Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, is trying to help the keeper as he—the keeper, works through the role of older brother as his younger brother Orv and his wife Shirley make the transition from the home farm up in the northwestern part of the state to Madison environs. Orv reports that among the many issues of pulling up deep, long-standing rural roots to lead a transplanted city life is the fact that he has been casually feeding a number of wild bears, and, as Orv put it, “I’m going to miss those bears.”
It being right and just for an older brother to tell a younger brother how to run his life, the keeper advises Orv to try to bring the bears with him to Madison so they can lobby against the absurd only-in-Wisconsin policy of summer training of bear hounds.
Should moving the Barron County bears along with the accouterments of life become impossible for Orv and Shirley, the keeper suggests that Orv can replace his bear feeding with tossing peanuts from the gallery of the Capitol’s legislative chambers, something the keeper equates with visiting Madison’s Vilas Park Zoo.
So, the keeper welcomes his “little” brother; and he and Phyllis look forward to helping Orv and Shirley make the adjustment to life in “Thirty square miles surrounded by reality,” as Madison was once defined by former Gov. Dreyfus.
