One of my top secret Wisconsin sources tells me that it's a badger floating over the state seal of Wisconsin, not a cat as previously assumed. It's a tribute, says she, to "the immigrant lead miners who couldn't head home for the winter [and] dug into the hills and bluffs, burrowing into the earth like the [badger] that prowled Wisconsin." She also says there is an old lead-mining town named Pendarvis in Wisconsin, and supplies a corroborative "web" site, complete with its troubling exhortations to "Explore Pendarvis" and "Shop at the Pendarvis Store." If you DO decide to "explore Pendarvis" be sure and tell 'em "Bloggy" the "Blog" Mascot sent you. Because she really did. She's the one who told me about the town of Pendarvis. (This reminds me. Someone once sent my mother - who is interested in "family history" - a coffee mug with a picture of the "Pendarvis House" on it. So I sort of knew something vague about this already but I guess I forgot it.)
