Dozens of students over the past two years have come to a bodega in Staten Island to show their grades to Wail Alselwi, who goes by Wally. In exchange for good grades, Alselwi lets students take some free goodies, and if they earn above a 90 percent average, they get $100 as well, plus a T-shirt. The idea came to Alselwi, 36, in 2023, after he made a bet with one of his regular customers that if he got good grades on his report card, Alselwi said he would give him something in the store free. Al

Cathy Hoyt and her husband adopted a golden retriever named Duke 18 months ago. They had been warned about his strange tendency to take and guard household items, but nothing prepared them for the reality of it. Duke has stolen a teapot, a laptop, a book and more. And dog experts are stumped. “It’s strange in this case because the object isn’t much of a resource to the animal; it’s just an arbitrary object,” said Clive Wynne, a professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collabora

Autumn Buck sometimes feels like she’s in a Disney movie. Her border collie, Meeko, recently took a liking to an injured wild crow that showed up in her yard in Portland, Oregon. To her surprise, the crow felt likewise, and now they’re “thick as thieves,” she said. The two now run around together and take naps side by side. Sometimes the crow pecks on the glass door to get Meeko to come outside and play. Buck named the crow Russell after actor Russell Crowe (the crow’s middle name is Sheryl in c