How did you land in Cook County?  What journey led you here? 

As newly weds, Bill and I moved to Grand Marais in the summer of 1969 when he was hired by the MN DNR as Wildlife Manager for Cook Co  and part of Lake Co.  I have a degree in Fish an Wildlife Management from the U of M where I met Bill and I helped out as much as I could -I flew beaver routes, helped with bear surveys, gutting moose, deer and bear, drugging and releasing  bear, registering moose hunters, caring for injured raptors and deer fawns, etc. My first love has always been and still is, wildlife.  After 31 years, Bill retired and we moved to NW Montana.

As the former Chair of the Arrowhead Animal Rescue Board, will you tell us how you become involved in this critical work?  What is the current status and needs of the new animal shelter?  If someone wants to donate, how can they do so?

I stepped down from board chair a year ago. Luckily for me, Barbara Backlund  stepped up to take over the chair duties. Believe it or not, even in this low population area with not the same load of pet issues, there's lots to do especially in trying to get a new shelter. I did a little rehoming of pets when I still lived here before the move to Montana but got deeply involved out there because of the dire conditions. In general, AAR doesn't do in a year what I and my rescue partner did in a week, thank heavens, because I'm too old for that level of energy now. Rescue is one of the activities that once you start, you can't stop because you now have a new view of what you never were aware of before. I will probably be doing this until I keel over dead. 

AAR has been at a standstill with the shelter the last few months because of a lot/site problem-it is so wet on this piece of property that right now (or before freeze up) that building equipment sinks into the ground almost 2 feet on the non-parking lot parts of the small area. The parking lot and area under the trailer location have lots of drains (French drains) and is solid and dry. The storm water pond is never empty and there is a possibility that the water table is high due to ledge rock or some other issue holding the water right there. Walking behind the building feels like walking on a floating bog.  The mitigated area that can be built on is small and we can't increase it. It's possible some of the really wet muck can be removed and replaced with coarse rock and class 5  but we need to wait now until spring to see all of our options. This is a City building and lot and AAR will operate it  but the City will have to figure out the lot problem before the trailer can be reassembled and we can convert it to an animal shelter.. I'm hoping we can be open late summer early fall but what has seemed simple  is anything but and this project has been very frustrating. Right now we have 19 cats spread among 5 board members. The past year (2025) has been the busiest since I got involved back in 2018.  We get very few dogs but lots of cats. What AAR has been asked to do seems to be evolving with more requests for rehoming pets and temporary fostering due to sickness, death, hospitalizations and injuries. Once we have a real shelter again, I don't know if it'll go back to how things were before Covid and the razing of the old shelter or not. The old shelter-such as it was-was shut down 5 years ago next month. We've struggled to house everyone in that time.

We are still in need of donations and would appreciate any help we can get. If anyone would like to donate, we have a gofundme link on our FaceBook page and on our brand new website  arrowheadanimalrescue.com. If you're old fashioned like me, you can mail a check to AAR, POBx 1274, Grand Marais, MN 55604. You can also do Paypal under the Arrowhead Animal Rescue name using Family and Friends.

What is your favorite part about life in Cook County?

 Favorite part of living here is the people. People here care about each other, the environment, making things better for the community.  Living in Montana made me appreciate these qualities and not take them for granted because it's not like this everywhere.

Do you have pets of your own? 

Yes, we certainly have pets of our own. When we lived here before 2000, we had birds, fish, snakes, rats, cats, dogs, you name it.  We had just dogs and cats in MT and when we moved back in 2015, we brought 30-that's not a typo-cats and 4 big dogs with us. WE are down to 4 MT cats left plus 7 new cats. Our eldest daughter and her husband have moved in with us and have 3 cats and a snake. We have 2 huskies and a malamute who came since we moved back. I miss having fish but we have a snake hibernaculum at the corner of the house.

What is your favorite season and why?

Favorite season is mid September to mid December followed closely by May before the bugs come out.

My hope for 2026 is.......????

My sincere hope for 2026 to to get the shelter up and running and maybe our lives, at least mine, can get back to a more normal pace. My other favorite activity is making glass beads (lampworking) which needs chunks of time that I don't get anymore.