Mom discovers "you just have to ask"

 Nico Lavallee is four years old and has a favorite stuffed animal -- a small reindeer named Rudolph. At least he HAD the toy until recently. While the family was on a walk, his younger brother, two-year-old Santiago, tossed Rudolph over the railing above the frozen waters of Ottawa, Canada's Rideau Canal, to see if it could fly. It couldn't, so the family returned to the site more than once to visit the plush toy which landed on the ice near a frozen marker sign. There was  no way they could retrieve it, so Nico's older brother, six-year-old Sebastian, urged his mom to use social media to reach out to neighbors. "I didn't think anyone would care," she said, but she took to Twitter anyway.

She asked if anyone could help retrieve Rudolph, and a mission to rescue him was quickly mounted. Even the National Capital Commission signed on, pledging to put its skateway squad on the lookout. By now the toy was covered with snow, but one crew member spotted it, frozen and a bit soggy. After Rudolph was thawed and groomed, he was reunited with a happy Nico and his grateful family. "You just have to ask," said Nico's mom. "People do care. Assuming that they don't is something that adults do. My kids are growing up knowing that other people have their backs and other people care."