The week's good news: March 8, 2018

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1. Rescue dog will soon cheer up kids in the hospital as a therapy pup
2. Tampa family adopts 9 siblings so they don't have to split up
3. Florida's 'Queen of the Conch' gets surprise marriage proposal
4. Family honors grandmother's memory by hiding gifts between random book pages
5. EMT musher uses doggie CPR to save sled race competitor's choking pup

published 8 March 2018

1. Rescue dog will soon cheer up kids in the hospital as a therapy pup

In just a short amount of time, Everest went from being homeless on the streets of Los Angeles to a well-loved therapy dog in training. The nonprofit Hope for Paws rescued the starving Newfoundland from a street corner, using a cheeseburger to gain his trust. At their recovery center, Everest was bathed and received medical treatment, and soon, Hope for Paws received an application from a family in Oregon who wanted to adopt him. He left the sun for the snow, flying up to Oregon where he met the family and their two other dogs, Bonnie and Clyde. Everest is now training to be a therapy dog, and his owners hope he'll soon be able to meet with children in the hospital. In the meantime, Everest enjoys frolicking in — and eating — the snow and playing with his new brother and sister.

When Peggy Smith heard about nine siblings in foster care hoping to find a Tampa family to adopt them all, she had an idea. Smith, 28, knew she couldn't handle nine kids on her own, and enlisted her mother-in-law, Loryn Smith, to help. The four youngest children, including a four-month-old, will live with Peggy and her husband, while the five oldest will live with Loryn and her husband in their house, five minutes away. "Why not us?" Peggy told ABC Action News. "We're young. We have a beautiful home. Why not help these kids out and grow our family this way?" Loryn has already raised five biological and 15 adopted children, and knew how important it was to keep the kids together. "They didn't make the choices that separated them and they deserve to be together," she said. The adoptions will be finalized in April.

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Mary Lou Smith is known as the Queen of the Conch. The 70-year-old has been joyously blasting the large pink shell at weddings and parties on Key West, Florida, for nearly two decades and has won the island's annual conch-blowing contest several times. But Smith's shell talent inspired a particularly special moment this week when, shortly after she won this year's women's division contest, her beau, Rick Race, 73, jumped onstage, got down on one knee, and proposed. It took Smith a moment to gather her thoughts. "I didn't know what to say, so I blew the conch," she told the News Herald. "Then, I said yes."

Barbara Longova passed on her love of reading to her son, daughter, and three grandchildren, and when thinking of ways to honor her after she died unexpectedly, it just made sense to the family that they go to the bookstore. They decided to place $5 bills in random books, along with a note explaining it was in memory of their beloved "Oma," and telling the recipient to use the money to buy a book of their choice. Susan Kehoe of Browseabout Books told Today she's noticed something special: Almost every time a customer discovers a $5 bill, they pay it forward and leave it in another book for someone else to find.

Quebec musher Anny Malo was 25 miles into the 150-mile CopperDog sled race when disaster struck. One of her dogs, Max, had collapsed after a piece of ice became lodged in its throat. Malo was trying to help the dog when fellow musher Frank Moe passed by. A trained EMT, Moe suspended his own race and performed doggie CPR, blowing air into Max's snout and reviving the animal. Moe finished 11th in the race, but his generosity earned him a sportsmanship award, Keweenaw Report says. As for Max, Malo says he's doing well. He spent the rest of the race tucked safely in Malo's bag.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.