The comedy4cast Network. Let's dog-ear that for now.
It's time once again for the Dog Days of Podcasting, a call for podcasters to
try to put out a podcast every day in August.
For more information, go to dogdaysofpodcasting.com.
We always take this month to provide you with some interesting,
yet totally useless, odd news.
And this year, to celebrate the Platinum Anniversary of comedy4cast,
or PAC for short, we'll end each Dog Day episode with part of a classic comedy4cast episode.
So, let's get started with Odd News, PAC!
Today we're off to a remote location, Kangaroo Island in Southern Australia.
This is the spot where, in November of 2023, Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock
were on a camping trip when they discovered that their pet dog Valerie had run away from the campsite.
Valerie had been microchipped, and she was wearing an Apple AirTag on her collar.
Unfortunately, the AirTag needs Apple Bluetooth devices nearby to assist with tracking.
And Kangaroo Island is very sparsely populated, largely used for farming and
livestock. And we must point out, it is also home to numerous predators,
including snakes and eagles.
There are also kangaroos, but since it's called Kangaroo Island,
that seemed to be pretty much a given.
After days of searching, aided by members of the community, Gardner and Fishlock
had to return home to mainland Australia. without Valerie.
It was one of the hardest decisions Georgia and Josh had ever had to make.
They left behind some of their clothes and some of Valerie's toys near the spot where she ran off.
Days of waiting turned into weeks, and then months, and hope began to turn into
acceptance of the inevitable.
Okay, this is odd news, not sad news. Let's turn this one around.
In February of 2025, more than a year after Valerie had gone missing,
a farmer on Kangaroo Island snapped a picture of a dog running through the fields.
Yeah, it's an odd hobby, but to each their own. The photo eventually made it
to the Kangala Wildlife Rescue.
Although the team at Kangala Wildlife generally focus on wildlife,
not pets, they had been in touch with Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock since
Valerie had gone missing.
And they shared the photo. It was indeed Valerie. Hooray!
After 529 days in the wild, Valerie was still alive. Oh, and we left out one tiny detail.
Valerie is a 10-pound miniature dachshund.
You know, a wiener dog. Now came the issue of trying to catch Valerie.
Lisa Karen, who runs Kangala Wildlife Rescue with her husband Jared,
said it was no small feat, not realizing the obvious joke value of that statement.
They figured it would only take a few days to catch the dachshund.
They put out some standard latch door traps and proceeded to catch bushtail
possums, feral cats, wallabies, pretty much everything except Valerie.
Eventually, they rigged up a big pen with a roof, several wildlife cameras,
and a remote-controlled door, setting it in the spot where the dog had last been seen.
They replenished the enclosure daily with food, like roast chicken,
and filled it with Valerie's toys and clothes that carried the scent of her owners.
After a few failed attempts, where the miniature dachshund grabbed the food
and ran — ooh, how embarrassing to be slower than a wiener dog.
The team was finally able to close the remote control door with Valerie inside.
Valerie was whisked off to the vet and got a bill. I mean, a clean bill of health.
She'd even gained some weight. All muscle, apparently.
Georgia Gardner said that Valerie is now a bit more independent.
She's still quite attached to her owners, but she's stronger and more on her own.
I'll bet. I'm guessing Valerie is a lot different now. For instance,
she's probably working the whole guilt trip angle.
Oh, you want me to learn how to sit up and beg? Sure, no problem.
Why wouldn't I want to do that for you? After all, you only left me alone on Kangaroo Island.
And now, let's celebrate 20 years of comedy forecast with this classic clip.
I thought this clip would be very appropriate to use, given the subject of that
odd news story. This episode was released on May 1st, 2008.
It started an experiment that lives on even today. And it's one you can participate
in. Let's go to me so I can explain.
I have a mission for those of you who deal with corporate-speak business meetings.
You know the kind of meeting I'm talking about.
It's the kind of meeting where they use phrases like forward thinking,
best practices, and takeaways.
It's the kind of meeting where someone says they will reach out to their direct
reports and repurpose their resources.
Okay, well, I've often wondered where those phrases come from,
and I've decided to try and start my own.
I want to introduce the phrase dog ear into the lexicon of silly business speak.
Let me give you the phrase in context. But first, if you're not familiar with
the phrase, dog ear usually means that you fold down the corner of a page.
It's a way of making a bookmark to hold your place.
Now, let's use the phrase in our new way.
You're in a business meeting and the topic starts to drift off.
You want to put that topic aside and get back to the main topic.
So you say, can we just dog ear that topic for now?
Don't explain the phrase. No, no, just use it. If it's good business speak,
people will sort of get the context and go with it.
Or better yet, they'll pretend they understand it and start using it.
See, my ultimate goal is I want to be in an airport or something like that on
the other side of the country and hear someone use that phrase.
Maybe they're talking on the cell phone or something. I don't know.
But I want to see if this thing spreads.
Now, kids, don't use this in school, all right? Business speak is a horrible
thing and you're best off leaving it to the adults.
It's okay to occasionally point and laugh when someone says synergistic monetization.
Just don't make a habit of it.
That about wraps it up for today's Odd News Pack. But first,
a shout-out to the comedy4cast Patreon patrons,
including our producer-level patron, Paul Barrie, from the A Window to the Magic
podcast at windowtothemagic.com.
You too can support comedy4castand
get episodes before everyone else for as little as $2 a month.
Just search for comedy4cast, all one word with the number 4, on patreon.com.
Script, voices, and original music by me, Clinton Alvord Copyright 2025,
all rights reserved Talk to you again next time But for now,
that's it We're done, done, done, done, done Bye-bye.
Music.