Vermont State University’s Castleton campus is honoring a friendly, neighborhood cat who’s been hanging out on campus for years.  The cat, named Max, was given the honorary degree of “doctor of litter-ature.”  (Get it?)……….. After waiting 60 years for his chance, Kansas man Ed Dwight, an artist and retired Air Force captain, finally got the chance to go to space. Dwight was selected by President John F. Kennedy to be the first Black astronaut in 1961, but after Kennedy was killed, Dwight’s dream was denied. But this past Sunday, Dwight was one of six passengers aboard a Blue Origin rocket.  He said “I thought I really didn’t need this in my life. But now I need it in my life. Everybody needs to do this.”……..And finally…………… 

A man was traumatized after losing his dog in the Outback.  (In Australia . . . not the steakhouse.)  A helicopter pilot who works as a cattle herder agreed to help, but said locating the dog would be like “finding a needle in a haystack.” But after just 30 minutes of flying, there was a breakthrough:  The pilot saw a set of dog tracks, and the dog, Rocky, was spotted shortly afterward, safe.