Cat Effects and Floods

By now, many of you know that I'm originally from Duluth, Minnesota, the land of long underwear, goosebumps, and frostbite. At least until recently. If you haven't heard yet, there's been a ridiculous amount of rain in our state over the past few weeks, which has led to some pretty monumental flooding and the very first state of emergency declared in Duluth just this morning.

Despite all the news reports about sinkholes swallowing whole cars and some pretty epic damage, when I saw this picture of my hometown floating around the internet (no pun intended, really), I thought it was a joke. [Photo Credit]

There's an app that's been making the rounds in the blogging world recently called Cat Effects. Basically, you slap a cat (or another animal) in your picture for a laugh. Like so.

But then I found out that the picture in question wasn't the new and improved version of an app. Heck, it wasn't even a joke at all. There really was a seal in downtown Duluth, thanks to all the flooding. The seal (who now has his own Twitter page), along with several other animals, had escaped its enclosure because of flash flooding in the zoo. 

In a city where the worst outdoor disaster is usually -30 degree temperatures or another blizzard, this has been some pretty awful weather. So to all of my Duluthian friends, we're trying to send some nice, dry thoughts your way. Or at least we would... if we weren't already up to our knees in mud.