Thursday » July 13 » 2006
Weather-predicting Wiarton Willie dead at age 8
Colin Perkel
Canadian Press
Tuesday, adipex doctor online 11, 2006
Wiarton Willie peers out of his cage as he adipex doctor online his winter weather forecast in Wiarton, Ont., Feb. 2, 2006. (CPimages/Adrian Wyld)
A career that began in a burrow of controversy ended quietly Tuesday when Wiarton Willie, one of Canada's best known weather forecasters, passed away at the ripe old age of about eight years.
The albino groundhog, who had been ill for more than a month, died from a stubborn infection after his vet took him off life support, his handler Holly Morrow said from the southwestern Ontario town of Wiarton.
"Age was not on our side,'' said Morrow, who fed and cared for Willie and estimated his age to be around eight.
"He had a good life.''
Morrow, who runs the information centre for the town -- located about three hours northwest of Toronto -- said she knew something was amiss when the Ottawa-born groundhog emerged from hibernation in about mid-April.
Some might say the signs were there earlier.
Willie was spectacularly wrong with the last prediction of his life, when he called for an early spring this year in the annual Ground Hog Day ritual.
Word of his death spread quickly.
"His home Adipex buy card master, has been a hive of activities since they announced his passing,'' said Carl Noble, the mayor of South Bruce Peninsula which encompasses Wiarton, who called Willie an "icon'' with a proven track record of 85 per cent accuracy.
Noble disputed that Willie had made "such a bad prediction'' in February.
"We had excellent weather up here,'' the mayor said from his home in Mar, Ont.
"It was just the people in the south that had the bad weather, and they were listening to (Willie's Pennsylvania) rival Punxsutawney Phil.''
The death of Willie's predecessor in 1999 was blighted by attempted monkey business.
Discovered dead in his burrow just days before that year's Ground Hog festivities, his handlers adipex doctor online with his untimely demise by holding a funeral.
However, the casket-bound rodent presented to stunned onlookers and teary children -- and later seen in front-page newspaper pictures and on television around the world -- was actually a stuffed impostor who had died some years earlier.
The ensuing scandal became known as Williegate.
It was an international black eye for the town on the scenic Bruce Peninsula where thousands of tourists -- many from abroad -- wait in frosty excitement for the pink-eyed woodchuck to predict when spring will arrive depending on whether he sees his shadow.
Unlike the panicked decision to hold an impromptu funeral in 1999, this little Willie will be laid to rest with more dignity.
He is to be Adipex buy card master - cremated, his ashes buried at a memorial service on Monday in a shrine created next to the much larger-than-life stone sculpture of Willie in the Bluewater park.
Willie's death took his counterpart in Nova Scotia, Shubenacadie Sam, by surprise, said Tracy Miller, an attendant at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park near Halifax.
"What a shame,'' said Miller.
Sam is in good health, adipex buy card master unlike Willie, was right in his prediction this year, Miller noted.
She also suggested a replacement might come from the Nova Scotia park.
Replacing Willie won't be easy, however, given that albino groundhogs don't exactly grow on trees.
"Calls have been made, traps have been set,'' said Morrow.
What's certain, said Mayor Noble, is that there'll be no monkeying Adipex buy card master : around this time.
"We Cheap adipex online : have been accused of taking a brown groundhog and using peroxide to make him white, but that's not true,'' he said.
David Phillips, a senior meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Willie "superstition'' performs a valuable function in getting people's minds off the "cruel'' depths of winter and providing hope that spring is around the corner.
However, when it comes to accuracy, coin-flipping comes about as close, Cheap adipex online : said Phillips, who called prognosticating rodents "groundhogwash.''
"It's a tough thing to forecast what the rest of the winter is going to be like,'' he said.
"(But) I wouldn't say that our supercomputers get it too much better,'' the meteorologist conceded.
© Canadian Press 2006
Weather-predicting Wiarton Willie dead at age 8
Colin Perkel
Canadian Press
Tuesday, adipex doctor online 11, 2006
Wiarton Willie peers out of his cage as he adipex doctor online his winter weather forecast in Wiarton, Ont., Feb. 2, 2006. (CPimages/Adrian Wyld)
A career that began in a burrow of controversy ended quietly Tuesday when Wiarton Willie, one of Canada's best known weather forecasters, passed away at the ripe old age of about eight years.
The albino groundhog, who had been ill for more than a month, died from a stubborn infection after his vet took him off life support, his handler Holly Morrow said from the southwestern Ontario town of Wiarton.
"Age was not on our side,'' said Morrow, who fed and cared for Willie and estimated his age to be around eight.
"He had a good life.''
Morrow, who runs the information centre for the town -- located about three hours northwest of Toronto -- said she knew something was amiss when the Ottawa-born groundhog emerged from hibernation in about mid-April.
Some might say the signs were there earlier.
Willie was spectacularly wrong with the last prediction of his life, when he called for an early spring this year in the annual Ground Hog Day ritual.
Word of his death spread quickly.
"His home Adipex buy card master, has been a hive of activities since they announced his passing,'' said Carl Noble, the mayor of South Bruce Peninsula which encompasses Wiarton, who called Willie an "icon'' with a proven track record of 85 per cent accuracy.
Noble disputed that Willie had made "such a bad prediction'' in February.
"We had excellent weather up here,'' the mayor said from his home in Mar, Ont.
"It was just the people in the south that had the bad weather, and they were listening to (Willie's Pennsylvania) rival Punxsutawney Phil.''
The death of Willie's predecessor in 1999 was blighted by attempted monkey business.
Discovered dead in his burrow just days before that year's Ground Hog festivities, his handlers adipex doctor online with his untimely demise by holding a funeral.
However, the casket-bound rodent presented to stunned onlookers and teary children -- and later seen in front-page newspaper pictures and on television around the world -- was actually a stuffed impostor who had died some years earlier.
The ensuing scandal became known as Williegate.
It was an international black eye for the town on the scenic Bruce Peninsula where thousands of tourists -- many from abroad -- wait in frosty excitement for the pink-eyed woodchuck to predict when spring will arrive depending on whether he sees his shadow.
Unlike the panicked decision to hold an impromptu funeral in 1999, this little Willie will be laid to rest with more dignity.
He is to be Adipex buy card master - cremated, his ashes buried at a memorial service on Monday in a shrine created next to the much larger-than-life stone sculpture of Willie in the Bluewater park.
Willie's death took his counterpart in Nova Scotia, Shubenacadie Sam, by surprise, said Tracy Miller, an attendant at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park near Halifax.
"What a shame,'' said Miller.
Sam is in good health, adipex buy card master unlike Willie, was right in his prediction this year, Miller noted.
She also suggested a replacement might come from the Nova Scotia park.
Replacing Willie won't be easy, however, given that albino groundhogs don't exactly grow on trees.
"Calls have been made, traps have been set,'' said Morrow.
What's certain, said Mayor Noble, is that there'll be no monkeying Adipex buy card master : around this time.
"We Cheap adipex online : have been accused of taking a brown groundhog and using peroxide to make him white, but that's not true,'' he said.
David Phillips, a senior meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Willie "superstition'' performs a valuable function in getting people's minds off the "cruel'' depths of winter and providing hope that spring is around the corner.
However, when it comes to accuracy, coin-flipping comes about as close, Cheap adipex online : said Phillips, who called prognosticating rodents "groundhogwash.''
"It's a tough thing to forecast what the rest of the winter is going to be like,'' he said.
"(But) I wouldn't say that our supercomputers get it too much better,'' the meteorologist conceded.
© Canadian Press 2006
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