Scrim, New Orleans’ famously fugitive dog, is sure to be a hot topic during this year’s Mardi Gras season. The endlessly pursued pooch has already popped up once.
During the Phunny Phorty Phellows’ annual Twelfth Night streetcar ride marking the start of Carnival, one of the revelers costumed as a NOLA Dog Catcher bent on rounding up the renowned runaway. The imitation dog catcher held an enlarged photo of the terrier mutt, emblazoned with the phrase “Scream for Scrim!”
David Johnson, the Jefferson Parish Library’s director of marketing, confesses that he was the masked dog catcher. Johnson said he hoped to create a comic costume that could be understood at a glance by people watching the streetcar pass by.
He succeeded. “I saw dozens of people shouting ‘Scrim,’” he said.
Scrim, photographed while convalescing in the Metairie Small Animal Hospital, after his temporary capture in Oct. 2024
Johson said he liked “seeing joy on people’s faces,” especially considering the Bourbon Street mass murder that shook the city just five days before.
Johnson said it would have been especially sweet if he’d actually spotted Scrim from the streetcar as it rumbled down St. Charles Avenue. But that was too much to hope for.
“That dog is like a marathon runner,” Johnson said, marveling at Scrim’s recent, tireless trek from Mid-City to Old Metairie to Harahan and back. “We should all be as active as Scrim in the New Year,” he said, laughing.
Despite his dog catcher alter ego, Johnson admires Scrim’s avoidance of capture. “He’s an inspiration for freedom,” Johnson said, “and I only wish him well.”
The 610 Stompers dance as the Knights of Babylon parade on the Uptown route in New Orleans, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
In Mardi Gras terms, Scrim is like the 610 Stompers dance troupe. He is an ordinary dog with extraordinary moves. For almost eight months, Scrim has been pursued by a team of animal-lovers led by Michelle Cheramie, the owner of the Zeus’ Rescues pet adoption organization.
Despite being lured by baited traps, surrounded, and tranquilizer darted, Scrim managed to remain on the loose in New Orleans for six months in 2024 before finally being apprehended. But domesticity wasn’t in the cards. After mere weeks, the never-say-die dog performed a death-defying escape, leaping from a second-story window, dashing through a gap in a fence, and disappearing onto the streets yet again.
Scrim remains at large, an outlaw legend in the minds of his many fans. There may be float and costume makers creating tributes in the rascal’s image.
David Johnson masquerades as a dog catcher seeking to round up Scrim the iconic stray, during the Phunny Phorty Phellows streetcar ride on Jan. 6, 2025.
What if you see Scrim?
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, direction of travel, and time of sighting. Scrim sightings are recorded on a regularly updated digital map.
Source link https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/mardi_gras/scrim-runaway-dog-mardi-gras-2025/article_e1ce03e6-cedc-11ef-a48f-e7151c12cfd0.html
