Cross country: Iola runners earn Pioneer League supremacy. See B1
The Weekender Saturday, October 15, 2016
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Walmart theft leads to car chase By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Russ Baxley, Red Barn veterinarian, fends off an attack by Kane, a canine soldier. Baxley previously treated working dogs as a military veterinarian. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
K-9 still has his bite Program details dog’s service in Afghanistan
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
K
ane: An old dog spry as a spring chicken. The working military dog, retired and the ward by adoption of his former handler, Air Force Sgt. Michael Urquehart, entertained 80-plus responsive
folks at the Bass Community Building Thursday evening. The program was part of the Iola Reads program, focused on “Cracker,” a Vietnam-era version of Kane. Russ Baxley, a Red Barn veterinarian, would have been the butt of the entertainment, were it not for a heavily padded gauntlet. Urquehart dispatched the
German Shepherd during a show-and-tell session with a command that Baxley was “a bad guy.” Kane singlemindedly dashed to Baxley and sank sharp incisors, propelled by vise-like jaws, into what would have been his arm were it not protected. The demonstration graphSee KANE | Page A5
A theft at Walmart precipitated a brief car chase and two arrests Thursday afternoon, Iola Police Chief Jared Warner told the Register. The ruckus started shortly after 4 o’clock, Warner said, when dispatchers received a call of a black car speeding along Miller Road. Around the same time, Officer Mike Aronson was northbound on Kentucky Street and saw the same car headed south of Kentucky at high speed. Aronson began his pursuit as the car left Kentucky and zoomed east on U.S. 54. Meanwhile, Walmart employees reported a theft, with the suspects’ car matching the description of the one being pursued. A BB gun pistol believed stolen from Walmart apparently had been tossed from the car window, and was recovered in the 300 block of North Kentucky Street, Warner said. Officers caught up to the car and convinced the driver See CHASE | Page A4
Farm life far from fowl for Covey family By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
It had been a crisp blue autumn morning when, around 11:30 a.m., a single rain cloud stalled over the farm of Gilbert Covey. Covey stood amid a cluster of small outbuildings. “Starting to sprinkle a little bit,” he said. Drops slowly began to pelt the cement slab where Covey stood; thwick…thwick, one here, one there, mixing with the many spots of fresh blood that already dotted the concrete. Covey opened the door onto one of the nearby sheds. Inside, the floor was covered with straw. The elderly farmer entered. Dozens of white chickens with red combs scrambled in every direction. Covey, bending at the waist, shuffled undecidedly behind first one scurrying bird, then another. “All right,” he said. “Who’s next?” Sam, a young man who helps Covey on the farm, stood just outside the doorway. “Find Charles,” he called. “Who?” said Covey. “Charles.” “Charles?” Covey scooped up the first bird he could grab — whispering, “It’s OK, it’s OK” — before quickly exiting the shed and jerking the door shut behind him. Covey hugged the bird to
his chest and the two men walked around behind the outbuilding, where, beneath a canopy of trees, a single wooden post, about six feet tall, stood upright in the dirt. A large metal funnel was affixed to the beam at about head-height and below it was a white plastic bucket, its interior smeared with a bright layer of blood. The rain stopped just as suddenly as it had begun and the sun came out and poured through the branches. The light cast strange elongated shapes onto Covey’s blue shirt, and as the branches moved in the wind, the shapes swayed, like coral, and gave the appearance, briefly, that he and the bird were underwater. Covey lifted the dingywhite chicken over his head.
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 243
Gilbert Covey, of rural Elsmore, lifts a freshly plucked chicken from his new electric “EZplucker” machine. Until this year, the 68-year-old plucked all his chickens by hand. At left, Sam Noland gives the machine a wash. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY The bird, which had squawked and fluttered desperately just a few minutes prior, now — even as it was turned upside down — emitted only a few muted clucks and then fell si-
lent. Covey pressed the bird’s large tufted body headfirst into the silver funnel. “I have to reach up there and grab their heads, because they can’t go down very far,”
“Money often costs too much.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist 75 Cents
explained Covey, his hand crawling up through the narrow end of the chute. Having found the bird’s See COVEY | Page A6
Hi: 82 Lo: 63 Iola, KS