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S TA N L E Y • FA I R F I E L D • S H O S H O N E • P I C A B O
Habitat For Non-Humanity PAGE 9
The Confluence of Viniculture with Extreme Sports
Firefighter Returns to Valley PAGE 10
Lions Club to Treat Youngsters to Fun
READ ABOUT IT ON PAGE 5
PAGE 14
F e b r u a r y 1 9 , 2 0 1 4 • V o l . 7 • N o . 9 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Got Apples? Meet Mocha
KAITLYN STRIKES Gold!
STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
G
ot carrots? Got apples? There’s a resident guinea pig at the Barkin’ Basement in Hailey that will greet you with open mouth. Mocha, a little guy who took up residence at the thrift store about a week ago, was a recluse until store clerks and shoppers started feeding her apples. Turns out Mocha loves apples. The sugar spike from the apples apparently turns on an extrovert gene because now Mocha is an outgoing store mascot who loves to greet shoppers— when she’s not busy gnawing on a carrot in the cardboard box store managers outfitted her with, that is. “I think she’s even having an effect on sales,” said shopper Rae DeVito. Mocha was surrendered by a family that could no longer care for her, said Rachel Sanker, who works at the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley. The family had her for about two years. Animal Shelter employees took her to the Barkin’ Basement because they thought it would be a less stressful environment than a shelter full of barking dogs. Employees also thought Mocha would have a better chance of being adopted, given the additional exposure. Sanker said guinea pigs can make a good first pet for families. And Mocha seems like a good bet, she said. “Guinea pigs are pretty low maintenance. They need their cages cleaned. Otherwise, they eat vegetables and fruit—guinea pig food, if you prefer,” she said. “Mocha likes playing with plastic dolls. She enjoys being petted. And she’s okay with children and small dogs that don’t bark a lot.” Mocha’s innate elite class and grace are exemplified by a personal display of affection that will melt your heart, noted Jeff Browne, a clerk at the Barkin’ Basement. She’s not shy to strangers and is very psychic to human emotions. An apple slice means that a sacred privilege has been bestowed and is succumbed in the same manner. “She’ll call to you when you walk by—eeeek, eeeek, eeeek— like, ‘Can I have a carrot?’ ” said store manager Andrea Parker. Mocha is a hit with shoppers like Erica Hughes and her young’un, Sweet Pea. “We were thinking of getting a bunny for Easter, but maybe we’ll get a guinea pig instead because Mocha needs a home,” said Hughes. tws
Photo: Ned Cremin www.nedcremin.com
BY KAREN BOSSICK
K
aitlyn Farrington let her snowboard do the talking for her in the Caucasus Mountains outside Sochi as she spun, flipped and shredded her way to an Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe. Now, the Bellevue cowgirl is doing some Olympic-sized talking as she makes the media rounds. She’s already appeared on “The Today Show.” And she will appear on “Late Night with David Letterman” on Thursday and “Live with Kelly and Michael” on Friday. Then it’s off to Los Angeles for a few more rounds and, possibly, dinner with the U.S. Olympic Committee. What she’s really looking forward to is coming home to Sun Valley. “I just want to say ‘Thank you’ to everyone for everything—all the support the valley has shown. And I’m so excited to come home and show everyone my medal,” she said Sunday evening while getting ready for her media
Kaitlyn Farrington said she had a great experience at the Olympics despite the media’s focus on warm snow conditions, unfinished accommodations and terrorism. “I had no worries about any of that.” Axel Hahn sits next to one of the snowboard boots that supporters are stashing money in at The Wine Company.
tour in New York. Farrington said she was just happy to make the U.S. Olympic team after winning the final U.S. Grand Prix Series at Mammoth Mountain a month earlier: “I never thought I would walk away with an Olympic medal.” And her first couple runs the morning of her gold medal didn’t foreshadow what was to come. She had to go through all the rounds, while her teammates got to sit out a round. But, even though that made for a long day, Farrington said it may have been the best thing for her. “The snow was so warm we were calling the halfpipe ‘a mogul field,’ ” she said, referring to a pipe that resembled a bowl of mashed potatoes in the heat of the warm Sochi sun. “But then it started to firm up
CONTINUED, PAGE 18
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