The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
Today’s something good is a lost and found bear.
Naomi was adopted as a toddler from Ethiopia by Ben and Addie Pascal. A month prior to going to Ethiopia to adopt her, the couple sent her a teddy bear to stay with her until they could be together. That bear has traveled with Naomi on adventures ever since – on trips around the world, to Greece, Rwanda, and Croatia.
And to Glacier National Park last year. After hiking on a trail in the park, in the car on the way home to Wyoming, a distraught five year-old Naomi realized Teddy was missing, according to The Washington Post. Ben and Addy could only hope that Teddy somehow made his way back to Naomi, that someone would find him in the spring when the snow melted. For a nearly year, Naomi missed her Teddy.
Teddy, as it turns out, was not on the trail for long. A few days after he was lost, Tom Mazzarisi, a park ranger whose passion is bears, was on the trail and noticed Teddy lying in the snow. “There was something about that bear,” he said. “You just kind of had a feeling there was a backstory somewhere.”
He named the bear Caesar and took it home to spend the winter. In April, when the park opened, he placed it on the dashboard of his pickup truck and Caesar went everywhere with Tom.
Come June, Naomi was still missing Teddy. Addy had shared a picture of him on Facebook but the trail was cold. Then a family friend, Terri Hayden, went to Glacier National Park with her family. She was determined to find Teddy and planned on checking the trail where Teddy was lost but the trail was closed due to bear activity. Then, at the trailhead, she spotted Teddy sitting on the dashboard of a ranger’s pick up. She breathlessly ran to the rangers and told them who Teddy belonged to.
Tom was off that day and his colleague texted him to tell him Teddy had been claimed. He was, he said, a little “bummed” that the bear was gone but was excited to find out who Caesar belonged to.
“You could make a movie out of all the little things that could have gone right or wrong,” Tom said. “We could have ignored it as it sat underneath the snow and disappeared, an animal could have run off with it. It seems simple, but it really isn’t.”
Terri bought Tom a new bear as a thank you. His new mascot was named Clover.
Naomi, now 6, was thrilled to find out Teddy was on his way home to her. Ben said, “We can’t believe this happened and the way it happened. It wasn’t that someone found it on the side of the trail. Ranger Tom took Teddy on all these adventures. He kept the bear because he sensed something about it.”
Now reunited, Teddy and Naomi are planning for a trip to Italy next year.
Stuffed animals are something good! Now it’s your turn… tell me something good!
