Attribution: Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in drawing useful lessons from the love-sick Wisconsin elk that left its comfortable Black River Forest home, stopped briefly in McFarland and then crossed over into Illinois only to be struck and killed by a semi-truck west of Chicago.
While the keeper is familiar with the route—having traveled it hundreds of times while on the Chicago Trib staff, he does not identify with the elk’s motivation: If you are looking for love, you do not go to Illinois, you stay in Wisconsin where love abounds.
Leaving Wisconsin and going to Illinois in a quest for love is akin to crossing the road just to get to the other side and you deserve to be hit by a truck.
Rest in peace, Wisconsin elk #357. If you had stayed with us we might have gotten you a job with Santa, albeit seasonal, but boundless with Wisconsin love.
Photo by Bill Stokes