The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stuffed dog earns keep till reunion with owner
Hotel chronicles Snuggle Puppy’s adventures for boy.
The call to the hotel’s front desk raised alarms.
Tori Villahermosa said her 4-year-old son was “crying desperately” for a toy they couldn’t find, the manager recounted. The Beanie Baby — a corgi named Snuggle Puppy — wasn’t in the car. Could it still be at the hotel they just left?
Front desk agent Yamiyah Braxton, who took the call, “went on a mission looking for the toy,” said Katia Diaz, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express Richmond.
After confirming the searchand-rescue operation was a success with Villahermosa and arranging for the pup to be returned to the Florida family, it was time for a new mission.
“I tried to put him to work in every department,” Diaz said.
Snuggle Puppy, whom the hotel staff called Little Puppy, manned the front desk. He used the lobby computer to search for directions to his family before getting distracted by pictures of squirrels. He helped set up breakfast for the next day, did some laundry and lifted weights in the gym.
Those adventures were documented in photos by Diaz and recounted in an email sent to the boy’s parents. It was a team effort: Assistant general manager Chris Lee wrote the email and sales director Billie Harper provided proofreading support.
“He thought it was the coolest thing in the world,” said Mike Villahermosa, 35. “He was so happy his dog was at the hotel and helping out and doing stuff.” Tori Villahermosa said in a message that her son asked her to read the email “over and over.”
The tale was a hit outside the family, too. Mike Villahermosa posted about the pup’s adventure on X recently with praise for the hotel. By Wednesday evening, it had 83,000 likes and 3.6 million views.
“They made my child’s day better and for that I hope they get rewarded,” he wrote in a follow-up post. “A small act can change everything.”
Some people who responded remembered their own happy reunions with forgotten toys.
“I had a security team do this for me when I was little and my best friend was taken to the laundry in the sheets and we had to leave,” one person wrote. “They took Polaroids of her all over the hotel and wrote me a note about what she did on her vacation. I still have them all 30 years later.”
When Diaz first learned of the lost-and-found situation, she thought of her niece, who would cry for her own missing toy under the same circumstances.
“We just tried to make something special for him, that way he’d know what the toy was doing while they were separated,” she said.
After being left behind Sunday, Snuggle Puppy was reunited with his best friend.
“He is ecstatic,” Mike Villahermosa wrote in a text.
I take Advil pretty regularly for pain, but how can I tell if I’m taking more than is safe?
Headaches. Fevers. Period cramps. Back pain.
These are all symptoms that can be treated with ibuprofen, a drug better known by one of its brand names, Advil.
Given the drug’s broad pain-reducing effects, excellent safety profile and availability over the counter, it’s no surprise that some people pop the little brownish-red tablets whenever they feel the slightest twinge of discomfort.
“It’s my go-to when I have pain,” said Candy Tsourounis, a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco.
Still, ibuprofen — which is also sold under brand names such as Motrin and Nuprin — can pose certain health risks, especially for those with kidney or stomach issues.
Here’s how to feel well and stay safe.
Ibuprofen can be either a blessing or a curse.
hours.
But because doctors sometimes prescribe ibuprofen in much higher dosages, up to 3,200 milligrams a day, it can be hard to say how much is too much.
This discrepancy is rooted in safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration sets strict dosage limits for overthe-counter drugs because they may be taken by people with various risk factors, Tsourounis said. If you’re unlikely to have an adverse reaction, your doctor may prescribe a higher dose.
Even with over-the-counter ibuprofen, doctors will sometimes advise patients to take up to 3,200 milligrams per day for a short period — up to a week or two — because the anti-inflammatory effects are better at higher doses, said Lauren Haggerty, a clinical pharmacist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. This might happen after an injury or a surgery,
she said.
If you haven’t consulted a doctor about how much is safe, or if you aren’t certain about your risk factors, it’s best not to exceed the recommended limit of 1,200 milligrams a day, Tsourounis said.
Since ibuprofen can cause an upset stomach, consider taking it with at least a few bites of food — dairy, or nondairy alternative, products are especially helpful, Tsourounis said.
Be careful that you don’t accidentally take more than intended. “I have patients who don’t know that Advil and generic ibuprofen are the same, so then they might take both,” said Dr. Sarah Ruff, a physician at UNC Family Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
Also keep in mind that ibuprofen is sometimes added to certain cold medications, such as Sudafed PE Head Congestion and Pain Relief, so
Reno is an 8-year-old Lab/rottweiler mix who is looking for a home with help from the Atlanta Humane Society. Reno is a big cuddle bug and craves lots of affection in the form of petting, belly rubs and back scratches. He loves to be around people and say hi to everyone, and his excitement is contagious. He’ll even do his little happy dance when he gets to know you. He’s not a big playtime pup, but he does love snuggling up in blankets and taking calm walks around the neighborhood. Reno would like to be the only dog in the home and would prefer a quiet home, preferably without young children. Reno is available for adoption at the Atlanta Humane Society located at 1551 Perry Blvd., Atlanta. You can learn more about him and see all available adoptable animals at atlantahumane.org/ adopt.
economically beneficial for one parent to stay home — employers pay disproportionately more to workers who can be on-call at work, meaning another parent has to be on-call at home, and child care can cost more than a parent’s take-home pay.
Stephanie Coontz, a historian and author of the forthcoming “For Better and Worse: The Problematic Past and Uncertain Future of Marriage,” said shared labor is not necessarily a new development. Before the 20th century, couples were partners in work like “setting up a farm or small business,” she said. In colonial households, women were often referred to as “deputy husbands,” she said, because if the husband had to leave (to fight, for instance), it was up to the wife to keep the business running.
But in the 20th century and early aughts, being a stay-at-home father came with stigma. In fact, the notion of a father as primary caretaker was considered so absurd that it produced comedies like “Mr. Mom” (1983), “Daddy Day Care” (2003) and “Cheaper By the Dozen” (2003), to name a few.
Today, the stigma is lessening for some — as one bellwether, dad humor is all over social media — as more men become stay-at-home dads by choice.
‘I felt very much like a misfit’
Hector Jaeger, who ran a small business and worked in carpentry, became a fulltime stay-at-home father in 1990, when his second of three daughters was born. Education factored into the
Hector Jaeger and his granddaughter read a book Jan. 11 in Bath, Maine. Being “Mr. Mom” in the 1990s after the birth of his second daughter left Jaeger feeling “very much like a misfit. But times have changed and today, as a stay-at-home grandfather, he said, “It’s just the joy.”
decision: Jaeger has a high school diploma, while his wife, Nancy Jaeger, who runs a psychotherapy practice, has a master’s degree.
Jaeger, who lives in Bath, Maine, said the stigma of being a stay-at-home father in the 1990s was isolating: When people asked him what he did for work, he said his answer was usually a conversation ender. “People didn’t know what to do with that.”
“I felt very much like a misfit,” he added.
“It was very lonely for him,” Nancy Jaeger said. “That would be a regret I had for him,” adding that still the roles made sense because her husband is “a natural nurturer.”
Some fathers were able to find community with other stay-at-home dads.
Larry Lewis, who played professional baseball and worked for a metal-stamping company before becoming a stay-at-home father in 2003, would often take his daughter, Marianna, to meet up with a group of three other stay-at-home dads — whose wives worked at the same insurance company as his — and their children at a park near their home in East Dundee, Illinois.
Nedra Glover Tawwab, a social worker and author of “Set Boundaries, Find Peace,” said that at her practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, women with husbands who stay home often face stigma too. Referring to domestic work, she said women often receive critiques along the lines of: “Even though you’re working,
you should be doing all of these other things, because you’re a woman, you’re a mother.”
She said her clients often find that talking about their arrangement with people outside the house “is not very safe” because so many people are “making judgments about your situation.”
Some stay-at-home parents have, of course, made a lucrative business of it. Bryan Lambillotte, 38, of San Diego, California, always wanted to be a stay-at-home father. In March 2022, he and his husband, Christopher, who is the chief operating officer and co-owner of a medical device company, welcomed twins — a son and a daughter.
In 2021, the couple decided that Lambillotte, who had lost
his job as a sales manager at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego during the pandemic, would be the primary caregiver. That year Lambillotte began chronicling the couple’s path to parenthood on Instagram. (The couple also has a TikTok account with over 1 million followers.)
The couple’s following grew, and Lambillotte turned it into an LLC and hired an agent and manager who help facilitate brand collaborations. The couple hired a nanny for three days a week, so Lambillotte could focus on his business part-time.
As a result, he has tweaked his title: “stay-at-home working dad.”
‘Just the joy’
While Jaeger said he never regretted his decision to stay home with his daughters in the ’90s and ’00s, he sometimes worried he wasn’t enough for them. “I’d wonder, did they think I was not quite measuring up to these money and power type males?”
But Jaeger, who is now 73, said that his wife’s work set a positive example. “The fact that she was the primary breadwinner undoubtedly has had a huge impact on our children,” he said.
The couple’s youngest daughter, Anna Jaeger, 30, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said, “I didn’t know any different and I didn’t wish anything was different.” She praised how involved he was at her school. “The playground is actually called Hectorville” because he built it.
Today Jaeger, who faced so much isolation 30 years ago, is feeling much more relaxed in his current role: stay-athome grandfather. Three days a week, he takes care of his 2-year-old granddaughter, Pip — the child of his oldest daughter, Gretchen Jaeger, who lives near him in Maine and runs the small business Jaeger ran before becoming a father.
He acknowledged that being a male caretaker for a baby today might feel much easier: “I almost feel like I’m cheating, because it’s so, so much fun.” But, he acknowledged, “I do everything during the day. It’s just the joy,” he said, “without the work.”
market will bring back live music and add more artists. The market is adjacent to a green space, and there are lots of picnic tables for customers to sit and enjoy their favorite local treats.
Brady Bala of Double B Farm is one of the longtime vendors at Brookhaven Farmers Market and brings eggs each week.