How Pokemon Go is helping this shelter get its dogs walked.
You can catch 'em all and help shelter dogs too.
Phil Pechingpaugh, director of the Muncie Animal Shelter in Indiana, was walking his dog and playing Pokémon Go with his daughter when he had a brilliant idea.
He noticed hoards of people walking around doing the exact same thing they were doing — catching Pokémon — only without a dog.
"I just thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could pair these people who are already out walking with shelter dogs who need exercise and stimulation?" Phil told Upworthy.
Photo from Phil Pechingpaugh, used with permission.
It sounded like the perfect partnership — people can get in a Pokéwalks while giving the pups some attention and fresh air at the same time.
Phil asked a friend to design simple ad. Little did he know how much attention it would draw.
"I didn’t expect much at all. I thought maybe we’ll get five or six people down here … but nothing like what we have received. We’ve had over 70 people in here today," Phil exclaimed.
Image from Phil Pechingpaugh, used with permission.
The people showing up to volunteer aren't just college kids playing Pokémon in their down time.
People of all ages have been coming from places near and far, Phil said, mentioning one girl who drove over two hours just so she could volunteer her time walking shelter dogs (and playing Pokémon, of course).
Phil's ad has already been shared on Facebook over 25,000 times and liked over 7,000 times on Twitter.
In the comments, people are posting with encouragement and love for this idea. It's as if everyone had just been waiting for a way to give back while collecting Squirtles and Pidgeys.
Photo by Karen Hastedt Borovsky/Facebook, used with permission.
With so many people showing up at the shelter in groups of three or four, the dog walkers had to develop a system in which one person would focus on dog walking while the others catch Pokémon.
"If you’re not responsible enough to do that, this probably isn’t the best option for you," Phil noted.
Phil hasn't had any problems with distracted dog walkers thus far, but he and his team do express caution to every person who comes in eager to give this fun, good Samaritan exercise a try.
The biggest compliment has come from other local shelters, Phil says.
"We’ve had other shelters that have reached out and said, 'now we’re going to do this.' I find that to be the biggest form of flattery," Phil told Upworthy.
Thanks to Phil, Pokémon Go may end up being responsible for a major uptick in shelter dog adoptions nationwide. He's already had a couple interested parties come in looking to adopt, and the Pokémon Dogs program has only been around for a day.
Photo by Trista Sydloski-Tesch/Facebook, used with permission.
Phil never would've imagined he'd be bring this much positive attention to Muncie and especially not because of a phone game. It just goes to show, small towns can make big splashes, especially when someone finds a way to combine fun with a good deed.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.