It wasn’t all bad
■ Henry Robinson, a 98-year-old Nevada native and World War II veteran, was surprised in December at his Henderson home by two unexpected guests: the French ambassador to the United States and the American ambassador to France. They told Robinson he was going to receive the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civil and military distinction. Pvt. Henderson entered combat in 1944, fighting near the Prum River. Later, he liberated concentration camps and supported displaced citizens. “We only did what was required,” he said, “and I’m thinking about the guys we lost.”
■ A four- to five-month-old baby elephant was reunited with his mother after being separated for three days. The calf got lost at Anamalai Tiger Reserve, a protected area in Tamil Nadu, India, and started looking for his family, who had traveled on about 2.5 miles. The herd usually waits for a missing calf, but they may also move for safety reasons. He was found by wildlife wardens, who bathed him and covered him with mud to reduce any human scent that might cause the herd to reject him. The herd was located using aerial drones, then the baby was brought back on a truck. He was soon photographed napping with his mother. Supriya Sahu, a Tamil Nadu official, shared the image online with the comment, “When a picture is worth a million words.”
■ A Philadelphia neighborhood may have been saved from a potential explosion after Kobe, a four-year-old husky, discovered a hazardous gas leak underground. On Dec. 21, he started digging compulsively in his owner’s yard. Chanell Bell had a gas leak in her house earlier in the month, so when Kobe’s hole got bigger and bigger, she went out with her gas detection device, which quickly registered a dangerous leak. She notified the authorities, who discovered three main gas leaks in the neighborhood that could have led to serious health problems or a catastrophic blast. “It feels amazing to know Kobe saved our block,” Bell said.