Comments on: Teen and parents drowned attempting to save dog

By: echolocate chocolate

echolocate chocolate — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Things that make you wonder.

By: Bad Juju

Bad Juju — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:43:00 +0000

I was afraid that would be a link to the Arcata Eye’s claim to fame, the Police Log: http://www.arcataeye.com/tag/police-log/

By: Bad Juju

Bad Juju — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:35:00 +0000

You & me, pal, on the Express train to Hell.

By: Anders Arson

Anders Arson — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Here’s an article from a local paper about the event:
http://www.arcataeye.com/2012/11/arcata-high-student-parents-drown-at-big-lagoon-november-26-2012/

By: birdman

birdman — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:36:00 +0000

which would make you endlessly sad – because there’s a sad story happening at every moment in the overpopulated world. Perhaps it helps explain the heightened depression of our new era – the truly depressed are those who are exceptionally empathetic

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:23:00 +0000

No, we went all in. Here’s a pic of my boy Atreyu playing with the little scamp.

By: Missy Pants

Missy Pants — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:32:00 +0000

Friends of my parents had pure bred siamese cats and african grey parrots, a pair of each. I’ve never seen pets so devoted to killing each other in my life. If the cat was on your lap, the parrot would attack. If the parrot was on your shoulder, the cat would launch itself at you. Terrifying and hilarious and an incrediably equal battle, neither side ever won or lost ground, ever.

By: Missy Pants

Missy Pants — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:30:00 +0000

So this is you?
http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2012/05/08/daily-picdump-452/pet-turtle-grown-up/

By: Vales3

Vales3 — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:27:00 +0000

So the dad threw the stick for the dog who got swept out by the wave when he went for the stick. The son jumped in after the dog to save the dog. The dad who threw the stick to the dog who got swept under the wave who’s son jumped in to save the dog jumped in after the son. The mom who was at the edge of the sand got pulled in (I didn’t read where she jumped in, just got swept out? Maybe another source has a different version of what happened to the mom). The sister of the brother and daughter to the mom and dad along with the son’s girlfriend were both on the shore watching it all happen. The mom and dad were found shortly afterward and the son is still missing.

After all that the dog rolls up, “Hey, where’d everybody go?”

Life is pretty crazy, enjoy it while you can.

By: esquire

esquire — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:14:00 +0000

There are people in the UK that drown once per week?!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 06:19:00 +0000

As long as you give credit to Die Antwoord, from whom I stole it.

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 04:42:00 +0000

We’re now One big inbred fuckfest.

Allow me to quote you on that

By: cjporkchop

cjporkchop — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 04:09:00 +0000

For me, the hardest part of being an atheist is not believing that I’ll see my departed pets again.

By: hypnosifl

hypnosifl — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 00:15:00 +0000

I suspect that the reason they stopped is that practically every single time they posted something dark or gross or whatever, someone in the comments would make the same complaint about it not being a “wonderful thing”.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 00:13:00 +0000

The hell of it is, if Scooter really weren’t a better swimmer, he’d be right there on the bench next to you.

He’s a good dog!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 00:08:00 +0000

We’re now One big inbred fuckfest.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:42:00 +0000

I read stories about people in the UK drowning at least once per week.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:29:00 +0000

We decided some time ago, that when we died and if there is a heaven, we wanted to go wherever our dogs went after they died.

I can’t imagine there is a separate heaven for dogs, because for those of us who have loved our canine friends, ‘people heaven’ without dogs would be much less than perfect. (Although it may the judgement of dogs, that an all-dog heaven would be preferable.)

I’d be sitting on the bench and muttering with worry that I’d been judged too evil to join my husband and our dogs in the afterlife — not condemning Scooter for not being a better swimmer. That would be hell.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:26:00 +0000

A bunch of guys died on an Australian navy ship attempting to deal with an engine fire. Every rescuer died until the captain put a halt to rescues and dealt with the fire from outside the engine room.

By: DrMedicine

DrMedicine — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:11:00 +0000

Boingboing hasn’t called itself that in years.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:07:00 +0000

If it were my dog, Carl, I wouldn’t have looked left or right for someone more qualified and better equipped to rescue my dog; I’d have gone directly into the water. We don’t have children; he’s it, and he’s a fearless little scamp, which is why he’s always on a leash. I hope never to be in the position that family was in, but had no problem empathizing with why they acted as they did. There’s little point in second guessing them.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:59:00 +0000

With all due respect, you seem to be under the false impression that there was a lifeguard/float/rescue boat present at the scene. There wasn’t. Nor was any such help available within a reasonable distance of the scene.

This was a simple case of two parents who chose to take a desperate chance to save their child (one which sadly failed) rather than keep themselves safe and watch him die.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:54:00 +0000

I’m stumped. If the wing falls off, they’re probably gonna crash.

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:54:00 +0000

Which was the point of my satirical post

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:54:00 +0000

I think you’re missing the point of why I’d suggest this also would be a “wonderful thing” news story to post

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Caveat emptor. Those birds live an uncomfortably long time if you don't absolutely love them. There was a great This American Life story about a woman devoted to her murderous macaw, and the hell her family lived with, wishing they could somehow outlive the damned thing.

By: Alexander Burke

Alexander Burke — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:50:00 +0000

I swear I’ve heard this story before, either as a joke or an old story.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:48:00 +0000

Nah, that’s not it. Black humor is a natural part of the human condition (as if there could be an unnatural part), and on a certain level it’s a coping mechanism. I’m reminded of the afterlife waiting room in Beetlejuice. Next to the dude with the shrunken head I can imagine this family seated forlornly on an uncomfortable bench, and muttering to themselves, “Goddamn you, Fido.”

My eldest brother had a heart attack while surfing. Fortuitously, there were a couple of EMTs surfing nearby, and they dragged him to shore and managed to get his heart started again. As it turned out, however, his heart had been stopped too long, and my brother’s brain was too damaged for him to recover, so a few days later, we pulled the plug.

We cried a lot about that, but we had to laugh, too. See, he was a devout Christian who put a lot of stock in the idea that the Lord would provide, which partially explains his lack of health insurance. So if he had been closer to shore (or not surfing at all), he probably would have survived. If the EMTs hadn’t been there at all, he would have died right there in the waves. Instead, he hung on for five expensive unreimbursed days in the ICU. Didn’t make any subjective difference to him; he never regained consciousness after falling off his surfboard.

If you can’t laugh at stuff like that (which happens all the damned time), then life will probably end up being too depressing to bear.

By: Carl Witthoft

Carl Witthoft — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:46:00 +0000

Well, yeah — maybe doing a conscientious run through the safety checklist pre-flight, and having scheduled maintenance done would have helped? (You didn’t post a link so I can’t see what does or doesn’t apply here)

By: Carl Witthoft

Carl Witthoft — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:43:00 +0000

With all due respect, the devil is in the details of “trying to help them.” It’s one thing to be a trained lifeguard, or to have enough sense to throw a float out, look for a boat, etc, rather than jumping into extremely dangerous waters. It’s analogous to the absolute rule: get out of a burning building and let the trained firemen rescue the others.