ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Fog machine in art installation prompts false fire alarms

PITTSBURGH

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. But fog signals art, as Pittsburgh firefighters are quickly learning.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that firefighters have been called to a downtown public square at least twice — including Thursday morning — by people who reported smoke when they saw machine-generated fog that’s part of a new art installation.

“A Winter Landscape Cradling Bits of Sparkle” by artist Jennifer Wen Ma is a small oasis of mulched trees enveloping a small, boardwalk path.

The fog machine belches every 10 minutes to simulate a cloudy mountaintop.

The Office of Public Art, a public-private agency, says firefighters are being advised and the intensity of the fog bursts may be toned down to lessen the chance of future false alarms.

The installation runs through April 12.

Blind dog rescued after being lost for 2 weeks in the cold

FAIRBANKS, Alaska

A blind dog who wandered away from her Ester, Alaska, home during a cold snap has been reunited with her owner.

The 11-year-old Labrador retriever named Madera ventured away from home Feb. 6, when the temperature dipped to 40 degrees below zero.

Her owner, Ed Davis, said he didn’t expect to find her alive.

“My best hope was to walk those trails and look for a track that might be hers,” he said. “My best hope was to find a frozen dog.”

A man riding a bike accompanied by a bell-wearing dog located Madera in the woods last week, about a half-mile from the Davis’ home, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Madera let out a whine when she heard the dog’s bell.

Davis said his dog lost 14 pounds but was, overall, healthy.

The man who rescued her, Constantine Khrulev, asked for the $100 reward money to go to the Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund.

Davis was so impressed by the gesture that he increased the donation to $250.

Madera is completely blind because of an autoimmune disease.

This isn’t the only tale of a lost, blind dog to end happily in Fairbanks in recent years: A blind 8-year-old dog named Abby walked more than 10 miles in 2012 from her home in the Two River area before she was rescued.

Associated Press