UPDATE: Watch out, Dad! It’s coming your way and boy is it mad!

WILLMAR, Minn. — The cougar that was captured in Willmar earlier this week will be spending the rest of its days at a big cat facility in Tennessee.
Tammy Quist of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Cedar picked up the cat from a veterinary clinic in Willmar just before noon Thursday. She was taking it to Chicago, where a representative from Tiger Haven of Kingston, Tenn., was to pick up the cat for the rest of the journey to its new home.

EARLIER ON UP WITH THE MOOSES: You think you all have problems with strays in your neighborhood? Look at what Animal Control had to “dart” just up the road from us (OK, a couple of hours up the road, but still in Minnesota).

WILLMAR, Minn. (Associated Press) — Police in Willmar say a cougar was captured near Kennedy Elementary School after being seen running through a residential neighborhood.Officers received a 911 call around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday and found the cougar in a tree when they arrived. Before an officer with a tranquilizer gun arrived, the cougar left the tree and ran around the neighborhood.

School officials made sure all the children were inside and locked the doors.

The animal was lying under a large camper trailer and was shot with four doses of tranquilizer, then taken to a local veterinary clinic around 10:30.

Yes, you read that right: The cougar was outside an elementary school. Mmmmmm. Hey, when I’m hungry, I head to the Chinese buffet. That’s just nature in action.

These pictures are by German photographer Berhard Edmaier. Saw them in Readers Digest and thought they were really stunning. He shoots land and water forms — volcanos, glaciers, rivers — from high in the air. You can check out more of his photographs here.

What global warming? We’re wrapping up the warmest January ever recorded in Minnesota. I even went to the store the other day in light sweatshirt (and no socks). We’ve only had to shovel the driveway two or three times this month — and most of the snow that’s fallen has now melted. Laurie says she doesn’t care if she doesn’t see another snowflake until Christmas.

Here’s what Mark Seeley, a climatologist at the University of Minnesota had to say about our unusual weather (read the whole thing here):

This January will undoubtedly be the warmest in the modern National Weather Service (post 1891) record statewide. Most communities are reporting a mean monthly temperature so far that is from 14 to 16 degrees F above normal. On a statewide basis we will end up with a mean monthly temperature around 25 degrees F, over 3 degrees F warmer than the record warm January of 1944 (21.7 F mean). … Most communities around the state reported at least one day with temperatures in the 40s F and many reported days with temperatures in the 50s F (we hit 54 two days ago — Art). Extremes ranged from -22 F at Embarrass on the 21st to 59 degrees F near Winona on the 26th.

Minnesota reported the lowest temperature in the nation’s lower 48
states only twice this month, and further many communities, including the Twin Cities have yet to see a reading below zero F. In fact, should we finish out the month that way, it will be only the third time in Twin Cities climate history without a January below zero F reading (the others in 1846 and 1990.

As America’s poet laureate Jimmy Buffett said, “The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful)….

The clowns from 3M were one of my favorite parts.

The Winter Carnival parade was here! Yesterday, Jan. 29, the Coulson family went to the Saintly City Cat Show in St. Paul, and on the way stopped to see the winter parade! There seemed to be millions, trillions, bazillions of floats, dancing people and clowns! People handing out free stuff in the parade (I got bandades, two necklaces, a dum dum sucker, a pin, a sticker, a hershey kiss, and LOTS of handshakes). The parade was very fun, and surprise surprise, It wasn’t cold out!

Yes, this is a cat. Do you think the owner looks like her pet? I do.
Feel FREE to leave your comments!!!!!

Yesterday I found out that I am going to be in 3 honors classes next year when I go to Eastview High School: Honors Earth Science, Honors English and Honors Citizenship (social studies/government). I didn’t apply for math though. YEAH!! Honors!!
I will also be taking Spanish 2 when I start high school, instead of Spanish 1, like most of my classmates.

I’m in Declam, which is the school speech team. I had a meet on saturday at Hastings middle school and I recited my speech twice. My speech is on Bottlenose dolphins and both times I recited it I got a B. It is so fun and it will look good on my college applications. The only bad part is that I have to get up early on a saturday. I have another meet next saturday and I will post what I got on that meet next sunday.

It’s time to get in those Girl Scout cookie orders. Both Jesse and Katie are selling cookies for their troops. With the money they make for the troops, the girls get to go camping and participate in special activities (including out-of-town trips). Cookies are still a bargain — just $3.50 a box. Email Katie or Jesse to place and order. Get your orders in by Jan. 25!!!!!!!

Varieties available are:

• Samoas: Vanilla cookies covered with caramel, rolled in toasted coconut and striped with a chocolate coating. (Laurie’s favorite).
• Thin mints: You all know what those are — the Girl Scouts’ biggest seller (Katie and Jesse’s favorite).
• Do-Si-Dos: Crisp oatmeal cookies with peanut butter filling.
• All-Abouts: Shortbread cookies with fudge coating on bottom (Art’s favorite).
• Trefoils: Shortbread cookies — great for dunking in tea and coffee.
• Tagalongs: Cookies topped with peanut butter and coated with chocolate. (Zero transfat, alll you health nuts).
• Lemon Coolers: Vanilla-lemon cookies covered in powdered sugar (these are low fat and have zero transfat).
• NEW Cafe Cookies: Cinnamon-brown sugar cookies, perfect for dunking. Jesse says they remind her of Graham crackers.(Jesse likes these as much as she likes Thin Mints).

Our cats Fluffy and Cocoa LOVE our new pets. We have fifteen new additions to our family. In a later entry Jesse will inform you about these new additions. But Fluffy and Cocoa will sit and watch our fish-o-vision with their tails a’twitchin’. I know all they’re thinking about is if they can reach their paws in the tank without me seeing.

I left the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Friday. I’m looking for a new job in the Twin Cities and hope to have news on that front fairly soon. Here is a link to my last column in the Pioneer Press. Read it fast — who knows how long the link will be good…

What a cutie. Here’s a picture of my 1-year-old nephew, Kenneth Arthur, shot this Christmas down in Titusville, Fla. Holding my newest nephew is Papa Coulson, standing next to proud Grandma Ellen, visiting from Tennessee.

My brother Jim called the other day and Kenny kept jabbering in the background. But try as they might, they couldn’t get him to say anything except “Papa. Papa. Papa.” Wonder who taught him that….