Since I began introducing animals into my child psychotherapy(心理治疗) practice fifteen years ago, my life as a doctor has been full of wonders. Animals always help me in my work communicating with children in need.

Diane, a dark-haired five-year-old, came to me with a problem. Although she was a chatterbox(话匣子) in the house and with her family, no one had ever heard Diane say a word outside her home environment. Not one word. Diane’s parents tried to work with her to overcome her selective mutism(缄默症). Yet nothing they did seemed to make any impression on her. Diane refused to talk when she was outside her family circle.

Diane’s parents contacted me and I agreed to see her. It was a Friday afternoon. They were seated in the waiting room when my six-year-old dog, Puppy, and I walked out to greet them. Diane sat with her head down, making no move to look up or acknowledge our entrance.

Puppy went straight towards Diane. Because Diane’s head was bowed, Puppy was just three feet from Diane when the girl finally caught sight of her. Startled by the unexpected sight of a large golden dog, the girl’s eyes became huge and then her mouth curved slowly into a smile. Puppy stopped directly in front of Diane and laid her head in the girl’s lap.

I introduced myself and Puppy, but Diane didn’t respond. Instead, she began to silently pet Puppy’s head, running her hands softly over Puppy’s ears and nose. She was still obviously nervous at my office, but she was smiling and seemed to be enjoying her interaction with Puppy. I was speaking quietly with Diane’s parents when an idea hit me.

I spoke Puppy’s name quietly and gave her a hand signal to come toward me and continue back into the inner office. Puppy immediately started walking toward me. As Puppy walked away, I watched Diane’s face fall and her eyes take on a sad and disappointed look. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted Puppy to stay with you. All you have to do for her to come back is say, ‘Puppy, come.’”

Kirk Alexander, 48, who lives alone in a small town in Oregon named Salem, has been ordering pizza from Domino’s Pizza for the last ten yeas. He doesn’t usually go outside of his home unless it’s to get his favorite food: pizza and due to his frequently ordering, the staff was well acquainted with the man.

The manager of Kirk’ local Domino’s, Sarah, said that he was always so polite to the delivery staff. Throughout the seven years of him placing orders and supporting the particular Domino’s store, there’s never been a problem.

None of the employees at Kirk’s local Domino’s seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary for the first couple of days. However, this quickly changed once Sarah and a few of the team members realized that they hadn’t had an order from Kirk for quite some time.

Some of the staff members believed that Kirk might have taken a long-overdue trip away for a little while. Maybe he had decided that he needed a change of scenery after seven years of being in the same place. However, his silence didn’t sit well with the team.

“I went and looked up to see how long it had been since he last ordered and it was 11 days, which is not like him at all.” Fuller, a staff in Domino’s Pizza, said in an interview with KATU.

The next morning, Sarah asked Hamblen to pay their loyal customer a visit and make sure everything was all right.

That’s when Hamblen noticed something was wrong.

“When Hamblen arrived on the scene, Alexander wasn’t answering the door, but there were lights on and could hear the TV playing.” Sarah told KATU.

They then tried to phone Alexander several times, but each call went straight to voicemail. Finally, Hamblen dialed 911.

When the police arrived on the scene, they could hear a man calling for help.

Last weekend, employees at the Domino’s paid their loyal customer visits at the Salem Hospital.

I sat in my parents’ car. Mom had insisted I go with her to pick up Dad from work. Across from Dad’s office is a bike store. That was the day my eleven-year-old eyes first saw the purple BMX Mongoose bike. From that day on, all I could think about was that bike. I even drew pictures of the bike in class. Every evening afterward, at five thirty, I eagerly went along with Mom to get Dad.

And every day I told my parents, “I want that bike!” But they disagreed and replied that I had already had a perfectly good bike at home. I’d argue it was old and ugly, thinking that my happiness depended on that purple bike. Days later, I found the store had sold that bike. I knew I’d never be happy again.

A week later, returning home from school, I tripped over something. Lying in the weeds near a river and some wooded lots, was a bike — the exact bike from the store. “Hey, whose bike is this?” I shouted, scanning the area. No one replied, and there was no one in sight. Maybe its owner didn’t want it any longer. I couldn’t leave it lying in the weeds. So I took it home and hid it behind the garage. Every day after school, I sat there, admiring it. But I didn’t feel like riding and didn’t feel as happy as I had thought. Thinking about the bike made my stomach tighten and uncomfortable.

A few days later, during lunch at school, my friend said, “Did you hear about Tyler, in the other fifth-grade class? He lost his new purple BMX Mongoose bike he had just gotten for his birthday. He left it by a river while playing in the woods. It got dark, and he couldn’t find it.”

“I’d never go off and leave a new bike like that. He doesn’t deserve to have that bike,” I replied. My friend added, “Kids say he’s nice. And they say Tyler is upset because his dad worked overtime to buy the bike for him.” For the rest of the day, I couldn’t stop thinking about Tyler.

After school, I returned home and dragged to my room.

“I know Tyler’s house,” Mom said. “I’ll drive you there.”

It was around 7 on Monday morning. Paul, a ticket gateline assistant, was working his usual shift at Leagrave Station. “Another wonderful day!” he thought and began to hum (哼) a tune. Suddenly a flash of movement around Platform One caught his attention. After taking a closer look, he realized it was a dog without a collar, silly and excitable, running round after nothing at all.

“Oh!” he hurried down, appeared in a flash and successfully got hold of the dog, but it managed to struggle free out of his grasp, jumped down on the tracks and got stuck.

Panic struck among standers-by as the dog madly raced up and down the tracks, trying to find a way out. There was a lot of noise of people shouting and dog barking. Then the train kicked in.

Obviously, there was no time left to wait for the dog to jump out on his own, but he was not allowed to go down on the track. So he took out his phone and rang the signalman to warn the trains, getting them to slow down, ready to stop if necessary.

Like a cat on hot bricks, he looked around to find something useful. Luckily a guy on the platform there had some bread. So without any hesitation, Paul took the bread and used it to attract the dog as the last hope. Immediately, the dog came over to the platform edge with wagging (摇) tails. But it couldn’t jump back up. That’s not the thing, Paul thought.

Just as it put its paws up to get the bread, Paul managed to grab it. Thank goodness. Paul dragged it up on to the platform. He couldn’t let go of it for fear that it would struggle free a second time. He just held on, stroking its fur and patting on its head to calm it down. Finally he took the dog into the safety of the staffroom.

Then Paul decided to turn to social media to identify its owner.

The couple shared the photos and the story on the TikTok that evening.