5 Most Uplifting Stories of the Week

Teens playing hooky who end up as heroes and a giraffe's touching nuzzle make the list:

• Teens Cut Class—and End Up Saving Elderly Woman in Fire: Ditching school is usually a bad thing—but in California on Monday, skipping class enabled three teens to become heroes. The 17-year-old seniors were driving down the street on their way to McDonald's when they saw smoke coming from the back of a house. Cue the Hollywood ending, and a life saved.
• Giraffe Nuzzles Dying Zoo Worker: One of the week's viral photos got that way for a nice reason. The image shows a giraffe at the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam, Netherlands, leaning in to nuzzle a terminally ill zoo worker. The man, who is mentally disabled, was brought to the zoo as a last request to say goodbye to the animals.
• Mom Turns Self Into 'Speed Bump' to Save Kids: A Massachusetts mom who saw her driverless car rolling backward toward traffic down a sloped driveway—with her 2-year-old twins inside—did the only thing she could think of: "I had to use myself as a speed bump." It worked.
• Bystander With Box Spring Catches Falling Toddler: Definition of a lucky kid: He falls from a three-story window but gets saved by two people who just happened to be walking by. Definition of a luckier kid: His saviors also happened to be carrying the box spring for a mattress.
• Deputy Dangles From Chopper to Save Dog: "Hang in there" became a message for both rescuer and rescuee in this tale. A Labrador got stuck on a two-foot ledge, 40 feet down a 90-foot cliff in Northern California, and she couldn't move at all without falling. A sheriff's deputy ended up hanging from a helicopter to rescue the dog.

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