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W e d n e s d ay, A p r i l 29, 2026
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Hidden backyard stings can harm pets This time of year in south Louisiana, we spend more time outside, and so do our pets. The cold weather is behind us, and we aren’t quite into the scorching heat of summer yet. But along with the great outdoors comes something many pet owners don’t think about until it happens — stings and Traci bites from insects and other Howerton small creatures that hide in ANIMAL plain sight. RESCUE Even in familiar spaces, pets can have unexpected encounters with bees, wasps, fire ants and those pesky buck moth caterpillars, which are especially active right now. This caterpillar variety is in its high season. They’re dark in color, covered in branched spines and often found clustered on tree trunks, fences or low vegetation. Those spines can deliver a painful sting. Dogs are especialSTAFF FILE PHOTO BY ly at risk because HILARY SCHEINUK they investigate the Buck moth caterpillars, world with their noses. A quick sniff or shown here gathered a brush against one on the leaves of an of these caterpillars oak tree, will appear can trigger an imabout mid-April. The mediate reaction. Sometimes it’s black-and-white adult easy to spot the momoths with orange ment it happens. At abdomens that will other times, there produce them are may be a sudden appearing now. behavior change. Signs a pet may have been stung or bitten include: n pawing at the face or mouth n sudden yelping or signs of pain n licking or chewing at paws n redness or raised bumps on the skin n swelling, especially around the face or muzzle If a pet is thought to have had a run-in with something outdoors, carefully examine the area of concern for signs such as a bee sting,
PHOTO BY MICHAEL P. SMITH/THNOC
This image of Big Chief Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias was featured on the cover of the group’s 1990 album ‘I’m Back . . . at Carnival Time!’
PARADE GROUNDS How second-line clubs and Black Masking Indians went from the streets to the Fair Grounds
BY GERALDINE WYCKOFF Contributing writer
Colorful feathers blew in the breeze as tambourines laid down the rhythms to accompany the chants of Big Chief Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians as they made their way through the French Quarter, heading to Beauregard Square, now known as Congo Square, to kick off the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1970. “I talked them into doing it,” festival producer Quint Davis said. “I told them I’d meet them on the Canal Street neutral ground, which wasn’t the greatest idea because the wind was blowing the hell out of their crowns.” The general citizenry of New Orleans, outside of “back-of-town” Black neighborhoods, would rarely catch more than a glance of the Black Indians back then. They would come out, donning their magnificent, handmade “suits,” to roam the streets on Carnival Day and, at night, in the St. Joseph’s Day and Super Sunday parades, a tradition that began in 1969. Davis was eager to introduce the Black Masking Indians to a wider audience and eventually to the world. “We’ll parade through the Quarter
“It seemed natural to me to stage a jazz funeral at the festival that first year.” QUINT DAVIS, New Orleans jazz & Heritage Festival producer and then go to this little festival,” Davis recalled saying. He accomplished that goal by expanding their presence with Jazz Fest and having them perform not only on stage but also parading around the festival grounds. Now, multiple tribes parade at the festival for about an hour each day, offering festivalgoers a close-up look at their incredible artwork. Davis rather humorously described how those first-time, out-of-town festivalgoers might have perceived such unknown spectacles as the Black Masking Indians, who pay homage to the Indigenous people of North America and reflect their African roots. “It occurred to them that New Orleans was this really strange, exotic, Caribbean sort of place,” Davis said. “They didn’t know what it was, but they thought it was great. They knew it was only in New Orleans and that
they’d never seen anything like it before. And they kept coming back. So they must have liked it.” Davis has remained equally passionate about social aid and pleasure clubs, organizations that present spectacular brass-band-led Sunday-afternoon anniversary parades. Like the Mardi Gras Indians, their street culture remained primarily in the Black neighborhoods, with many New Orleanians even mistaking a second line for a jazz funeral when they heard a brass band followed by a crowd of dancers coming down the street. Davis said it was photographer Jules Cahn who took Davis, then a teenager, “to every jazz funeral,” and soon it became part of his ritual. “It seemed natural to me to stage a jazz funeral at the festival that first year,” Davis said, adding that the event featured the Eureka and Olympia brass bands as well as blues, gospel and Cajun music and other activities in the Municipal Auditorium. Jazz Fest put the clubs in the spotlight for the world to experience by having them second-line around the festival grounds with the members buckjumping and hot-stepping to an
ä See PETS, page 2G
What a prize
STAFF PHOTO BY ENAN CHEDIAK
Risey, left, and Jared Campbell play the Ring A Duck game at the Our Lady of Prompt Succor Tomato Festival in Chalmette on April 17.
ä See PARADE, page 4G
ä More fun and food at the festival. PAGE 2G
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