Cheetahs naturally have low self-confidence so facilities that rescue, rehabilitate or house them often have to come up with solutions to help them feel good about themselves. One of the most effective? Getting the cheetah an emotional support dog.
According to the animal training people at San Diego Zoo,
"Cheetahs are quite shy instinctively, and you can't breed that out of them. When you pair them with a dog, the cheetah looks to the dog for cues and learns to model their behavior. It's about getting them to read that calm, happy-go-lucky vibe from the dog."
So zoos and rescue/rehab facilities are out there adopting dogs to bring home to the cheetahs, not as snacks, but just to be homies. It's adorable fluffy wholesomeness that looks like this.
You're Welcome
TreeHugger.com
With the whole world feeling like a dumpster fire lately, Reddit figures we could all use a reminder that some things are still wholesome goodness.
And the possibility of cheetah/pupper buddy-cop films isn't even the best of it! Kick back, relax, and enjoy the adorable.
One New Friend
The last time Lichtenstein went to war they sent out 80 men and returned with 81 because the soldiers made a friend.
The first time I thought about how good of a friendship it would have had to be to literally change countries and join the other guys army.
The Frog Collector
In Germany, they have these "frog fences". These fences keep the frogs from crossing the roads and getting run over. At the end of the day somebody comes by and gathers the frogs and helps them cross the road.
- Naweezy
Going The Extra Mile
A train station in Japan had plans to close but noticed there was still one person who used it - a student. They decided to leave the train station open for her and close when she graduates from high school.
- bisk0ot
Thanks, Canada
Giphy
The Netherlands sends Canada 20,000 tulip bulbs every year to thank them for their help during WWII.
- Naweezy
This is probably one of my favourite feel good facts. Not only did Canada liberate the Netherlands but when the royal family was being hosted in Canada during exile, the government declared the maternity ward extraterritorial so that princess Margaret's citizenship would be solely Dutch when she was born on Canadian soil. <sniffle>
Overload
You know when babies are smiling and laughing, but then they suddenly turn away? They're having a happiness overload! Basically their brains can't handle all the excitement they're experiencing by what they see, so the only remedy is to just not look anymore.
- qeqilia
Libraries
The fact that libraries exist at all is the most wholesome fact I know.
There's a place in your town, probably in a nice building or on a bit of prime real estate, that is given over to the idea of providing as much entertainment or education as you could possibly want, free at the point of use, paid for by the people and for the people as a collective space for the enjoyment of everyone, rich or poor. Pretty much every country in the world has them. The only thing you need in order to be able to make use of this service is to bring the items back in a timely manner so other people can enjoy them -- and people actually do it!
Libraries are as close to the definition of a public good in every sense of the word as I can possibly find.
Just Call For Help
In New Zealand, if you need to call the Emergency Services you can just ring the number you would use in your own country and you will get through... 911/111/999... it is so that in a situation when you are panicking, you don't need to remember a new number to get help.
Baby Babbling
Children who are deaf, and raised by deaf parents will sign repetitive sounds and words at about the same rate hearing babies acquire language. Deaf babies basically sign goo-goo ga-ga the same way hearing children babble when developing language.
Nosy Shark Doo Doo Doo
Giphy
Most sharks only bite people because they don't have hands and are just curious. So instead of "Rawr I'm gonna eat you!" it's a lot more like:
"G'day mate how are you doing? Just going to give you a nibble to say hi. Oh my god your bloody arm came off! My bad. Ooo that looks bad, are you ok? You know what I'm just going to leave... Ok so I circled around a bit and seems you haven't made it far. That's a lot of blood mate. Here I'll try to give you a boost. Let me just grab that thrashing leg. Oh come on it's bleeding now, too. Sht. You know what? I'm done with you bleeding all over my house, I'm just going to eat you to clean this mess up. Nothing against you."
Why Saran Wrap Sucks
In this era of evil corporate overlords let's remember Saran Wrap. Have you noticed that Saran Wrap kinda sucks these days? It seems like it barely sticks like it used to and doesn't preserve food as long. You might think this was due to cost cutting measures to line investor and executive pockets, that's the usual reason products go to crap.
The actual reason is that the key chemical used in its manufacture was determined to be bad environmentally. They were unable to find a replacement that provided the same performance. There were no regulations requiring them to change the formula and changing it would surely hurt their market share. They did it anyway without any fanfare and it was a big hit to their bottom line, but they stuck to it because it was the right thing to do.-
Superbrain
People in long-term relationships (whether romantic, friendly or professional) subconsciously form a macroorganism together. Your brains work together to determine each other's strengths and assign tasks accordingly to become a more efficient and tightly bonded functioning unit, where your skills are maximized and you can save effort on the stuff your partner kicks ass at. You share a joint superbrain 🧠❤
Fight To The Death
Your body's immune system will fight to the death for you no matter what you do. You can smoke,drink and do drugs but your immune system will keep up with all of that without complaint. I like to think that whenever I feel no one likes me.
- vapera
We're Puppies To Them
Giphy
The brain of an elephant reacts the same way to seeing a human as a human brain does to seeing a puppy.
You know how when we see puppies and kittens our brain lights up? Well when elephants see us (humans) the same part of the brain lights up, meaning elephants think we're cute.
Best War Ever
The 'War' of Hans Island.
Canada and Demark both claim control of a meaningless island. The 'war' is that the Danes leave a bottle of Schnapps for the Canadians, who then leave a bottle of Canadian rye for the Danes.
Petting You Back
You know that thing dogs do sometimes when you're petting them and they uncoordinatedly smack their paws on you?
They do that because they are trying to return the affection you are giving them! They know you show love by petting them, and they want to make sure you know they feel the same.
Essentially it's their way of petting you back!
Kindred Spirits
There is a tribute sculpture of silver feathers in County Cork, Ireland called "Kindred Spirits".
It commemorates the 1847 donation of $170 (about $4,700 in 2019 dollars) by the Native American Choctaw People to Irish famine relief during the Great Hunger, despite the Choctaw themselves living in hardship and poverty and having recently endured the Trail of Tears.
I love this fact because I'm from Cork in Ireland ☘
We Knew
There is solid evidence of early hominins taking care of their disabled, injured and elderly as early as 1.8m-ish years ago.
We knew to take care of each other long before we could even walk upright.
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Ok!
Cartoon Yes GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"Breastfeeding, sure no problem. Changing diapers on the table/booth/chair, no freaking way. There's a reason most bathrooms have a change table."
- LuntiX
Be Clean
"As long as you don't leave your dirty flip-flops on the table that's disgusting."
"Last week I was at a cafe terrace and I saw a woman breastfeeding her baby and afterwards changing the diaper on the table (which was a tad odd since they have a nice changing room there). After she left I noticed she left the dirty diaper on her plate, didn't even bother to close it up."
- domin8r
Silence
"A baby can't scream with a mouthful, so I'd say it's a win-win."
"My son used to do the same. The thing is his twin would get right to feeding and would stimulate the let down on his boob too, so it would be 20 seconds of screaming and 30 seconds of vague drowning noises before he clicked that food was happening."
Who Cares?
"The baby's gotta eat. Plus I don't even pay enough attention to other people to even notice or give a crap either way."
- Jikal
"I agree lol!! I've noticed moms breastfeeding their babies at a restaurant maybe a grand total of TWO times in my whole life, and I go out to eat all the time. However, I ALWAYS notice when a baby is screeching so loud nobody can enjoy their meal."
"I don't even mean just crying, I mean that SCREECH they do sometimes where if you're anywhere close to them you can't even continue talking, you just have to stop and WAIT for the kid to finish. (I promise I don't hate kids LOL this is just my opinion)."
No Adults
Oh No You Didnt GIF by happydogGiphy"Acceptable if she's breastfeeding her baby, weird if she's doing so with her husband."
- maajyc
So far, so normal. Stay in your own conversation. If you're that interested about another person, you're sounding like a stalker.
Whateves
Let It Go Whatever GIF by Hannah Bronfman Giphy"The more it happens the less people will care."
Couple Issues
"I was once breastfeeding my daughter on the beach, aside from my boob being *kind of* out (mostly blocked by the baby) I was wearing shorts and a shirt, more covered than most of the people on the beach. Apparently a dude started watching me that I didn't notice and his girlfriend took offense to it."
"She started to approach me, but my mom was with us and gave her the stink eye to end all stink eyes. I have to think if they had been just a little more exposed to breast feeding this wouldn't have been anything. I'm also 99% sure that incident resulted in the couple fighting."
When in Public
"I walked with my head down the majority of my life because I felt like everyone was staring at me as I'm a very tall female. Started looking up a few years ago and realized how very wrong I was. I cared WAY more about this made up scenario in my head while assuming the worst and causing MYSELF to feel shame over it- than anyone else ever cared about my height. We're all busy doing our own thing and I don't think MOST people care about women breastfeeding in public as people think they do."
In the UK...
"I went to a mall in London, England once with a room dedicated for baby care. There were comfortable chairs and a microwave and sink. There were also little rooms with rocking chairs and low light floor lamps. Now, I would feed my baby wherever the hell I needed to, but this was luxury."
Free!
Mothers Day Mama GIF by reactionseditorGiphy"I'd rather a happy baby having a meal than a hungry miserable baby screaming and crying for nourishment. I am however against the restaurant charging an opening fee."
It is what it is. Be free ladies. Whatever keeps the kid quiet, works for most of us. Do as you need.
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Reddit user QadeerRay asked:
What is an item you think should be free?
The responses were honestly a lot more varied than I expected. I was positive I'd see someone mention the places that charge you for using rain water - the literal water that falls freely from the sky - but there's a lot here that I hadn't even thought about and honestly, I'm kind of salty now.
Come, be salty with me.
Notifying People Is Expensive
creepy grim reaper GIFGiphy"Death certificates." - redrivverrunning
"For me they were $16 each - and every single company that the deceased has an account for needs a copy."
"I learned to go in person to places like banks as much as I possibly can. They make a copy and give it back to me, that way I can avoid mailing it for them to keep forever so I have to buy even more official copies." - classic_elle
"In the state where I live, they charge you $20 for the first certificate and $3 for each additional one so the funeral homes generally suggest you go ahead and order 5-6 more than you think you'll need after figuring out their accounts and stuff because it's still cheaper than getting a single extra at a later time." - SilverDarner
"The UK government does have a service where you inform them of a death, provide them with the certificate, and they'll make a best effort to inform all of the person's banks and pension providers. It doesn't have nearly the number of companies being informed that I would've liked, but it's a good start."
"What confuses me is that other companies aren't jumping at the chance to be on the notification list... you'd think it would be in their best interest to be notified if one of their customers died so they can clean stuff up on their end. But oh well." - SweatyOctopussy
"Not really, (at least in the US) they would really only need to stop billing/autopay once they are informed of the death and it is confirmed. The longer they can go without that confirmation, the better it is for their bottom line."
"Source: Work in corporate America" - TheLastFartan
Looking At You, Nestle
3D Loop GIF by Pi-SlicesGiphy"Drinkable water. Looking at you, Nestle. The company has a history of taking over water sources and that whole formula thing was gross." - Whit-Batmobil
"Nestle financially pushed for hospitals in 3rd world countries to start new born babies on 'free trials' of formula feeds so the mother's weren't feeding & their milk would dry up. Essentially forcing them to buy & continue using the formula forever."
"To make matters worse, this was done in areas with no safe drinking water so babies that were only a few days old were giving formula mixed with unsafe water & many got sick/died as a direct result when their mothers could have just breastfed them safely and for free."
"Even when Nestle was alerted to this (as if they didn't already know) they refused to change their tactics. The company is scum." - now_you_see
In Public
bathroom GIFGiphy"Using public toilets in Europe." - pretty_pumpkin
"Personally, here in Germany I find it is counter-intuitive. I think people resent having to pay for a toilet, and treat it like 'Alright, you're going to charge me €.50 for a pee, I'm going to get my money's worth then and just piss everywhere, because f--- you for making me pay to pee.' "
"This I find is especially true with toilets where the cleaning is 'automated.' On the other hand, you go into a lot of department stores, or a mall, etc, the toilets are often attended to by a person sitting just outside the entrance. Payment is usually optional (i.e. there is no turnstyle you have to unlock by putting money in), but it is typical to put €.50 or so in the dish on your way out... and in those cases I find the bathrooms very clean."
"Other bathrooms, particularly those along the autobahn, are actively serviced, but have a payment turnstile thing you have to go through. You can then use the receipt from the turnstile at the fast food and snack shops which are a part of the building, and you'll get the amount you paid at the bathroom deducted from your purchase."
"But overall public bathrooms are just terribly hard to find (paid or otherwise). Public pissing is common and basically unavoidable. You see it and smell it regularly." - Mozambique-Ready
Insulin
michael douglas greed GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"Insulin industry is actually hijacked by three companies and they're doing all they can to keep it's price high."
"It's not a luxury. It keeps people alive! Show some humanity."
"• Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi are the three companies that dominate more than 90% of the world insulin market by value. This means that they can set prices as they wish."
"• Production cost of insulin is about 2% of it's market price."
"• Unlike any other medicine, there is no generic insulin. Insulin is still under patent after 37 years. 'Big three' producers are abusing legal loophole for over 4 decades. (Known as Patent evergreening)."
"• These companies make profit of worth billions. Not to mention they're spending millions on lobbying politicians and donating to other decision makers to keep quiet."
"• They pay another companies not to enter the market. Or they sue them. That's what happened to company called Merck. Sanofi sued them." - DogDisguisedAsHooman
Standard Bathroom Care
tampons ugh men GIF by DiggGiphy"Uhm tampons and pads in public restrooms, schools, etc. Freak I'm a penis carrier and even I think that sh*t should be free."
"You would be mad if you went in to a public restroom and there was a coin slot for the f*cking toilet paper."
"I don't think they should be free off the shelf. Everything requires money to make so in reality nothing is free, but this should be standard care in every bathroom just in case." - TripleThickBacon
We're Not Here For Fun
season 8 episode 23 GIFGiphy"Hospital parking. Oh, dad's dying? Doesn't matter. 5 bucks." - bdd4
"Where I live you go in for free, but they do charge to leave. If you get your parking validated, (pretty much just saying you had a reason to be there as a patient or visitor) you get to leave for free."
"They had a huge issue with people parking there for free, but not even being there for the hospital. Just a place to park as they did business or shopping downtown where the hospital is located." - Howling_Fang
"You're gonna love this. We as hospital staff have to pay to park the hospital as well!"
"I am close to graduating from a medical program and some area hospitals hire from graduates of our school's program over other applicants so they have meetings at our campus about working there and benefits, etc"
"the cheapest parking package they offered, which is still a MASSIVE hike to the door is $50 a week, the most expensive being $100 a week."
"They made it a point to highlight that their staff ride all the city buses for free with our ID cards and they bring you to the front door, so that's something at least." - xBlackx_xDahliax
The Dreaded Paywall
Pay Me Kim Kardashian GIF by GQGiphy"Scientific articles. They're mostly behind a paywall."
"You can either subscribe to certain journals so that you have access year-round ($ depends on the specific journal), or you can pay for access to one article at a time. The latter is usually about $30-$50."
"As a scientist, this has always irritated me. People on social media everywhere reference blogs and other non-scientific articles, which are, of course, ill-informed and non-scientific."
"We should be linked to science journals when we Google - but then every time we're interested in some topic, pay $50 to read about it?? That's ridiculous."
"Even news media reporting on interesting results from science pubs get the results mucked up. You really can't trust anything but the peer-reviewed paper itself." - BrahmTheImpaler
"I firmly believe this is one (of many!) reasons why the US is full of anti-science/anti-intellectualism rhetoric."
"We keep information locked behind paywalls, creating yet another socioeconomic barrier for attaining knowledge. Even if the desire to learn is there, it means incredibly little without the ability to access the information." - sayhellotojenn
Buying My Info Back
Confused Always Sunny GIF by It's Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaGiphy"Schufa Auskunft."
"This private company in Germany just collects all your information (like a credit score) without your consent and the you have to buy all that info back from them because otherwise no landlord will ever accept you."
"There is a free Schufa you can request that once a year (so bad luck if your search for a home takes over a month) and it's also not the full one. Some landlords still demand the full one." - GreenKangaroo3
Seeing Is A Luxury?
Glasses Seinfeld GIFGiphy"I have insurance and I still have to pay (in my opinion) too much to just be able to see."
"It's not a luxury, it's a basic need. Also, my sight changes all the time so I can't even get a nice pair and be set for the next few years. If I'm lucky I'll get to keep a pair for 1,5 to 2 years before I absolutely need new glasses." - Proper-Literature173
"I think it's weird that vision and dental are separate from health insurance. Like seeing and chewing are just vanity." - FistedTate
"I can't believe how far I had to scroll to find this, I passed 3 waters and chicken nuggets. Why does it cost money to see? And I have 20/20 vision so this doesn't affect me." - Tian_Lord23
So tell us, what you YOU make free for everyone if you could?