This is Jack, a 13-year-old Jack Russell terrier.
Jack and his friend Penny at Silver Muzzle Cottage. Image via Silver Muzzle Cottage. All images used with permission.
His owner gave him up to a shelter. At first, it seemed like he was lucky: He was adopted that very same day.
But 48 hours later, his new family returned him because he had some medical issues they didn't want to deal with.
He was homeless — that is, until Silver Muzzle Cottage took him in.
Kim Skarritt-Nelson created Silver Muzzle Cottage after realizing just how many old dogs were in shelters waiting for new homes.
She ran Bowsers by the Bay, a dog boarding and social rehab facility, and through her work, she had connected with a few local rescues on social media.
"I started seeing that there were a lot of these really old dogs needing homes and I didn't understand that at all," she says. "It was a concept that I just couldn’t grasp. Why would a 14-year-old dog need a new home?"
Kim Skarritt-Nelson with her dog Kia. Image via Kim Skarritt-Nelson.
Some of these dogs had lived their whole lives with a person, but when their owner died, they had nowhere to go and no one to take them.
Others, like Jack, had been relinquished to shelters by owners who didn't want to — or couldn't — care for them anymore. Others still were found as strays, like Penny, abandoned along a road somewhere.
Penny was found as a stray. She is believed to be 11 years old and is awaiting her forever home at Silver Muzzle Cottage. Image via Silver Muzzle Cottage.
People usually want a puppy or at least a young dog when they decide to bring a dog home, and that's why those are the ones that almost always go home first. Old or sick dogs can spend years waiting for a new home — or even be euthanized in overcrowded shelters.
It bothered Skarritt-Nelson that these older dogs had nowhere to go to live out their remaining life with love and dignity. So she renovated one of the buildings on the Bowsers by the Bay property, converting it into a living space for dogs — complete with couches, pillows, and even a fake fireplace so that it resembles a home instead of a traditional shelter — and officially opened Silver Muzzle Cottage, a rescue and hospice for homeless senior dogs.
The interior of Silver Muzzle Cottage looks more like the living room of a house than it does a dog shelter. Image via Kim Skarritt-Nelson.
It is the only organization of its kind in her state and one of a few in the country, according to the Detroit Free Press. Even by animal rescue standards, Silver Muzzle is a very different kind of refuge.
Since it opened its doors two years ago, Silver Muzzle Cottage has helped more than 70 senior or sick dogs in Michigan.
"Once word got out what we were doing, we were getting 15-20 calls a day initially," she says. "Then it tapered off to 15-20 a week."
Jack and Petey, two of the current residents at Silver Muzzle Cottage. Image via Silver Muzzle Cottage.
When they get a call, they screen them to make sure the dogs meet their age requirements and, if possible, try to place the dog in a home first. Some of those dogs do better in the quiet of a home with a family, she says.
If not, the dogs come to the cottage to await adoption. Some, like the 140-pound great dane-mastiff mix named Mongo, will simply live out the remainder of their lives at Silver Muzzle Cottage.
Mongo's owner relinquished him to Silver Muzzle Cottage on the condition that he stay at the cottage and not be adopted. He is 8, which is considered senior for such a large dog. Image via Kim Skarritt-Nelson.
"Just in case they never find a home, they will always have a home here with me," says Skarritt-Nelson.
Today, seven dogs live at Silver Muzzle Cottage, including Mongo and their newest arrival, Felix.
Felix's owner recently died, but with the help of Silver Muzzle Cottage, he's hoping to have a new home soon. Image via Silver Muzzle Cottage.
The dogs are never alone at the cottage, thanks to a group of volunteers. "We ask the volunteers to help us give these dogs a life that they may never have had," says Skarritt-Nelson. "So that may include taking them down to the beach and letting them play on the beach, taking them for walks in the woods, getting them out and socializing with people in the community."
The senior dogs also visit local nursing care facilities and spend time with the residents.
One of the Silver Muzzle Cottage dogs visiting a local nursing care facility as part of the rescue's "Seniors for Seniors" program. Image via Kim Skarritt-Nelson.
They spend the rest of their time snuggling and playing with the other dogs or hanging out with Skarritt-Nelson.
In fact, to take the extra step in making sure the dogs are never alone and never caged, she made the cottage her home too by moving into a small room at the corner of the house with her own three dogs.
She hopes she can continue to grow her network of volunteers and supporters so Silver Muzzle Cottage can expand and welcome more older dogs. Helping these senior dogs is her way of giving back to them — of recognizing that they once gave their lives to someone or a family, and that it's not their fault they are homeless now. Silver Muzzle Cottage is her creative way to help these dogs.
A little girl reading to one of Silver Muzzle Cottage's senior dogs. Image via Kim Skarritt-Nelson.
"The whole focus for us is making sure that the dog leaves this world with somebody, that they don't die alone, and to make sure that they know that when they left this world, they had somebody — somebody loved them, they mattered to somebody."
Want to volunteer or help Silver Muzzle Cottage in some other way? Reach out to them via their Facebook page for more information.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
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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.
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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.