Two years ago, a mother mallard duck built her nest in a flower pot on Division St. in front of the Storlie Building. The march to the Cannon River after hatching (left photo) enthralled downtowners. I told the story here. (That blog post has historical significance, too, the famous ‘fluff’ post that led to… well, that’s another story.)
This year, another mother mallard (center and right photos) has her nest under the picnic table at the James Gang Coffeehouse and Eatery on S. Hwy 3. Alert me via a phone call or Twitter if you see the brood on the move.
This is nonsense! From now on, I’ll be getting my news elsewhere.
Kidding, of course… stick it to the man Griff!
[…] Square beaver joins legacy of fluff By Griff Wigley It wasn’t quite up there with the mother mallard and brood crossing Division in the annals of blog fluff but a beaver made its way through the intersection at 4th and Division […]
Griff, I know how important it is for you to be on the bleeding edge of trivial animal related investigative journalism, so it is with sadness that I have to reveal to you that you’ve been scooped. (note to John George: feel free to comment with a “pooper scooped” related remark.)
Both the Northfield News and Patch had stories about this “Not-So-Incredible Journey” (heh). Here’s the synopsis. Two dogs from Dundas ambled a mile from one place in Dundas to– you guessed it–another place in Dundas. Perhaps you are wondering if the owner was sick with worry during this ordeal Not-to-worry, the owner wasn’t aware of it until it was over. That is the story. Yes, that is the whole story. Another “pullet-zer” prize contender?
http://northfieldnews.com/content/dundas-dogs-run-pet-food-outlet
Sonsabitches! (That’s a pun that John George is not likely to use.)
Curt, I don’t see the Patch story but I notice you posted a comment on the Nfld News article:
Griff, here’s the Patch Story. (sorry, Corey)
http://northfield.patch.com/announcements/two-dogs-escape-home-go-to-chuck-and-dons-pet-food-outlet
(And in another tipping of the cap to John George, I will note that even good journalists bark up the wrong tree occasionally.)
I can’t speak for the paper (clearly), but I ran it as an announcement because the folks from Chuck and Don’s (corporate, not Dundas) emailed it to me. I do the same when I get emails from the schools, churches and other groups. It is what it is and it is. It’s a cute, light piece of user-generated content that clearly people got a kick out of—the two-paragraph post has 35 Facebook recommendations.
Patch isn’t the official paper of record; we’re here to bring a little bit of everything to reflect what the community is interested in and, at times, that includes pointing folks to other good sources of information in this city, like the News, Locally Grown, Northfield.org, etc. We’re OK with going “soft” from time-to-time.
After all, if we can’t poke fun at each other once in awhile, what do we have?
Griff, that reminds me, have you seen any mallards yet this March? 🙂
You can cut the local media a break now, right? 😉
KSTP story.
Oh fer cute!
I can’t imagine sending a reporter and TV truck all the way from the Twin Cities for that story but then again, that’s why I don’t watch the 10 pm news.
Corey, this is the “most read” story on KSTP. “Now they have a story to tell their grandpuppies”. Wow.
I was SOOOOOO hoping to see video of that dog…..
I happen to have enjoyed the story of Gracie and Coco both on Patch and on KSTP. Even though these dogs were found only a mile from home, who knows how far they actually traveled?. They also had to cross a very busy highway as well to end up where they did. As someone who spends every day at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society seeing animals who have been lost and never reunited with their owners it is wonderful to see a happy ending to this story as it could have turned out much different and unfortunately most of these stories do. And as an added bonus Gracie and Coco each put a donation (via their owner) into the donation bank for Prairie’s Edge Humane Society while they were at Chuck & Don’s. Thank you Gracie and Coco, the homeless animals appreciate your donation and I enjoyed your “fluff” story!
As someone who works in the field of animal welfare and rescue, I found the story of the journey to Chuck and Don’s very heartwarming. I would hope that if my own dogs got away from me they would get to a place where people care about animals. I have a bumper sticker on my car from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary which reads : ” Kindness to Animals Builds a Better World for all of us”. Not to overthink this, but I see too many animal stories without a happy ending and too many news stories that leave me feeling sad. And, of course, the owners of Coco and Gracie donated to Prairies Edge Humane Society in our collection jar at Chuck and Don’s, so we appreciate the support of everyone in our community, animal lovers and otherwise, who recognize the value of animals and support our work on their behalf. Kathy Jasnoch, Dog lover and Director of Prairies Edge Humane Society.
Sandy and Kathy, I seem to be in a minority as to whether the brief lostness of these dogs is newsworthy.
My wife was listening to “Coast to Coast” with Ian Punnett on her way home from work last night. Punnett is a twin cities radio show host who does the weekend shift on the nationally syndicated “Coast to Coast” show. That show most typically deals in news such as chupacabra and big foot sightings. Ian talked about the wayfaring dogs, saying that he is friends of the guys who did the piece for KSTP. So these dogs have gone nationwide! (Also, 300+ likes on KSTP’s facebook.)
Anyway, a tip of the cap to the person at Chuck and Don’s who parlayed this into big publicity.
Curt & Griff- Sorry, but I am going to have to duck the urge to pun on this subject. Just don’t want to stick out my neck. And, yes, Griff, I won’t use your pun!