In the Portland, OR area, we have a forum called oregonhikers.org (formerly portlandhikers.org). It covers SW Washington as well. Sometimes it can perform a really useful function.

Anyway, yesterday there was a panicky post from someone whose 5-year-old son had lost his stuffed seal pup up near Mt. Jefferson (that's the next volcanic peak south of Mt Hood). Now that may sound funny to some of you, but if you're a parent or grandparent, you know very well how a young one that age can get attached to a stuffed animal, and how noisily he will grieve if said animal goes missing.

The poster wanted to know how to contact the wilderness ranger up there, and gave his name. Now said ranger just happens to be "Balls" of the "Balls and Sunshine" Triple Crown hiking team, and I have his email address from several years ago. So I emailed (as did another OR Hikers member who knows him) and promptly received a reply (evidently his iPhone got reception up there). We both posted the results on the forum. To make a long story short, the mother of the little fellow was contacted, Eric sent her a photo of himself and the seal, and they arranged to meet Thursday to get the seal pup back home to the little boy.

I can't post the photo, but you can see it here.

I love a happy ending, don't you?