Scrim the traveling celebrity Dog
A scruffy little fugitive is on the lam again in New Orleans, gaining fame as he outwits a tenacious band of citizens armed with night-vision binoculars, nets and a tranquilizer rifle. Scrim, a 17-pound mutt that’s mostly terrier, has become a folk hero, inspiring tattoos, T-shirts and even a ballad as he eludes capture from the posse of volunteers. Scrim made the evening news as you can see in the video below. And like any anti-hero, Scrim has a backstory: Scrim was rescued from semi-feral life at a trailer park when the woman claiming him would not take care of him. Scrim was adopted by a shelter. That jail could not hold him and Scrim broke loose in April and scurried around the city until he was cornered in October and brought to a new home. Weeks later, he’d had enough. Scrim leaped out of a second-story window. Since then, despite a stream of daily sightings, he’s roamed free. Scrim has became a canine hero for New Orelans. The dog’s fans include Myra and Steve Foster, who wrote “Ode to Scrim” to the tune of Ricky Nelson’s 1961 hit, “I’m a Travelin’ Man.” “I’m a travelin’ dog and I’ve made a lot of stops/All over this town…”
Michelle Cheramie, a 55-year-old former information technology professional lost everything — home, car, possessions — in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She found her calling: Rescuing Pets. “I was like, ‘This is what I should be doing,’” Cheramie said. “I was born to rescue.” Michelle launched Zeus’ Rescues, a nonprofit shelter that now averages 600 cat and dog adoptions a year and offers free pet food to anyone who needs it. She helped Scrim find the home he first escaped from and her window Scrim leaped from in November. She’s resumed her relentless mission since then, posting flyers on telephone poles and logging social media updates on his reported whereabouts. She’s invested thousands of dollars on wildlife cameras, thermal sensors and other gear. Michelle even developed a network of volunteers — the kind of neighbors who are willing to grid-search a city at 3 a.m. Volunteers like writer David W. Brown, who manages a crowd-sourced Google Map of all known Scrim sightings. “Being a member of the community is seeing problems and doing what you can to make life a little better for the people around here and the animals around you,” David said.
“Literally, for months, I’ve done nothing but hunt this dog,” said Tammy Murray, 53. “I feel like Wile E. Coyote on a daily basis with him.” Murray drives the Zeus’ Rescues’ van towards reported Scrim sightings. She also handles a tactical net launcher, Murray switched to a Vespa scooter, for stealth. Scrim’s repeated escapades have prompted near-daily local media coverage and a devoted online following. Cheramie can relate. “We’re all running from something or to something. He’s doing that too,” she said. Cheramie’s team dreams of placing the pooch in a safe and loving environment. “The streets of New Orleans are not the place for a dog to be free,” Cheramie said. “It’s too dangerous.”
Lost dog signs
Two kids are talking to each other. One says, “I’m really worried. My dad works twelve hours a day to give me a nice home and good food. My mom spends the whole day cleaning and cooking for me. I’m worried sick!” The other kid says, “What have you got to worry about? Sounds to me like you’ve got it made!” The first kid says, “What if they try to escape?”
This morning I went to sign my dogs up for welfare. At first the lady said, “Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare.” So I explained to her that my dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English, and have no frigging clue who their Daddy’s are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify. My dogs get their first checks on Friday.
A lawyer’s dog, running around town unleashed, heads for a butcher shop and steals a roast. The butcher goes to the lawyer’s office and asks, “if a dog running unleashed steals a piece of meat from my store, do I have a right to demand payment for the meat from the dog’s owner?” The lawyer answers, “Absolutely.” “Then you owe me $18.50. Your dog was loose and stole a roast from me today.” The lawyer, without a word, writes the butcher a check for $18.50. The butcher, having a feeling of satisfaction, leaves. Three days later, the butcher finds a bill from the lawyer: $100 due for a consultation.
A Lion and a Tiger escaped with a Jaguar from a British zoo.
They were caught 15 miles down the road when the Jaguar broke down.
December 12th Birthdays
1997 – Hallie Stanfield, 1941 – Dione Warwick, 1970 – Regina Hall and Jennifer Connelly
1915 – Frank Sinatra, 1997 – Jack Griffo, 1923 – Bob Barker, 1962 – Mike Golic