Sweet Animated Short Film "The Present" Is Absolute Joy

A cute animated puppy in the short film "The Present"
is stealing millions of hearts, including mine.  

Yesterday, CBS Sunday Morning featured a short film that I absolutely love and want to share.

Apparently, so do a lot of other people, for good reason.

The animated short film is called "The Present" and starts with a boy playing video games, and his mom arriving home to bring him a cardboard box containing a gift.

At first, the boy hates the gift, which is a cute puppy.

Intense animal lovers like me will wince at what happens next, as the boy harshly shoves the puppy away as the little dog turns out to be quote, unquote, imperfect.

But keep watching as the film's messages of persistence, positive attitudes and solidarity unfold.

"The Present" was created by Jacob Frey and Markus Kranzler in 2014 as a graduation project while they were students at Filmakademie Baden-Werttemberg in Ludwisburg, Germany, says SFGate.com

At last count, "The Present" has won something like 60 international awards in several countries.

The great work on "The Present" certainly didn't hurt Frey and Kranzler. They now work at Walt Disney and Pixar, respectively.

Here's the video:

Update: Xena The Warrior Puppy Wins Top ASPCA Award

A big shout out and congratulations to Xena the Warrior Puppy for winning this year's ASPCA dog of the year award.

Xena the Warrior Puppy and BFF Jonny
hang out together recently. 

I wrote about Xena in early May in this here blog thingy, several months after she'd been rescued, at death's door, having been horribly abused and starved. When she was found, nobody thought she'd survive overnight.

But she miraculously rallied, and eventually her rescuers were ready to have Xena go to a good home. Xena went to a fundraiser where the young dog bonded immediately with a kid name Jonny Hickey who was 8 at the time.

Jonny has autism and rarely communicated with anyone. But Xena brought Jonny out of his shell and the boy is now an outgoing, friendly young man, thanks to Xena's love and companionship.

When I wrote about the situation in early May, I mused about who rescues whom when a dog is pulled from a situation of neglect or need and put into a loving home.  As in the case of Xena, the rescued one becomes the rescuer.

About a week after I wrote that column, our Bailey the Wonder Dog, who we had taken into our home a year earlier,  got sick.  By the end of the month, Bailey had passed away.

Xena the Warrior Puppy looking
happy at the ASPCA Dog Of The
Year ceremony earlier this month.  

I deeply mourned the loss of Bailey, of course. But even in death, he taught me a lesson. Love what's in your life now, because it won't last forever. And embrace everything you can.

Which seems to be what Xena the Warrior Puppy has been up to. She's been damn busy.

In addition to being Jonny's partner in crime, Xena has been visiting a 12-year old girl with cancer in an Atlanta area hospital to cheer her up and cheer her on, according to the Today Show.

Xena has also been visiting a prison where inmates train homeless dogs in a program called Canine CellMates.   Xena has been helping make sure that program runs smoothly.

Xena The Warrior Puppy has also been helping Jonny's mom, Linda, call attention to the importance of rescuing dogs in need and promoting autism awareness.

Xena has been keeping the world up to date on her work through her Facebook page and at her web site, www.xenathewarriorpuppy.com 

A shout out should also go to Koshka, the ASPCA's Cat of the Year. Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott rescued Koshka while serving in Afghanistan, and Koshka returned the favor by helping Knott get through his darkest days after two of his closest friends were killed in a suicide attack.

Koshka now lives happily with Knott and the rest of his family in Oregon.

Ig Nobel Prizes is an Annual Joy

A week or so ago, one of the annual joys of the season came with   announcement of the Ig Nobel Prizes.

Here are some of the highlights:

A winner holding an Ig Nobel prize

The psychology prize went to scientists who figured out why leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower look smaller. It's magic! The only question is, are you supposed to lean left physically or politically to have this effect on the Eiffel Tower?  

The Acoustics prize went to a gadget that disrupts people's  speech by making them hear their own words at a slight delay. The effect makes them shut up, it seems. Ohh, this gadget would sell like hot cakes, let me tell you. Well, I can't tell you, because I think my speech is being disrupted by the device.

The Chemistry Prize was for  figuring out why people's hair turned green in some houses in the town of Anderslov, Sweden. It turns out copper accumulates in the water inside the pipes overnight because they aren't coated adequately. Then again, I see a lot of people who intentionally dye their hair green, so this could be the start of a fashion trend.

I can see the youngsters all headed to Anderslov to get green hair. This could be the next Burning Man.

The prizes had a literature award winner for the U.S. General Accounting Office which wrote, as the Ig Nobel officials said, the US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.

Is it now necessary for me to report that the Ig Nobel report on the report is reportedly confusing?

Here's a project for readers? Who would you nominate for an Ig Nobel prize and for what reason should they receive it?