Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, takes his hiking advice from Phyllis who has hiked in every national park in the continental US and has a hiking stick covered with park medals to prove it. She has also hiked portions of Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail, as has the keeper, who …
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Category:Wisconsin
Kickass and the Wolf River
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, listens to the keeper’s message that in these days of calamitous and contrary events some really good things still happen. One of those good things was last week’s meeting of the DNR board at which the generosity and environmental conscience of the citizenry was …
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Downriver
Attribution: Photo by Jonas Jaeken on Unsplash By Geoff Carter When I was about twelve years old, I used to walk home from school past a savings and loan that had a deposit envelope dispensary mounted outside its front door. It was supposed to be used for after-hours deposits. All you had to do was pull out the …
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Kickass and the Family at the River
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stayed on door duty as the keeper and Phyllis joined some of the keeper’s crew to send Rick and Becky from their riverside summer digs back to Colorado and their prairie dog battle. An afternoon rain shower briefly threatened to join the festivities but …
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Life Cycles
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “Dedicated to the memory of Alex Pretti” Every year during the last week of July, the Milwaukee Riverwest neighborhood, an eclectic enclave of artists, musicians, families, and working folks, hosts the Riverwest 24, a twenty-four-hour bicycle race that runs along the neighborhood streets. According to the Riverwest 24 website, the …
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Kickass and Big Animal Vets
Attribution: USDAgov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, rarely needs to see a veterinarian but is interested in the keeper’s news that the UW Vet School is working on a program to ease the looming big-animal veterinarian shortage across the rural environs. With the inflated economics of the vet school …
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Kickass and Grandma’s Sewing Maching
Attribution: Panjigally, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper’s family as it struggles with the problem of what to do with grandma’s old sewing machine. The dilemma is as common as weeds, and has generated multiple businesses to help with recycling “junk.” There are, of course, …
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Kickass and Laila’s Bobcat
Attribution: Photo by Omar Ramadan on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis were invited by Bonnie and Ed to visit with one of their granddaughters–Laila, who had expressed an interest in writing. Ever willing to talk about himself, the keeper told his story of how Ed Gein, the Plainfield grave-robbing …
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Kickass Runs for Dogcatcher
Attribution: Morning Oregonian, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, napped as the keeper and Phyllis listened to the televised debate among the five candidates competing to represent the Democrats in the coming gubernatorial election. As he napped, Kickass dreamed that he was a candidate for dog catcher and was …
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Kickass and Surviving the Tornado
Attribution: Quincy Gordon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kickass Rock and Roll Music
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, protected the couch as the keeper and Phyllis boarded the Vista West bus as activities director Caitlin drove it to Fort Atkinson for an afternoon show at the Fireside Dinner Theater. The feat of ticketing, feeding, seating and presenting a bang-bang rock and roll …
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Kickass and the Honeymoon Trees
Attribution: usfs_Eastern_Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, accepts the following from the keeper and Phyllis: It is the honeymoon of the trees–these torrid days of early summer. Lush in their new green-leaf finery, the trees sway against each other in a biological passion that dominates all other such …
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