Free Republic

CBS This Morning‘s Steve Hartman gets to the heart of the matter: “What’s amazing to me about you is that you’re out in the desert for weeks on end, you didn’t cry. Your friends are dying next to you and you didn’t cry. You get to talking about America and you started crying.” Kuch responds with a simple, but powerful answer: “I love this country so much.” This is why being in the military is deeply personal for Kuch. He’s not only serving his country, but it’s the best way he could find of saying “thank you” to a country...

Yvette Childers was driving to work in her RV one afternoon earlier this month, when the hood started smoking. She quickly stepped out just as the vehicle burst into flames. As she waited for help to arrive, all she could think about was her 1-year-old Chihuahua named My Little Pony, trapped in his crate in the back. Metdker headed to the RV to rescue the dog, with Ledet right behind him. So he started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation – something he never does on a human, let alone a dog – in addition to the CPR.

TODAY.com shared the story of Xena the Warrior Puppy with readers in April. After being rescued from extreme neglect, Xena transformed into a constant companion, friend and therapist for Jonny Hickey, an 8-year-old boy with autism. The story of Cat of the Year Koshka began in southern Afghanistan. In 2010, the friendly stray caught the attention of Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott, who kept noticing troubling details: One day the kitten appeared to have been spray-painted, and another day some of his fur was shaved off and his skin was cut. Knott couldn’t take seeing the abuse, so he smuggled the...

The eight-month old puppies that have been melting hearts since a picture of them embracing (see below) was posted on the web a week ago are being adopted, just in time for the holidays. Jeffrey, who is blind, and his brother Jermaine will head to their new home together on Monday, according to Operation Ava, a no-kill rescue organization in Philadelphia. What's even more inspirational is the fact that Jermaine has dedicated his life to being his brother's seeing eye dog.

Rupee was hour away from dying when Joanne Lefson saved him; trek to 17,598 feet took 10 days and helps raise awareness of dog adoptions. Rupee, a stray dog that was rescued from a dumpsite in Ladakh, Northern India, and was said to be less than an hour away from death, has become what is believed to be the first dog to reach Mount Everest base camp, located at an elevation of 17,598 feet. The dog was just 8 months old—starving, dehydrated, and extremely weak—when Joanne Lefson adopted the pup, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. She nursed him back...

Harper is indeed a miracle puppy – she has defied death twice. A woman in Sanford, Florida saved her the first time when she noticed a wriggling bag being held by a man selling puppies in a Save-a-Lot parking lot. She asked him what was in the bag, but he refused to show her. She persisted, and he handed the bag to her, revealing a deformed puppy. Had this laudable woman not intervened, the puppy would have suffocated. When Harper was rescued from the trash bag, she wasn’t given much of a chance for survival. She has pectus excavatum (literally...