March 17, 2025

Hero Dogs, Lab-Grown Pet Treats, and More

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode, Johnny Mac shares five uplifting stories, including a near-death rescue from an alligator in Florida where Jay Leno fans played heroes, and the introduction of lab-grown pet treats in the UK. He highlights a woman who has journaled daily for 90 years, a runaway dog named Scrim who became a folk hero in New Orleans, and the heartfelt retirement of two therapy dogs at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Tune in for tales of bravery, innovation, and heartwarming animal stories.

00:11 Heroic Alligator Rescue in Florida
01:32 Lab-Grown Meat for Pets Hits the Market
02:03 90 Years of Daily Journaling
02:50 The Legend of Scrim, the Runaway Dog
04:13 Retirement of Therapy Service Dogs

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hi there, Jonny Mack with five good

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news stories. Good news for a pair of Flora residents

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they got to see jay Leno, but better news for

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their neighbor, who the jay Leno fans snatched from the

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jaws of death. An alligator had ran down Rick. As

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Rick was walking his dogs down the street in Naples.

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Rick was passing a pond where he'd seen alligators lounging

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every so often, and then he felt a tug on

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the leashes of his dogs. There was an eleven foot

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long alligator sprinting with its mouth open towards the dogs.

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And the dogs are labradors. Rick said, I tripped in

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all the frenzy, and the minute I fell down, the

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alligator got him. Rick and the alligator lay on the grass.

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The gator didn't even know what to do next. Rick said,

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every so often, you'd feel a lurch, a tug. He

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wanted to move me, but he couldn't. I was bigger

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than he had anticipated. I wanted to know that I

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was there. I had a lot of fight left in me,

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and I was very conscious of not passing out, because

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the minute that would happen, I'd be done. He started

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poking the alligator's eyes, tried to pry its jaws open.

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No luck. Fortunately, Walt and Paula drove by. They saw

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what was going on. They thought he had fallen, but

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after the dogs moved a little, they were like, oh,

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an alligator, So here's what happened. Walts held Paula put

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the dogs in the car. She did, and then he

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ran over the alligator with the car. The alligator lived

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and ran back down into the pond. Rick was okay.

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They used a t shirt and a dog leash to

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stop the bleeding. They were nominated for local newspaper contest

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and they won tickets to go see Jay Leto the

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world's first lab grown meat for pets has gone on sale.

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That's right, dog treats made from lab grown meat have

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gone on sale in the UK. Chick bites are made

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from a combination of plant based ingredients and meat. Lee's

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lab grown chicken chick Bites is not revealed what the

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proportion there is. The lab grown chicken meat was produced

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from a single sample of sales taken from one chicken egg.

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The company claims it's just as tasty and nutritious as

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traditional chicken breast does that mean somebody ate the dog food. Anyway,

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that's pretty good news if you're a chicken, I think.

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The Washington Post reported on a woman. She's one hundred

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and she's journled every day for ninety years and says,

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there's no excuse for me not to. She hasn't missed

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a day since January first, nineteen thirty six. Her dad

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had given her a diary so she could follow his

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tradition of recording the day's events in her hometown. It

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was a week before her eleventh birthday. Nine decades and

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thirty three thousand entries later, she's still doing it, journaling

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every night before bedtime. The first entry reads, Grandma's were

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at our place Clarence walked from Aunt Almas this morning.

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The diary goes on to tell us about farm chores,

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high school crushes, the births of her three children, the

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death of her husband in twenty ten. As you can imagine,

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it's more than one diary by this time. Dozens of

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volumes are kept in her cedar chest, and she says,

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I never write in print letters. It's always incursive, and

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every night, when I finish writing, I always look back

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one year to see what I was doing the year

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before in New Orleans, Scrim the Dog became a hero.

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Scrim was a runaway dog, eluding capture and developing a

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giant fan base. Scrim evaded death at a shelter that

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needed to make room for more dogs. He's been shot at,

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He's dodged a train. He's ran across an interstate highway,

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and survived on cat food left out for strays. He's

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around three years old, weighed seventeen pounds and as a coarse,

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cloudy fur and for several months, a lot of people

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in New Orleans were looking for him. As he evaded capture,

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his fame grew, and so did his reputation. Became almost

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a mythical figure. His saga has inspired tattoos, murals, mordigras floats.

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In October, a tipster reported seeing Scrim in a parking

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lot where a limousine company parked his vehicles. They were

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able to shoot him with a dirt gun. Scrim ran

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around for seven minutes before wabbling down. People from the

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shelter got him and said you're safe. He had broken teeth,

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a chunk of his ear was gone. He'd been shot

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with a pellet gun. Separate from the dirt. He wound

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up in a new shelter home, and then one day

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they went up and checked and he had bitten through

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the screen window on the second floor and gotten out again.

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Scrim had figured out how to use New Orleans one

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way streets to his advantage. If he ran against traffic,

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it was harder for the humans to catch him, but

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they did catch him. Scrim squeezed into a trap that

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had been set for feral cats. Two days later he

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was at the rescue house. He was perfectly calm. But

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there are those who believed that Scrim is plotting, waiting

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for the perfect opportunity to run away again. Sure we'll

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do back to back dog stories. Congratulations to two therapy

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service dogs at a hospital in Ohio. They are retiring.

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Lisha and Chevy are two ten year old Golden Retrievers

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slash lab slash Poodle mixed dogs and graduates of the

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Canine Assistants. Canine Assistance is a nonprofit which trains had

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provide service dogs. They wrapped up their tenure at Cincinnati

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Children's with lots of cuddles and kisses. Carry explained so

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many staff members said that the dogs had impacted their

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time there and it was just really to be able

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to come in and see the dogs one last time

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and kind of have that moment to say goodbye. There's

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something that's been such a huge part of their working life.

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As for Chevy, he's at a point where, unfortunately he's

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not able to keep up the pace of going to

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work and engaging as much as he used to. So

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he's going to be getting lots of pets for the

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people he loves the most, spending a lot of time

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in the backyard. I'm taking lots of nons. And those

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are your five good news stories for today. I love

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that one. If you enjoyed the program, tell a friend

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about it. They might like it too. You have an

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awesome day. Congrats doggies.