I’ve been known to bop around the internet, finding weird, funny and interesting stuff. I’m also a part of large communities. One of those communities is reddit. Recently, I happened upon the following story by the user stinkybinky: My friend’s dog is going to die soon. Please help cheer her up. (Cute dog pictures inside):

I know a lot of times things like this will get downvoted, but I figured I would give it a shot anyway. A good friend of mine just found out her dog has pancreatic cancer and only has a week to live. She is obviously broken up about it, so I thought if she saw this, it might cheer her up. She has been a redditor for over a year, is on here more than I am, and is a total sexual predator. Please say nice things and make her smile.

The Story of Lola
Once upon a time, a very pretty girl adopted a very pretty puppy. The puppy’s name was Lola and she was a showgirl. Because she was such a pretty puppy, she even got her very own people bed. It wasn’t very long before she was getting bigger and started taking over everything else too. She loved being outside and going on car rides to the lake and the dog park. And just like most other dogs, she loved getting wet but hated taking baths. Undoubtedly, she was a very happy dog and she will be missed.

Feel better, Ashley the Scientist.

Edit: Thanks to everyone who is upvoting this. She was up all night last night incredibly upset and is finally getting some sleep. If you feel so inclined, please share stories and pictures of your dogs as well, and maybe if we’re lucky, she’ll see this when she wakes up.

It was a sad story that touched me. Honestly, over the internet – to people you don’t know and may never meet – what can you do? I did the only thing that I could do. I shared my experience with the community and then, by my name and under the Woofie’s banner, I made a donation to Best Friends Animal Society.

If you aren’t familiar with Best Friends, they describe themselves as

Best Friends Animal Society is guided by a simple philosophy: kindness to animals builds a better world for all of us. In the late 1980s, when Best Friends was in its early days, roughly 17 million dogs and cats were being killed in shelters every year. Despite the commitment of shelter workers to the animal in their care, the conventional belief was that little could be done to lower that terrible number.

Best Friends has been made popular recently for their sanctuary which is featured in the television series Dog Town. In 2009 one of Woofie’s owners, Amy Reed, made the trip out to the sanctuary with two of her friends. During their time there they cared for animals ranging from the Katrina victims to the Michael Vick pit bulls as well as all of the others from all around the states.

It was my simple belief that my donation to Best Friends could maybe somehow offset the pain of losing Lola. For Ashley’s heartbreaking loss hopefully another animal’s life could be saved.

You would think the story ended there but it didn’t After making my donation I thought that was the end of it. Today I got one of the nicest phone calls. One of the founders of Best Friends took the time to call me and thank me for my donation. We talked for a few minutes about the work that they do, the reason why I donated as well as future trips that Woofie’s will be making out to the Sanctuary. It made me pretty darn happy.

Was it marketing genius? Who knows. Maybe that simple act of acknowledging my donation will lock me in as a regular donor (which I am). It was nice to know that a charity took the time and opportunity to let me know how much they appreciate what I did for them. Especially since the animals can’t really thank me themselves.

Ashley the Scientist and/or stinkybinky, if you read this, please accept our deepest condolences for Lola.