A dramatic photo of Scrim taken on Thanksgiving morning in the Coliseum Square neightborhood
Before he became a Crescent City canine icon, Scrim was a shy, shaking stray from Houma, Louisiana, captured and placed in the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter, where he was named Michael.
Local icon Scrim appears before the New Orleans City Council.
Michelle Cheramie, director of Zeus’ Rescues, left, walks with Scrim at the Metairie Small Animal Hospital in Metairie on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Scrim is seen at the Metairie Small Animal Hospital in Metairie on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
In the more than three months since he escaped from his Mid-City home, Scrim has become a tongue-in-cheek outlaw celebrity
A dramatic photo of Scrim taken on Thanksgiving morning in the Coliseum Square neightborhood
Michelle Cheramie, director of Zeus’ Rescues, left, walks with Scrim at the Metairie Small Animal Hospital in Metairie on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Scrim is seen at the Metairie Small Animal Hospital in Metairie on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
Scrim is the canine king of the New Orleans streets. Now the famous fugitive dog has extended his range all the way to Wall Street – to the eminent Wall Street Journal newspaper, that is.
In a lengthy feature titled “A Runaway Dog Has Captured a City,” the Journal’s Rachel Wolfe tracks the history of Scrim including his escapes, evasions and ongoing vagabond life. Wolfe poetically concludes that the runaway is “a symbol of resistance and of humanity’s insistence on caging what refuses to be contained.”
The WSJ uncovered simmering disgruntlement in some quarters. Scrim, the reporter wrote, is “a source of growing frustration in a city that averages about a year to fill a pothole and often struggles to care for its human residents.”
Local icon Scrim appears before the New Orleans City Council.
New Orleans newspaper readers may find little new information in the WSJ coverage, though the business-oriented paper does reveal that Michelle Cheramie – owner of Zeus’ Rescues dog adoption agency – estimates that she’s spent $10,000 attempting to capture the recalcitrant cur.
Reached by phone on Sunday, Cheramie said she was aware that the Wall Street Journal story had appeared online, but she had not thoroughly read it yet. She confirmed that she’s spent approximately ten grand in her ongoing attempt to capture the wily dog.
About half of that money came from donations to Zeus’ Rescues, she said, though the rest has come out of her pocket. But, she said, equipment she bought to find and secure Scrim is now being used to help other lost pets.
The tranquilizer dart gun, motion-activated cameras, and other items she purchased to catch Scrim are now part of her “capture arsenal,” Cheramie said.
Before he became a Crescent City canine icon, Scrim was a shy, shaking stray from Houma, Louisiana, captured and placed in the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter, where he was named Michael.
Cheramie said she earns an income from her pet grooming, boarding and daycare business, Zeus’ Place. She derives no income from Zeus’ Rescues. Cheramie allows that the interest in Scrim may have boosted the Zeus’ brand, but she said there’s been no large spike in business.
Asked how it felt to find her epic quest to return Scrim to domesticity featured in one of the nation’s most noted newspapers, Cheramie answered somewhat vaguely. “You know,” she said, “it’s interesting. For what I’m doing to be reported nationally is interesting.”
Scrim’s appeal, she said, may have something to do with his endearingly scruffy appearance, “with his white, wiry hair.” Plus, despite his evasive ways, he has a certain familiarity, since so many people have laid eyes on him in person. And there’s name recognition.
But beneath it all may be the fleeing dog as metaphor. “Is it that we all feel we’re a little like Scrim, running from or to something?” Cheramie mused.
Scrim may be a celebrity. But Cheramie said he’s also just a lost pet, like the many lost pets, she’s dealt with over the years. “This is what I do,” she said of her devotion to dogs and cats, “my job, my living, my calling.”
Video courtesy of Michelle Cheramie
Full story: https://www.nola.com/news/scrim-mid-citys-runaway-dog-escapes/article_4ef52bc0-a430-11ef-aa09-0fee607d4048.html
For those readers new to the Scrim saga, here are the highs and lows.
Scrim was a terribly shy stray, found in a Houma trailer park on Halloween 2023. Cheramie retrieved the dog from the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter, aiming to return him to petdom. After acclimation, Scrim was adopted, but immediately escaped. The dog evaded capture for almost six months, dodging cages, netting and tranquilizer darts, as he became a local sensation.
Finally, one week before Halloween 2024, Scrim was trapped in a fenced parking lot, where Cheramie darted him. The dog was delivered to a pet hospital to recover from his ordeals, then taken home by caregivers.
But the chase was far from over. Three weeks later, on Nov. 15, the undaunted dog performed his most daring escape, diving 13 feet from a second-story window of Cheramie’s Uptown home and continuing his urban travels.
In the more than three months since he escaped from his Mid-City home, Scrim has become a tongue-in-cheek outlaw celebrity
Cheramie asks concerned citizens not to chase the dog, for fear of forcing him into traffic. Instead, she asks anyone who sees Scrim to text her at (504) 231-7865 with his location and direction of travel.
Cheramie turns these coordinates over to local writer and Scrim recovery team member David Brown, who logs them onto a regularly updated Google map.
Bria Renee Broussard routinely sets out food for the stray cats in her Carrollton neighborhood, but she said never expected to lure a celebrity of Scrim’s stature.
Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate.com. Follow him on Instagram at dougmaccash, on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash.
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