It wasn’t all bad
■ Amber Harris, a visitor from Arizona, was gored by a bison in Yellowstone in July during a trip with her boyfriend, Chris Whitehill, who wanted to propose to her.The couple was heading to Yellowstone Lake when the pair spotted two massive bison about 50 yards away. Suddenly, one animal charged Harris, who sustained injuries to her chest and abdomen. At the hospital, where Harris, 47, was transported by helicopter, Whitehill formally proposed, kneeling next to the hospital bed. “Without any hesitation, I said yes!” said Harris.
■ A mother dolphin and her baby trapped in a Louisiana pond after Hurricane Ida’s floods swept them out of the Gulf of Mexico in 2021 have been finally sent home. Thanks to an operation led by Audubon’s Coastal Wildlife Network and other organizations, the duo was recently rescued from a Grand Isle pond and returned to the Gulf. Though Audubon has been watching them for more than a year, rescuers waited until the calf grew old enough to venture into the open sea. The rescue of the dolphins is also a milestone for Grand Isle, Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier isle. More than a quarter of its structures were destroyed in 2021, and locals have worked for two years to rebuild and protect the island from future hurricanes.
■ Tim Shaddock, a 51-year-old Australian sailor, departed from La Paz, in Mexico, in a white catamaran along with his dog Bella in April. He wanted to reach French Polynesia, but his ship was struck by a storm, destroying the electronics system and leaving the couple adrift in the Pacific Ocean. After being rescued by a Mexican tuna boat, he said they survived for three months by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater while avoiding sunburn under the ship’s canopy. “You have to have a very positive mental attitude in order to get through this kind of ordeal and not give up,” he said.