Winged in cruelty by some lout with a bow, the Tern Lake trumpeter is now twice rescued, and it looks like she's going from the Alaska SeaLife Center to a rehab farm in Everett, Wash., where she'll winter with other swans.
Marshmallow may not have the celebrity of Maggie the Elephant, the Alaska Zoo's old girl gone to a better life in California, but it's clear Alaskans will want to know what happens to her. Some have raised a reward of $4,000 to help find the person who shot her.
Justice calls for conviction and a sentence that includes the words guano and deep.
Amy Maddow of the SeaLife Center said Marshmallow may never regain full use of the wing. Therapy may be more stress than cure. But you have to hope Marshmallow stretches that wing in the wild again.
Maddow said she got the name Marshmallow because the center is on a run of candy names for its rescue animals and because she is "fluffy and white and sweet."
If she ever finds her mate again, the mate may see another side of Marshmallow.
"Trumpeters are incredibly strong and their wings are their primary means of defense," Maddow said.
Will Marshmallow give him a tender nuzzle, or ring his bell with that reinvigorated wing for leaving her on the lake?
-- Frank Gerjevic
Frank Gerjevic