A town is getting its first police dog in 20 years, thanks to a 5-year-old boy.
From stray to the sheriff's office, this pup's had quite the journey.
This dog's name is Bosco, and he's going to help solve crimes, in part thanks to a 5-year-old boy in Iowa.
In January 2016, Bosco will be joining the police department in Ankeny, Iowa, as part of its brand new K-9 unit. He comes by way of an animal shelter in Syracuse, Indiana, where he was taken in as a stray puppy. There, a shelter trainer noticed Bosco had potential to work as a police tracking dog and brought him to the attention of a police trainer in Omaha, Nebraska.
Bosco and his handler Officer Bret Lappin. All images via City of Ankeny/YouTube.
Local businesses and town residents donated toward the campaign to bring Bosco to Ankeny.
The Ankeny City Council set a fundraising goal of $20,000 to help pay some of the initial costs of getting the K-9 unit up and running. Thanks to all the donations pouring in, the Ankeny Police Department exceeded that goal and successfully raised nearly $30,000 toward Bosco's training and other K-9 unit start-up costs.
Bosco attends a press conference announcing his addition to Ankeny's force.
But it was a donation from 5-year-old Tristan Sommerfeld that helped put the campaign over the top.
When he grows up, Tristan wants to be a police officer. After learning his hometown police department was trying to raise money to give Ankeny its first K-9 unit in 20 years, Tristan decided to help make it happen.
"My birthday, a lot of people gave me some money," said Tristan to WHO-TV in Des Moines. "Rather than asking for gifts from friends and family, we asked for donations for the K-9 fund," added his mom, Amber Sommerfeld.
Tristan raised a total of $1,500 and donated all of it to make sure his local police department could get the K-9 fund off the ground by the time he's old enough to join the force.
5-year-old Tristan Sommerfeld joins Ankeny Police Chief Gary Mikulec at a press conference.
Police dogs can play an important role in helping to find missing people or detect drugs.
"We've had some cases in the past where people have gone missing and having a dog that can track is going to be very helpful," said Bosco's handler Officer Bret Lappin.
And while the effectiveness of a dog's ability to help find people or drugs varies based on factors like breed, environment, and training, K-9 units are a valuable addition to any town's police force.
Tristan, Bosco, and Officer Lappin chat outside the press conference.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
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An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
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.