u/syracusedotcom

Lonely seniors in Oswego County, N.Y. are finding new friends through an innovative program that pairs them with lifelike robotic cats and dogs.

Since 2018, the Oswego County Office for the Aging has helped more than 400 seniors adopt animatronic pets that purr, whimper, and respond to touch—without the costs or care demands of real animals.

"These can provide a much-needed distraction," says Elizabeth Weimer, Senior Aging Services Specialist. "The feedback we have gotten is that they really do help with loneliness."

The state-funded program provides the pets free to qualifying seniors living independently. Story link has been gifted to redditors.

Here is a list of many sentimental favorites from the Upstate New York region that are now but a memory: old department stores, beloved restaurants, fun amusement parks and even some classic (and now gone) Upstate New York foods.

What do you miss?

Data centers aren’t new in New York, but what’s coming next could be on a whole different scale.

Across the state, owners of vacant industrial properties are being courted by developers who are looking to build hyperscale data centers fueled by the digital and AI boom.

An old gun factory in the Mohawk Valley. A dormant industrial park in Genesee County. A vacant aluminum plant in the North Country. A former coal plant near Niagara Falls.

More than 30 massive projects are already seeking permission to connect to New York’s electric grid. If they’re all built, they could consume more power than Ireland. As big-money players move in, who will look out for New Yorkers?

Matilda Loomis spent months carrying around two backpacks.

One was for school. The other held the breakthrough treatment meant to keep acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the childhood cancer she'd already beaten, from coming back.

Matilda was diagnosed in November 2023 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is cancer in the bone and blood marrow. It is the most common type of childhood cancer, accounting for a third of diagnoses.

After chemotherapy and spending two months wearing the Blina backpack 24/7 while it pumped medicine into her body, the 11-year-old girl is cancer-free. Matilda rang two bells to mark the end of her treatment, including one in March 2026 during a St. Baldrick's event at the Red Jug Pub in Cortland.

Now, Matilda is looking forward to a normal summer, from playdates and pool parties to sleepovers and having enough hair to braid.

"It’s nice," she said. "Being at home is nice, and sleeping in my own bed and petting my dog."

Story link is gifted to redditors.