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Willow the Cat honored as a Cat Awards finalist for saving her diabetic owner's life

Cats have an incredible way of knowing when something is wrong with their human.

national cat awards, cat saves diabetic, willow the cat

via National Cat Awards

Willow and her owner, Amanda Jameson

Cats, like adorable, four-legged therapists and nurses, have an uncanny ability to pick up on subtle changes in our emotions and health. Research suggests that their tremendous sense of smell allows them to sense illness in humans, often before we know we're sick.

The feline olfactory system is 14 times more powerful than a human's, so cats can detect subtle differences in someone’s scent that may indicate if there is something wrong with their health.

An incredible example of this sense put into action comes from Liverpool, England, where a cat named Willow saved her owner’s life by noticing when she wasn’t well. Amanda Jameson, a 51-year-old diabetic, went to bed one night with dangerously low blood sugar. Somehow, Willow noticed something was wrong with her, so she went to get help.

Willow found her partner, Ray Sherwood, 57, asleep watching television. Willow nibbled on Sherwood’s legs to get his attention to wake him up. “I had fallen asleep in front of the TV and then around 4 am, I was woken by Willow biting at my legs and jumping at me,” Sherwood told The Independent.

“It was very out of character for her and made me get up to see what all the fuss was about,” he continued. “She was running between me and the stairs, looking back at me. I followed her up the stairs and she kept looking back at me to make sure I was coming.”

When he got to the bedroom, he found Jameson slumped over. She was unresponsive, so he called an ambulance. When she arrived at the hospital, doctors said she was close to slipping into a diabetic coma. But thanks to Willow’s bravery, she was saved just before her condition took a turn for the worse.

It’s impossible to know how long someone can last in a diabetic coma, but if untreated, it can eventually lead to brain damage or death. Jameson believes that since her scare, Willow appears to be worried about her health.

\u201cWillow the cat who saved diabetic owner\u2019s life among finalists in National Cat Awards\nhttps://t.co/wEHsPNO0KZ\u201d
— The Independent (@The Independent) 1682056560

“Since I came home from the hospital, she has become very protective of me. I’ve noticed how she puts her nose to my mouth a lot. I think she’s checking I’m breathing,” she told The Independent.

Willow’s quick thinking has earned her the honor of being one of the 12 finalists for The National Cat Awards sponsored by Cats Protection, the UK’s biggest cat charity. Willow is nominated in the Moggy Marvels category for those who’ve displayed their “moggy brilliance.”

She’s up against two other cats in her category. Beau, who's taken care of an owner with blood cancer, and Dali, who went missing for a month and was found marooned on a tiny patch of rocks in the Bradford Beck River.

In the UK, "moggy" refers to a typical domestic house cat that’s often mixed-breed. Similar to how Americans refer to a run-of-the-mill, mixed-breed dog as a mutt.

Whether or not Willow wins the award, she’ll be loved by her owner all the same. "I love her more than anything,” Jameson told CBS News. “I can't thank her enough, and she is the world to me.”

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Meet the 11 outstanding nonprofits that took home this year’s Classy Awards

Each organization has gone above and beyond to make our world a better place.

All images provided by the Classy Awards, used with permission

Give these organizations all the awards

True

Since 2009, the Classy Awards have celebrated nonprofits for their unique approaches to making our world a better place for everyone. Winners are given a platform to amplify their cause and showcase the positive impact of their programs.

This year, we are proud to announce that the Classy Awards have partnered with Upworthy, and we are thrilled to shine a spotlight on the 2023 winners.

From championing gender equality, to massively reducing food waste, to providing trade-based skills training to the neurodivergent community, each organization has made an incredible contribution to the betterment of our world.

Collectively through their efforts, nearly 1.5 million people and animals were served across 34 countries worldwide last year alone. That’s a win in itself.

Check out the 11 winners for 2023 below:

412 Food Rescue

1/11

In an effort to address the growing concern of food waste, hunger, and environmental sustainability, 412 Food Rescue uses an innovative app to match volunteers, aka Food Heroes, with other organizations that might have a surplus of perfectly good but unsellable food that would otherwise be wasted and redirect it to people who need it.

Food Heroes has redirected 137 million pounds of edible food from landfills to the people who need it most.

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best of humanity

Man shares the premarital counseling he wishes he'd gotten and it's spot on

That wedding you're about to drop $20,000 on? It's meaningless. Here's what really matters.

Jimmy on Relationships

Jimmy Knowles shares the premarital advice he wishes he'd had

When people decide to get married, the primary focus in the relationship often becomes the wedding. There are so many details to think about—the venue, the guest list, the food, the wedding party, the dress and tux…it's practically a full-time job, especially if you're going big.

Planning a wedding can be so time-consuming that a lot of couples neglect to prepare for the more important thing—their actual marriage. Most people understand that marriage is a long-term commitment, but many people go into it without a solid understanding of what that commitment entails and without preparing their relationship for long-term success.

That's the impetus behind Jimmy Knowles' (aka "Jimmy on Relationships") viral take on pre-marital counseling. Knowles' video titled "The Premarital Counseling I Wish I Had YEARS Ago" has been viewed over a million times on Facebook, and judging by the comments, he nailed what every soon-to-be-married couple needs to hear.

In the video, a couple is visiting with a counselor for premarital counseling. All three characters are played by Knowles himself, which is quite entertaining, but his counseling advice is spot on.

After asking the couple if they're excited about their wedding, the counselor says, "Yeah, it's meaningless. Your wedding—it has nothing to do with the success of your relationship. I'm not going to say it's a waste of $20,000, unless of course you get divorced a few years later, which 50% of people do. So your marriage is practically a coin flip."

That may sound cynical and pessimistic, but Jimmy the Counselor is anything but. His point is that people spent all this time and energy planning their wedding and almost no time preparing their relationship to last long-term. Then he goes into all kinds of reasons why relationships fail, from people not having healthy relationship models to toxic and problematic behaviors that they themselves might not even be aware of.

As he lays all of this out for the couple, they appear to be taken aback. And when he asks them what they're going to do that's different from people who end up divorced or in unfulfilling, unhealthy marriages, they respond that what's different about them is that they're "in love."

"Wrong," Jimmy responds. "Everyone's in love on their wedding day. Do you know why 50% of those marriages fail? Because they didn't know what love required of them—service, selflessness, sacrifice. Not one-sided. Mutual."

"They didn't have a plan to get things right," he adds. "And they didn't have a plan for what to do when things got hard and stressful, which they always do eventually."

Counselor Jimmy (who is not a real counselor, for the record) pulls no punches, but he delivers the reality of marriage in a way that both highlights what it requires and also what's really beautiful about it.

In less than 10 minutes, he manages to entertain while also dropping a crapton of solid truth and advice that would help anyone who is planning on getting married—or even people who are already married—strengthen their relationship.

Watch:

People in the comments expressed their appreciation for the free marital counseling.

"As a child of divorce and someone who just celebrated our 20th anniversary, I wholeheartedly agree with every single word," shared one commenter. "Fantastic wisdom here. I can’t say we’ve never hurt each other in conflict, but we have the commitment and care to put in the work and grow through what we’re going through."

"This is really good advice," shared another. "We got married at 17, pregnant, no money with broken childhoods. I thought it was love that got us through all our traumas. But listening to this guy, I realize because we love each other, the talking, the intimacy, the respect and care we gave came naturally. Even now, after over 40 years together, we try not to take it for granted, we still show affection and support."

"This is how my marriage survived and thrived for 25 years, 1 week, and 6 days," shared another. "The day my husband passed away at age 49. A marriage really does take work, but it’s so worth it and knowing it’s a shared experience of love…"

You can find more relationship wisdom from Jimmy on YouTube,Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

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Nine out of 10 Americans now believe that LGBTQ people should live without discrimination

A few folks may be boycotting beer. But nearly all of us want equality.

via Rosemary Ketchum/Pexels

Love is love. Enough said.

There have been numerous high-profile controversies surrounding LGBTQ rights recently that make it appear as though there has been a considerable backlash in acceptance of the LGBTQ community among Americans.

There’s the Bud Light backlash after the popular beer brand used trans activist Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson. There was an uproar after the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on LGBTQ Pride Night. There has also been an ongoing controversy surrounding Target selling LGBTQ-friendly merchandise.

Clearly, if people are getting riled up over the normalization of LGBTQ culture throughout America, we must be amid a considerable backlash, right? In reality, the truth is the exact opposite.

A new poll by GLAAD has found that non-LGBTQ Americans are more accepting of the LGBTQ community than ever and want them to be treated like everyone else. So, even though there is a loud contingent of political activists pushing back against LGBTQ progress, they don’t seem to significantly impact the growing movement toward acceptance.

Simply put, the opposition to LGBTQ people may be loud, but it’s only getting smaller.

\u201cGLAAD Report Finds 75% of Non-LGBTQ Adults Are Comfortable Seeing Queer People in Ads @PinkMediaWorld - A new @GLAAD study found that less than a third of non-LGBT adults personally know a transgender person.\nhttps://t.co/8zCzzKuvuB\u201d
— LGBTQ+ Brand Voice (@LGBTQ+ Brand Voice) 1685710714

The survey of over 25,000 non-LGBTQ Americans found three encouraging facts:

A 96% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that school should be a safe and accepting place for all youth.

A 91% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that LGBTQ people should have the freedom to live their lives and not be discriminated against.

An 84% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans support equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

The study also found that despite outrage over Dylan Mulvaney appearing in a Bud Light promotion, the vast majority of Americans are okay with seeing LGBTQ people and families represented in the media.

\u201c"They want to make Pride toxic": GLAAD's Sarah Kate Ellis on how attacks against stores that carry Pride merchandise contradict a study that found the majority of Americans are comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in ads. https://t.co/KXSDBNb9nk\u201d
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) 1685651143

This corresponds with the fact that on the 2021 to 2022 TV season nearly 12% of all regular characters on prime-time television were LGBTQ. That’s a sea change over the 2005 to 2006 report that found only 2% of all characters were LGBTQ.

75% of non-LGBTQ adults feel comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in advertisements.
73% of non-LGBTQ adults report feeling comfortable seeing LGBTQ characters included in TV shows or movies.
68% of non-LGBTQ adults feel comfortable seeing an LGBTQ family with children included in an advertisement.

The strange state of affairs in America is that even though an increasing number of Americans want LGBTQ people to have equal rights, there has been a staggering number of new laws aimed at disenfranchising them that have been proposed over the past three years.

GLAAD estimates that over 500-plus anti-LGBTQ laws have been proposed in 2023 alone.

“Support for LGBTQ equality has reached an all-time high, but allyship must turn into action,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “Media, content creators, and corporate leaders need to lead and respond to hate with undeterred support for the LGBTQ community, including LGBTQ employees, shareholders and consumers. Allyship is not easy, but when values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are tested, we must defend them unequivocally."

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Woman 'triggered' by an attractive friend in a swimsuit asked her to cover up. Was she right?

The woman has body dysmorphia and got upset.

via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

A woman in a white bikini relaxing in a pool.

A post on Reddit’s AITA subforum brought up a compelling debate about how people approach the mental health of others. As friends, coworkers and family members of people with mental health issues, how far is too far when it comes to accommodating their unique needs and requests?

It all started when a person with the username GlumDemand, 30, went with his girlfriend Alex, 27, to a friend’s pool party and barbecue. Also attending that party was their friend, Christine, 37, who had recently had a child and was struggling with postpartum depression. She hoped that attending the party would help to “lighten her mood.”

Postpartum depression happens to some women after giving birth and can cause mood swings, a loss of appetite, low energy and feelings of inadequacy. In severe cases, it can lead to major depression or postpartum psychosis.

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