I’m starting from the back today, just because I felt so sorry for this poor dog.

His name is Buck, and he was obviously not having a good day.

Buck and his owner, Josh, of Cass Lake, came into Animal Care Clinic while Little Kitty and I were waiting for our appointment, which was right after today’s walk.

Pet owners and clinic staff expressed sympathies for the poor dog, who seemed to be taking it pretty well.

"Looks like he kissed him," Josh quipped about the placement of the porcupine quills, which were imbedded both around and inside the dog’s mouth, as well as on his front paws.

My camera batteries were dead, so I whipped out my Nintento DSi, which has a built-in camera. It doesn’t take the greatest pictures, but it did OK in a pinch for this.

Doesn’t your heart just go out to the poor guy?

As for Little Kitty, she was a bit ruffled over having three dogs (besides Buck) playing around near her, but at least she didn’t have to get her belly shaved this time. The last time I took my cats to the vet, she had a fungal infection on her tummy and they took her away and shaved her.

That was last May, and ever since, if she gets the idea that I might be taking her somewhere, she gets this look in her eyes and runs away. So today, I was super casual and gave them some kitty treats in the kitchen before scooping her up.

All she needed was a shot today, so it went pretty well once we got in there. We’ll see how she reacts from now on.

Now, back to walking.

We did a little bit of everything today, as the headline says.

Bethany and I did our regular walking down the sidewalks, some clear, some snowy, some icy, as usual. We ran across our regular friendly black dog.

Then we stopped at City Hall to get our Passports for Fitness, which is a program sponsored by the Bemidji Parks and Recreation and the Acting Living Partnership. It lets you try out a bunch of different physical fitness activities, such as yoga, kick boxing, stretching, rock climbing and a variety of others. We like the idea because, for $30 for the two of us (the passports are $20 each singly), we can try out a lot of different classes and explore what we might like to focus more specifically on. The enthusiastic Samantha Parker is behind this program.

Unfortunately, though, the passports are not available at City Hall. Somehow, even though we have ourselves written about the passport program, we forgot the passports are at the Public Works Facility.

We were done walking by that point, so we went back to my house and took Bethany’s car there. After we drove up, I got out and took a photo of the lonely guy above, who is probably not too often on the list of people who stroll through downtown looking for the pieces in the Bemidji Sculpture Walk.

We bought our passports, then drove over to the Tourist Information Center to buy my ticket to the Taste of Northern Minnesota — at which I consumed far more calories tonight than I burned walking, that’s for sure. (This is one of my favorite events in Bemidji and I have gone every year, usually as a reporter, but this year reporter Anne Williams covered it, so I went with her, and just enjoyed myself while she worked.)

While we were at the Tourist Information Center, I took some photos of the Fireplace of States, which I love. It’s so neat that all these places sent bricks to make this beautiful piece of history.

We also took a look at the guestbook, which we discovered that Anne and her husband, Ben, had signed last weekend.

However, they did not write a comment, so unfortunately, they cannot be part of the Quotes of the Day:

Today, someone from Talhina, Okla., wrote, “Nice people. Lovely town but cold.”

Cold? It was around 20 degrees today. Above zero, even.

Yesterday, another person –- a Bemidjiian, even! –- wrote, on a day in which the high temperature was 27, “Could it get any colder?”

Um, yes. A lot colder.

There were quite a few entries Saturday during the height of the Polar Daze celebration.

Another visitor from a warmer climate (Harrison, Ark.) wrote, simply: “COLD.”

Someone from Bemidji apparently agreed: “COLDNESS.”

But a hardier Bemidji resi-dent had a different perspective: “Warm!”

Another person from Bemidji wrote that Polar Daze rocks, but hockey also drew some love:

From Pequot Lakes: “Hockey is amazing!”

And from McGregor, Minn.:

“Hockey + horses = life.”

I love that one. I assume these are separate passions and that polo ponies aren’t taking to the ice.

Bethany said she didn’t think she had ever had her picture taken with Paul and Babe.

I had to remedy that!

Here is today’s mystery photo:

Yesterday’s puzzler was feathers on Wanda Reise Odegard’s "Niimi," the dancing Indian statue in Library Park.

 We now look ahead to Friday, and hope for the best with the stormy weather that is expected.

Stay safe and warm!

– Laurie