COMMUNITY

Hundreds of lost-pet posters appear across town in a single weekAnimal control stops counting. Keep pets inside after dark

Animal control says it has never seen anything like it. Most of the missing pets were last seen near Hollow Creek.The posters are real. So are the tracks along Hollow Creek.

BY DENISE OKAFORBY R. CALLOWAY COMMUNITY EDITORUNEDITED MONDAY, OCT 26, 2026

A wooden telephone pole on a quiet residential corner covered in layers of stapled lost-pet flyers. — Flyers on the corner of Elm and Third.Flyers on Elm and Third. Every one is the same dog. Photo: Staff

In a single week this month, more than three hundred lost-pet posters went up on telephone poles, bulletin boards and shop windows across Bellwether. Bellwether Animal Control says that is more than it usually sees in a year.In a single week this month, more than three hundred lost-pet posters went up on telephone poles across Bellwether. Bellwether Animal Control has stopped counting.

“Cats, dogs, a rabbit, two ferrets,” said animal control officer Carla Nyquist. “Most of them went missing at night, and most of the owners live within a few blocks of Hollow Creek.”“Cats, dogs, a rabbit, two ferrets,” said animal control officer Carla Nyquist. “All of them went missing at night. All of them within a few blocks of Hollow Creek. None of them have come back.”

Nyquist suspects coyotes, which have been seen along the creek this fall, and asks owners to keep pets inside after dark and bring food bowls in at night.Nyquist asks owners to keep pets inside after dark. She has walked the creek bank. The tracks there aren't coyote. They go into the water and they don't come out.

A FAMILIAR FACETHE SAME DOG

Among the new posters, a few are not new. On the pole at Elm and Third, flyers for a beagle named Mr. Biscuit go back years, stapled one over the other. The phone number on all of them is the same.On the pole at Elm and Third, the flyers for Mr. Biscuit go back to 1998. The same photo, the same porch, the same tilt of the head. He has been lost four times. He has never been found, and he has never gotten older.

“Most of the owners live within a few blocks of Hollow Creek.”“They go into the water and they don't come out.”

CARLA NYQUIST, BELLWETHER ANIMAL CONTROL

Animal Control is keeping a list of missing pets at its office in the Township Hall. Anyone who finds an animal is asked to call, not to approach it.Animal Control is keeping a list of missing pets at the Township Hall. If you find an animal near the creek, do not approach it. If it answers to its name, do not let it in.

SEEN AROUND TOWNSAME DOG

Mr. Biscuit, a beagle in a red collar, sitting on a porch, in a photocopied snapshot (OCT 1998) — Flyers for Mr. Biscuit, from the pole at Elm and Third.Four flyers, four years, one photo. He hasn't aged a day. Photo: Staff

Mr. Biscuit, a beagle in a red collar, sitting on a porch, in a photocopied snapshot (MAR 2003) — Flyers for Mr. Biscuit, from the pole at Elm and Third.Four flyers, four years, one photo. He hasn't aged a day. Photo: Staff

Three road workers, one in an orange safety vest, stand behind a striped road-closed barricade on a rural road at dusk. — From left: Ray Dunleavy, Gus Pell, Marv Toivonen and Ted Lusk, Baraga Dr., Tuesday.From left: Ray Dunleavy, Gus Pell, Marv Toivonen. Ted Lusk is standing on the right. Look again.

LOCAL CONSTRUCTION

Road work will close a stretch of Baraga Dr. through NovemberThe crew on Baraga Dr. isn't fixing the road

Public Works director Ray Dunleavy calls it routine. "Nothing down there worth worrying about."No asphalt has been delivered. Neighbors hear drilling after midnight. Dunleavy: "Nothing down there worth worrying about."

An abandoned wooden sawmill with a sagging roof on a misty riverbank surrounded by autumn trees. — The old Pell Sawmill, Hollow Creek.The old Pell Sawmill. Do not walk here after dark.

ENVIRONMENT

Residents near the old sawmill report a sweet smell along the riverSomething blooming at the mill is putting the east side to sleep

Several east-side neighbors say the smell is strongest just before they fall asleep.Residents who walk the river after dark wake up three days later on their porches.

A young woman with feathered hair and headphones smiles at a radio mixing board surrounded by reel-to-reel decks in a wood-paneled booth, 1975. — June Albers at the WBHS board, 1975.June Albers at the WBHS board, 1975. And 2026.

SCHOOLS

WBHS 88.3 celebrates 51 years on the airWBHS has carried a second signal since its first night

The high school station first broadcast on November 10, 1975, and it has not missed a night since. Station manager June Albers has run WBHS from the beginning. "Former students still call in," she said. "Some of them haven't been students in forty years. They still know the frequency." An open house is planned for Saturday in the east wing.Between 2 and 3 a.m., under the oldies, June Albers reads the names. Tune to 88.3 and listen past the static. If you hear your street, stay inside. She has read them every night since November 10, 1975, and she has never once been wrong.

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