Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Pets on parade in Faribault August 8, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:34 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Taco the dog, photographed earlier this summer on a Saturday morning at the Faribault Farmers’ Market in Central Park.

PETS AND KIDS equal cuteness, wouldn’t you agree?

Thursday evening the cuteness combination commands several city streets during my community’s Pet Parade—the 76th annual according to information published by the Faribault Parks & Recreation Department.

The kids and their animals will line up in categories like little dogs, big dogs, rabbits, kittens and cats, unusual pets, farm animals, and, at the tail end, horses, of course.

In between, there will be floats and kids in strollers and on bikes, trikes, scooters, skateboards and roller blades. There will be clowns and costumes and perhaps even chaos in this “It’s a Zoo Around Here!” themed event.

I haven’t been to the Pet Parade in many years, mostly because my kids are all grown up and they were the reason I attended.

We never participated in the parade. Our only pets were goldfish. And I probably never told my three they could walk in the parade without a pet. Sometimes parents are smart like that and don’t share details. Just let the kids think that because they don’t own a cat or dog or snake or some other animal, they must simply watch.

I expect I never told them either about the free freeze pops and music in Central Park after the parade. I don’t know if treats are still part of the parade. But the parade still ends in Central Park. This year’s entertainment features zoo animal dances by girls ages 5 – 9 who participated in a Spirit Team summer camp. More cuteness, for sure.

The Pet Parade mural installed on the Central Park band shell.

Central Park is also the site of an artistic tribute to Faribault’s long-running Pet Parade. In May the Mural Society of Faribault installed a Pet Parade mural on the park’s historic band shell, making it the seventh mural the group has placed in Faribault.

Lots of dogs on the left side of the mural…

The artwork definitely possesses that cuteness factor although I wish a few animals besides dogs were featured in the mural.

And what about that date, “since 1939?”

Lots of dogs and that 1939 date on the right side of the mural.

If that date is right, then the 2012 Pet Parade would not be the 76th, but the 73rd annual. Correct? I’m not really all that good at math. And, yes, my kids know that.

FYI: The Pet Parade begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 9, at Ninth Street Northwest and Second Avenue Northwest, proceeds south on Second Avenue, turns west on Fifth Street and ends in Central Park.

© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A Sunday morning with The Hope Feline Patrol July 31, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:58 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Hope Feline Patrol lounges on the porch of Hopefull Treasures.

VISIT HOPE, MINNESOTA, late on a Sunday morning and you might feel like you’re in a ghost town. Except for the cats. The Hope Feline Patrol, I’ve dubbed them.

When my husband and I pulled into this Steele County town because that’s what we sometimes do on Sundays after church—hop in the car and drive to places we haven’t been to before—not a soul was in sight save those two cats.

They lounged on the porch of Hopefull Treasures, aka Wilker’s Antiques, all stretched out as if they had not a care in the world. Until I appeared.

The long-haired orange cat stirred, on alert, jumped off a weathered wooden box and wound around my leg. The tabby stayed put, flicking eyes toward me, then, satisfied that I presented no threat, resumed cat napping.

The orange cat, however, plopped down on the sidewalk in front of the antique store, rolled around for awhile and then assumed a leisurely pose with a watchful eye on the single main route through this town of 120 residents.

The orange cat almost immediately sat up and assessed the situation when I arrived.

The napping tabby left patrol duties primarily to the orange cat.

Hopefull Treasure's orange cat keeps an eye on the single road that runs through Hope.

All the while I kept taking pictures of the cats and the antique store I wished was unlocked. It’s open only from noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays or by chance or appointment. Apparently I wasn’t drawing a chance card on this day.

I knew I’d love poking around inside this place, scrounging for more story and photo treasures, plus antique and collectible treasures.

Every place, every person, every animal, every thing holds a story. And at Hopefull Treasures I’d found my story in The Hope Feline Patrol.

I had to peer into the windows of the closed antique store to check out the treasures.

Vintage postcards and coffee cups I spotted through the front window of Hopefull Treasures.

When I moved on down the street, the orange cat was still lying on the sidewalk in front of Hopefull Treasures.

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Thanks for the Sputnik memories, Mr. President January 27, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:56 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

GROWING UP on a southwestern Minnesota dairy farm back in the 1950s and 60s, in the middle of the Cold War, I didn’t know all that much about the Soviet Union, except to fear “the Russians.”

Then along came Sputnik, the Russian satellite, which made quite an impression on my impressionable young mind.

So when President Barack Obama worked Sputnik into his Tuesday night State of the Union address and stated, “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment,” something niggled in my memory.

That something would be a cat.

Just to make sure I was remembering correctly, I phoned my mom, who quickly assured me that I was right. During my childhood, we had a black-and-brown mixed barn cat called Sputnik.

“I think you kids named it after the Russian satellite,” my mom said.

She was right. My oldest brother and I, enamored with the whole space thing, had named the barn cat with the stump tail (likely sliced off by a mower in the alfalfa field) Sputnik.

I hadn’t thought about that feline in decades, until the President tripped my memory Tuesday evening while referencing Sputnik in his call for American innovation.

Then Wednesday I got caught up even more in the Russian satellite memory when I learned that the President was visiting Manitowoc in eastern Wisconsin. On September 6, 1962, a 20-pound chunk of glowing debris from Sputnik IV plummeted to earth, landing on 8th Street in Manitowoc.

This Wisconsin city celebrates that monumental event every September at Sputnikfest, complete with a Miss Space Debris Pageant, Cosmic Cake Contest, Cosmic Costume Contest, a Sputnik Re-enactment and more.

How space-age cool is that?

The President’s trip to Manitowoc was clearly well-planned and orchestrated to tie in with his Sputnik speech reference. Otherwise why would he have chosen to visit this city of 32,520 southeast of Green Bay? It’s not like he’s a Packers fan, although he received a yellow and green jersey upon his arrival.

This town on the shores of Lake Michigan is also home to several green energy plants, which Obama toured, thus reemphasizing his State of the Union directive to move forward in developing clean energy alternatives.

That all said, thank you, Mr. President, for mentioning Sputnik in your speech. I hadn’t thought about that barn cat in decades.

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Inside a pet portrait studio November 2, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:30 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

GROWING UP IN HOUSTON—that would be Minnesota, not Texas—Julie M Fakler always envied the farm kids with their farm animals.

Today, though, Julie has no reason to feel jealous. She’s surrounded by a menagerie of animals, some real (her cats), most not.

She’s an artist, specializing in pet portraits. A quick peek inside her Faribault studio and gallery during the recent South Central Minnesota October Studio arTour and Sale reveals that Julie especially loves cats and dogs. They comprise the bulk of her acrylics.

 

 

Examples of Julie M Fakler's animal portraits.

 

Occasionally, though, you’ll see a farm animal like a goat, chicken or calf. Some of those she’s painted at the nearby Rice County Fairgrounds, setting up her easel during the fair to recreate those critters.

 

 

Rice County Fair animal portraits painted during the fair.

 

As I sorted through the photos I took of Julie’s artwork, I finally figured out what was niggling at my brain about her paintings of animals against simple backgrounds of primarily primary colors. Her paintings, in my opinion, would fit perfectly into children’s picture books.

I haven’t asked Julie whether she’s ever considered illustrating a children’s book. But she will paint a portrait of your pet, on commission, or hand-stitch a quilt for you (another one of her artistic endeavors).

 

 

Julie painted this neighborhood dog.

 

 

Items tacked onto a bulletin board, left, provide Julie with inspiration for her paintings.

 

 

A jumble of paint tubes in the studio, which is housed in a former upholstery shop behind her Faribault home.

 

 

Paintings propped on the studio floor.

 

 

More animal art.

 

 

Julie and her sister make books, using them to record their world-wide travels via words and art.

 

 

One final nod to Julie's artistic side is represented in this old sink, acquired from a neighbor, and decorated for fall. It's outside her studio/gallery door. She intends to use the sink as a potting station in the spring.

 

For additional information and to view more of Julie’s art, click here to visit her Web site.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Inspired by Dr. Seuss: My sister’s fat cat July 8, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:38 AM
Tags: , , ,

That fat cat sat,

sat in a chair.

Without a care

sat that fat cat

with his kingly air.

© Copyright 2010 by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Kitten rescue June 4, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:48 AM
Tags: , ,

A SHORT TRIP TO THE COUNTRY to shoot photos for a volunteer project turned into an animal rescue earlier this week.

My husband and I never expect this, even though the “Free Cats” sign at the end of our friends’ driveway should have served as a warning.

My friends placed a sign at the end of their long country driveway offering free cats to passing motorists.

“We’d like a cat,” I tell Delores when she opens the door to her house.

“We don’t have any cats left, only kittens,” she answers.

“I’m just kidding,” I say, as I step inside. I have no interest in owning a cat, or a kitten.

Later, after I’ve finishing taking photos for my project, I ask to see the kittens. Delores’ 13-year-old granddaughter Anna, who is staying for the week with her grandparents, leaps from the couch. I follow her outside to a sprawling poleshed where four kittens jostle inside a wire cage.

Not wanting to traumatize the kittens by using the flash on my camera, I shot with natural light. This kitten comes from the older litter of three.

Anna has been caring for the kittens all week, feeding them milk with an eye-dropper.

“What happened to the mother cat?” I ask.

“We gave her away,” Delores answers. Remember that “Free Cats” sign? I’m pretty certain my friend didn’t know about the kittens before she gave away their mother.

Now she has four hungry kittens to feed. Make that five. In the back room of the poleshed we hear another kitten mewing. In a matter of seconds, we determine that the kitten is trapped inside a wagon. And that wagon is topped with mounds of wood, garbage bags filled with aluminum cans and lots more. Rescuing this baby will be no easy feat.

With a flashlight, a mewing Anna and hands ready to grab, the kitten is eventually coaxed to the front of the wagon, snatched and carried to the cage.

One of the kittens rescued from the wagon, where the mother either gave birth or later hid her litter of three.

“How long has it been without milk?” I ask.

“Three or four days,” Delores says. Already this seems a miracle.

Two kittens were coaxed from the back of this wagon to the front. See that narrow opening near the blue tarp? They were grabbed through that opening.

And then we hear another faint mew coming from the trailer. We start all over again, this time adding a garden hoe to our rescue equipment.

“Come on baby,” Anna encourages, then mews, then encourages some more.

Finally, the kitten is close enough for my husband to gently hook with the hoe and guide into Anna’s welcoming hands.

Now six hungry, mewing kittens are crammed into the cage. Based on size, we quickly determine that these babies are from two different litters. Anna separates them, moving the bigger three into a portable kennel.

We say our goodbyes then as Delores and adoptive mom Anna hurry toward the house. They are on a mission to get milk for the hungry stowaways.

The next evening I call Delores. “How are the kittens?” I ask.

“One died,” she says. “The black one.” It is the first of the two we rescued.

“How is Anna doing?” I ask.

“She called her mom,” Delores answers.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 403 other followers