Seen a sasquatch lately?

A north Wenatchee resident called KPQ Jan. 9 to say he saw the mysterious hairy creature of lore near Stella and Walnut streets.

Paul Graves, a local artist and tracker who has studied sasquatch sightings for 25 years went to the site and made plaster casts of footprints he described as looking similar to those of a bear, but with wide spread toes. The person who saw the animal described it as being about 6 feet 5 inches tall, covered with dark hair — and running extremely fast, Graves said. After talking with other residents of the area, Graves found other tracks in a nearby orchard near Mulberry Lane. Those tracks showed a footprint about 13 inches long and 6 to 7 inches wide, consistent with other tracks that he said are believed to have been made by juvenile sasquatches. He measured a 62-inch spread between the prints, suggesting that it was running.

“It’s a darn good chance this was the real thing,” said Graves, noting that he was pretty skeptical at first. He said he’s had dozens of calls since being interviewed on the radio about the sighting, many of which lead him to believe it to be true. He said the sighting was made on a very foggy morning not far from the Wenatchee cemetery. It’s quite possible, he said, that the animal had come down from the hills through the cemetery and into the orchard to look for food.

“During the winter they do come down low,” he said

Blonde jokes

Four guys stood in line Friday at the East Wenatchee Starbucks to get their early-morning coffee. One after the other, each ordered “a tall Blonde.” Jokes ensued.

“You getting that Blonde to go?”

“Make sure my Blonde’s really hot.”

Starbucks new Blonde Roast — the lighter, milder brew the company claims is for people who don’t like Starbucks coffee — are on sale at most of the outfit’s 10,800 stores in the U.S., including those in East Wenatchee, Wenatchee, Leavenworth and Chelan. The drinks come in sizes called tall (small), grande (medium) and venti (large).

One guy grabbed his cup and walked over to the condiment station for cream and … “I’m giving my Blonde a little sugar,” he wisecracked.

“OK, guys,” said one Starbucks employee, wiping tables and rolling her eyes. “We’ve heard ’em all — every Blonde joke you can imagine — and heard ’em a dozen times.”

Said one guy, “Don’t look at me. I’ve got a blonde at home and that’s more than I can handle.”

Feeling a little cold this week?

Who isn’t. Some smart people head to Hawaii or Central America in late January. Others head to First Butte or Mount Leecher. The two mountain tops are only a few miles from chilly Winthrop. But oh, what a difference. The National Weather Service recorded a 40-degree temperature differential this week between Winthrop and the two surrounding mountain tops. Winthrop, at 1,877 feet altitude was 12 degrees at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Temperatures, meanwhile, were a relatively balmy 52 degrees on 5,509-foot First Butte and 4,991-foot Mount Leecher.

The weather sevice explained that a weather inversion is trapping cold air close to the surface of North Central Washington valleys while warmer air flows high above. A similar inversion trapped smoke in the Wenatchee Valley last summer during the Wenatchee Complex fires.

Cat love

Washington is getting quite a reputation. Long known for its apples and airplanes, more recently for its wine and now for legal marijuana and gay marriage. Here’s something you may not have known about Washington. It’s a cat friendly state. The American Veterinary Medical Association recently revealed that Washington ranks fifth for cat ownership in the nation with 39 percent of households owning a cat. This is not that new. The association ranked Washington fifth in 2006 and sixth in 2011.

The state has a long ways to go before it catches up to Vermont, however. That’s probably a good thing. Vermont is first in the nation in cat ownership with 70.5 of households having one or more cats. New Mexico, South Dakota, Oregon and Maine are also higher than Washington in cat ownership. The District of Columbia is by far the lowest rate of cat ownership with 21.9 percent.

This week’s Worm was compiled by reporter Rick Steigmeyer. Got a tip? Email it to newsroomwenatcheeworld.com.