David Backes Saves Puppies. Again. Off-Season Puff Piece Alert!

Apologies for the couple of days of no new content. Something's been up with SB Nation's servers, and I've been a bit slammed at work. Obviously we've all been kind of down with the playoff elimination, so I've dug up not one but two instances of David Backes and his wife, Kelly, being awesome.

In the first one, Backes flew his plane to the Tri-States area (apparently this article doesn't believe in specifying a city - is Keokuk a city? Where? What state?) to take three dogs back to the Five Acres Animal Rescue in St. Charles. One of the dogs, Meaty, looks like he could suit up for the Blues next year. Dog is big.

You will cringe at the part were they talk about how Backes has "extra time." I'll just go ahead and warn you.

I'll also warn you that the photos in this Riverfront Times story may make you cry. Phineas, a three year old labrador, is basically on doggie death row and has been for a year for his third biting incident. His owners dispute the first two, and the third one was apparently so minor that the parents of the child he bit didn't press charges and are even advocating for Salem to not put Phineas down.

The city's come under fire for how they've been holding Phineas until the decision to euthanize him is made final, and Backes wants to fly the dog out to Five Acres to make sure that whatever time he has left is comfortable - or maybe just get him a nice vacation while the city decides to not put him down.