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Huckleberries: Suzy the Elk is alive and well and possibly lonely

All the elk but one on the Coeur d’Alene Wapiti Elk Ranch were sold and moved to L III Ranches in Blanchard. Suzy the Elk was left behind to live out her days on the ranch at Highway 95 and Rockford Bay Road. (Coeur d’Alene Wapiti Elk Ranch/Facebook photo)

Shed no tear for Suzy the Elk.

The erstwhile grand dame of the Coeur d’Alene Wapiti Elk Ranch at U.S. Highway 95 and Rockford Bay Road is in better shape today than she has been in awhile. Owner Chad Ebert tells Huckleberries that 20-year-old Suzy has all the food she needs in an outbuilding on the former elk ranch.

Some concerned citizens have called Chad, wondering if Suzy had been left behind accidentally when he sold the herd to L III Ranches in Blanchard.

Lorna Barrowman, of Rockford Bay, contacted the S-R with her concerns: “My husband refused to believe me when I told him there was one lonely elk just standing there. I think he must have hidden when they came to get them. I feel so sorry for him. He’s trapped and grieving!”

First, Suzy is a girl and not a guy. Secondly, according to owner Ebert, Suzy wasn’t hiding when the herd was sold. He felt Suzy had a better chance to survive our hard winter if she remained behind. Seems the rest of the herd picked on her. Suzy arrived at the Coeur d’Alene Wapiti Elk Ranch, south of Coeur d’Alene, as a calf in 1996, less than a year old.

The owner tells Huckleberries he expects Suzy to live out her golden years at the ranch, too.

Parenting 101

If they gave merit badges for parenting, Jimmy and Julie McAndrew, of Hayden Lake, would have earned one for Vomiting Children in Public Places.

Sweet 3-year-old Griffin provided the challenge at the perfume counter of Nordstrom. Jimmy learned how to use his body as a human shield to protect his wife and Nordstrom employees from most of the “quadruple projectile vomiting episode.” The Mountain West banker and his wife also learned how to retreat with their ailing little one, while uttering profuse apologies.

And the Nordstrom employees deserve merit badges, too – for providing a box of Kleenex, much empathy and soothing “poor little guy”s ere the McAndrews escaped from view.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: “I’m not a Demo or a Pub,/I don’t like Kerry or George Dub./I lean not right nor left, you see./I mainly only lean toward honesty” … from “The Bard of Sherman Avenue: Poetry by Tom Wobker” … Washington poet laureate Tod Marshall of Gonzaga U tells Huckleberries that another 200 of The Bard’s poetry books have rolled off the presses. (Check The Well-Read Moose and Auntie’s for them) … A Coeur d’Alene pedestrian crossing Seventh & Best Monday a.m. was targeted for one-finger salutes from two Road Ragers fuming in a white Audi with Washington plates. And how did your week start? … Maybe KREM 2 weathermeister Tom Sherry empathizes with his viewers after all. After tweeting recently that the airport has 20 more inches of snow this year than last, he added: “Anxiously awaiting the next solstice.” Huckleberries’d settle for spring.

Parting Shot

Huckleberry Friend Trish Gannon, of Clark Fork, wonders why Facebook would bother asking recently if she’s “ready for snow in Sandpoint today.” Responds the owner/janitor of the River Journal: “Given the way they spy on everything I do already, they have to know the answer to that.” Who needs Big Brother when Facebook is only a click away?

You can contact D.F. Oliveria at daveo@spokesman.com, and you can follow him at spokesman.com/blogs/hbo.

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