon, Vermont:

With an estimated 60 million pet owners in the United States, it’s probably no surprise that pet oxygen masks are becoming standard equipment for firefighters.

The cone-shaped plastic masks come in three sizes and fit snugly on snouts. They’re used to resuscitate animals suffering from smoke inhalation. They can be used on cats, dogs, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs and even birds.

I think that is SO great!

And this neat story from right here in Colorado:

An eighth-grader at Thornton’s Niver Middle School said her friend saved her life after she had a seizure.

Summer McMaster had a seizure in December, causing her to black out. Lying out in the cold, a classmate rushed to her aid.

On Thursday, Hannah Hillson was honored in a surprise ceremony.

Hillson said being crowned a hero came as a surprise.

“We would like to give you this certificate, and it says, “In appreciation of the heroic spirit and courageus effort demonstrated in providing vital assistance to Summer McMaster,” she said.

McMaster said she doesn’t know how else to describe her friend, Hannah Hillson.

“She did CPR on me, and then they said that she stuck a jacket or something underneath my head to keep me from hitting my head so much,” McMaster said.

McMaster has a neurological condition that prompts seizures from time to time. But she said she never had one as bad as the one she suffered at school on Dec. 12.

Hillson said McMaster had just gotten to school and was attempting to sit down on a concrete wall when she fell and struck her head and started to go into seizures. Some of the kids started laughing, thinking she was joking, but Hillson said she realized something more serious was going on.

“Once I saw her fall and just lay there shaking, I just knew exactly to go after her,” Hillson said.

While Hillson said most of her actions were instinctive, but she said a lot of it came from knowledge gained in a CPR class.

“I kept her on her side just like I was supposed to because anything that she had in her mouth could have gone down in her throat instead of out of the side of her mouth,” she said. “So, I just kept her up on her side until I got help.”

McMaster said she is lucky Hillson came to her aid and is proud to call Hillson both a hero and a friend.

“We’re close now and (we) were before, but this just made our friendship get even stronger,” McMaster said.

Hooray for her!! Another perfect illustration of why we should all know CPR, even our kids! Now that’s the kind of news story I like.

Have a great Friday, everyone!