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[{"type":"text","text":"The perfect job doesn't exi...."}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, February 8, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The perfect job doesn't exi....

Daily Smile: Saturday, February 8, 2025

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Around Wyoming

Time was when ding-dong ditching — the 2 a.m. knock and dash — was seen as an annoying, mostly harmless prank. But in an era of doorbell cameras, social media and jumpy homeowners, that has been changing. 

A Lander teenager learned the hard way that such pranks come with real-world consequences — including a public real-world apology to the community. 

, told Cowboy State Daily it was a case of giving in to peer pressure. 

“My friends had been, like, begging me to sneak out for a week,” the teen said. “And last time, I got into a lot of trouble, so I was just kind of trying to stay out of that. But they kept begging me to go out, so I finally just said, ‘Yes.’”

Kirk figured she would get her friends off her back by just going out briefly with them. But she hadn’t reckoned on the amount of peer pressure she was about to face.

“They kind of jokingly blocked my way home,” she said. “They were grabbing my shirt and trying to keep me from going back to my house.”

Tired and sore from playing Five vs. Five earlier that night, Eden made a decision that was about to have public consequences.

She went on the porch of the nearest home and touched the door. When that didn’t satisfy her friends, she went back to finish the job. She hesitated for a moment, however, and then dogs in the home woke up and began barking.

“I didn’t even knock or ring the doorbell,” Kirk said. “I was looking for a dumb loophole.” 

But now that the dogs were barking and there were no loopholes to be had. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The jig was up. "}]

“They were mad I still hadn’t done it,” Eden said. “But we ran away.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The homeowner didn’t let it go."}]

Camera video from the incident soon appeared on the “Happening in Lander” Facebook page, where other residents had been posting about a rash of such incidents all over town. 

By the next morning, what had started as a teenage prank had turned into a full-blown pile-on, aimed squarely at Kirk. Not only had the victim posted pictures from the Ring Camera, but they’d gone looking for pictures from Kirk’s social media profiles, too.

“I’m old school,” Josh Kirk told Cowboy State Daily. “I don’t approve of her having TikTok. I don’t approve of her having social media. I don’t even like thinking of her having a cellphone.”

Kirk was unhappy with what Eden had done, but even more shocked by comments claiming they would have shot his daughter dead, right through the door, without even looking first. 

He let Eden know just how dangerous the game she was playing could have become. 

“We had no clue she was out,” he said. “That’s problematic. That’s how we have kidnappings and all this other crazy stuff that goes on.”

Remote wilderness — a place where no one is likely to hear someone screaming — is less than 30 minutes away, he pointed out to Eden. He also stressed just how dangerous a turn the prank could have taken if, as commenters suggested, a homeowner decided to shoot first and ask questions later. 

“She’s a minor, but I told her that because I wanted her to understand,” Josh Kirk said. “If we don’t know where she’s at, there’s no way for us to find her. Then what’s fun and games is no longer fun and games.”

Eden’s late-night escapade wasn’t an isolated case.

For months, Lander residents have been venting on the “Happening in Lander” page about late-night knocks, pounding on doors, and doorbell camera clips of kids sprinting away into the dark.

Lander Police Chief Levi Martson says it happens just about every summer.

“Schools out, right?” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So kids are out later than they should be.”

The past weekend, there was a string of ding-dong ditch incidents three nights in a row. 

“The third night, it resulted in rocks being thrown at a vehicle,” he said. “So it’s kind of escalated from ding-dong ditching to property damage. So we are seeing, for some reason, it starts out small, then they get more brazen.”

Martson sees inherent risks with the activity for everyone involved.

“A lot of people have these doorbell cameras, so they can see people at their door, and they don’t know what they’re up to,” he said. “So there is that fear which can create some need for self-defense.”

So far, no one has been shot as a result of ding-dong ditching, Martson said. 

“But certainly, something could happen by a homeowner who feels threatened,” he said. “They don’t know the difference between a juvenile playing a prank and somebody trying to break into their home.”

Such cases would be taken on a case-by-case basis, Martson said. But the key is, if there’s a shooting, even if it’s justified, there’s going to be an investigation.

“No matter what the reasoning is, it will always be investigated,” he said. “It’s illegal to discharge a firearm in Lander. So if we get a call for service and somebody’s reporting that a firearm was discharged, we’re definitely going to investigate that. 

“And if someone is seriously injured or even killed, we will not just say, ‘Oh, sorry, we can’t respond.’ That’s a critical event in our world. That’s something that requires a lot of resources, and it would be all hands on deck.”

For Eden Kirk and her family, these risks didn’t feel hypothetical any more. They were being spelled out in angry comments online.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First A Private Apology"}]

Kirk’s own family has been among the targets of recent ding-dong ditch incidents, which further deepened his own disappointment with his daughter. 

“We got hit, probably, I would say eight to 10 times,” he said. “And one of the times, my mom was visiting from Georgia. It scared my mom half to death.”

It was ultimately that fact which opened Eden’s eyes to how her prank felt to the homeowner who had caught her and her friends in the act.

“When she mentioned that she had her 81-year-old mother there with her, it kind of just dawned on me, like I remembered how terrified my grandma was,” she said. “And I don’t think she’s one to have, like, heart failure and that, but there are definitely a lot of older people who, if they get shaken up enough, they could totally have like a heart attack or something.”

Eden realized then what she’d done wasn’t just a harmless prank at all. It could cause real distress, even terror. 

She knew she had to apologize to the woman and her family in person.

Knocking on that door by the light of day was hard. 

“Even though it was peer pressure, that’s not an excuse,” Eden said. “It was my decision. I still did it. And I don’t blame it on any of my friends either. I know they were just trying to get me to have a fun time.”

The woman ultimately accepted Eden’s apology, Kirk said, and decided not to press charges.

“We were thankful for that,” he said. “And the reason she did is because Eden’s personal apology, when Eden went to her house. She said her apology was so sincere, and she realized that Eden was just caught up in peer pressure.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Then A Public Apology"}]

Kirk and his wife, Bonnie, didn’t excuse Eden. But as they watched the anger build online — and saw commenters posting TikTok photos of their daughter and accusing her of every unsolved ding-dong ditch and act of vandalism in town 

 they decided more than a personal apology was required.

First, Bonnie pushed back on Facebook, asking that posts featuring their minor daughter be taken down and calling out what she saw as a dangerous mob mentality.

“Eden will see you at 5:30 p.m. to apologize,” she wrote on social media. “In the meantime, I ask you to please remove this post. You have, unintentionally, I hope, incited a mob mentality amongst the Lander people. You have also posted photos of a minor without parental consent … I don’t condone being awakened and startled in the night by roaming kids, but for all you quote unquote intelligent keyboard warriors of Lander, stay in your lane, go water your grass, take a swim, get off Facebook for everyone’s sake, or move to New York or California.”

She added that her own family had been targeted by whoever was doing all the ding-dong ditching as well, but said that the threat level being turned toward the community’s children was uncalled for.

The Kirks also told Eden in no uncertain terms that it was not enough to apologize to her victim personally. This apology needed to be made in public, to the entire Lander community.

For that apology, Kirk hit the record button on his phone and told his daughter to speak from her heart, without a script. 

In the video, she owned up to sneaking out, explained the peer pressure she’d felt, then apologized directly to the homeowner and the town. She also urged other kids to think about what they’re doing, and not make the same choice she had made.

“I actually didn’t realize my child was that well-spoken,” Kirk said. “She spoke her heart, and it evidently touched a lot of other people as well.”

The video has spread quickly, between the homeowner’s Facebook page and Josh’s account, it has already racked up tens of thousands of views. But this time, the comment section looks much different.

“It sent from that first post that as attacking — it was evil — to just an overwhelming outpouring of good people,” Kirk said. “There were so many people saying, ‘We forgive you. Thank you for apologizing. Thank you for being accountable.’ It was such a beautiful thing.”

For Eden, the entire episode is a hard-won lesson in how “harmless” pranks can spin out of control. And how public the fallout can be. 

“I’m getting back to painting and reading,” she said. 

Kirk, meanwhile, is taking to heart words in Eden's apology, as well as what he heard a couple of children he caught ding-dong ditching his home say.

“There’s nothing to do in Lander at night for these kids,” he said.  “I mean you can’t hunt, you can’t fish, you can’t rock climb, you can’t hike at nighttime, and these kids — they’re kids.”

Kirk hopes to get a coalition to create more wholesome opportunities for teenagers. 

“Nothing good happens after midnight,” he said. “And these children need to be made aware. But it’s also brought an awareness to me of what can I do for the community? 

"What can I do to get a coalition together to create something better for the community and give the kids something do? We need to, as a community, band together and let’s figure something out.”

Ding dong ditch 1 7 25 26

<title>Lander's 'Mountain Man' Makes Daughter Give Public Apology For Ding-Dong Ditching | Cowboy State Daily</title>

"Mountain Men" star Josh Kirk wan't going to let his teen daughter get away with ding-dong ditching homes in Lander, so he made her own up to her actions and issue a public apology. “Even though it was peer pressure, that’s not an excuse,” she said.

Lander's 'Mountain Man' Makes Daughter Give Public Apology For Ding-Dong Ditching

Wyoming Life

Sports

CHEYENNE — Anita Ellis didn’t make the finals at the Daddy of ’Em All, but the fact she was competing at Cheyenne Frontier Days at all — alive and riding well enough to win brackets — may have been the biggest win of the rodeo. 

Ellis suffered a traumatic brain injury in November that nearly ended her rodeo career — and her life.

Her performance in Cheyenne, however, underscored just how far the Idaho woman, who has dreamed of barrel racing at the National Finals Rodeo since childhood, has come.

In the qualifying round at Cheyenne Frontier Days, Ellis posted a 17.26-second run, good enough for second place overall. The next day, in Performance Bracket 1, she posted a 17.87-second run, winning the bracket and earning $2,462. That also landed her a spot in the semifinals. 

Her Thursday run, which could have carried her into the finals, slipped away in a split-second miscommunication between horse and rider. 

The mistake lasted only an instant, but in barrel racing, that’s all it takes. 

It was enough to cost her a shot at the finals. 

Even so, Ellis doesn’t see the moment as a loss. She was, in that moment, reaching for a new challenge along the way in her recovery by choosing a more difficult horse to ride.

Ax, the horse she chose for the run, requires faster thinking than she could previously handle even as recent as two weeks ago.

“With Ax, I have to be in control of him a little bit more,” she said. “He takes more direction than my other horse, Rico, who will just go to his spot.”

Rico SGL was the horse she rode to win in San Antonio in February, the debut of her remarkable return to rodeo. 

“Ax is super quick on his turns,” Ellis added. “But today, he thought the banner that was beyond the third barrel was the barrel. I’m so sad he thought that, because he would have had such a nice run since he can turn so fast.”

Eight months before Cheyenne, Ellis was at a futurity with a young mare named Barbie — the colt’s first futurity. Ellis had trained the horse herself and was excited to see how she’d do.

The day of the accident, Ellis was getting ready for her run while the arena crew was dragging the ground. 

Her sister, Deena, an ER nurse, had driven over on a whim to spend the day and maybe ride later — a coincidence that may well have saved Ellis’ life.

As Ellis bent to place rubber bands on her feet, her mare tossed its head violently.

Ellis doesn’t remember exactly what happened next. 

She’s told the mare reared back with force, hitting her in the head, possibly breaking either her cheekbone or her jaw. 

“And then I was just kind of unresponsive,” Ellis said. “Like, I tried to move my arms a couple times to get ahold of her, but not really well.”

Barbie bucked three more times, nearly running over Ellis’ sister in the process.

“My sister couldn’t get her,” Ellis said. “And then the third buck, she twisted her hip and threw me basically onto my head, on the cement pavement.”

Ellis had been so stunned by the headbutt she didn’t even put her hands up to break her fall. Her forehead hit the cement full force, fracturing both sides of her skull.

As an ER nurse, her sister knew exactly what to do the moment Ellis hit the ground.

“She checked for a pulse and I had a pulse, but I wasn’t breathing,” Ellis said. “So she had to adjust me a little bit in the neck so she could open my airway.”

An ambulance rushed Ellis to the hospital, where she lay unconscious for four and a half days.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not A Good Patient"}]

Doctors warned the family there was no way to know how much of their Anita they would get back. 

Her personality might change. She might not remember their names. 

Likely, she would need more surgery to ease the bleeding inside her skull.

On day three, the family had one sliver of good news. The bleeding in Ellis’ brain had slowed enough that she could avoid brain surgery.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"But she still had not woken up."}]

On Day 4, Ellis finally opened her eyes and started looking around more. 

She didn’t talk at all, however, until Day 5.

“I don’t remember any of it,” Ellis said. “Apparently, I was not a good rule-follower, though. They had to put a feeding tube in me, and while I was unconscious I tore that out a couple of times.”

Movement was a good sign, doctors told the family. 

A physical therapist came in to see if Ellis could walk. 

“Hey Anita, we’re gonna get up and go for a walk and use the walker, just to make sure your muscles are working right,” Ellis recalls him saying. “And I was like, ‘No thanks.’”

The PT nurse tried again, but she brushed him off again.

“I was like, 'That’s OK. I’m just visiting,’” Ellis said. “And I pointed at my sister when I said that.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The therapist decided to take a new tack."}]

“Well, if you can tell me your sister’s name, I’ll let you wait a little while,” he said, nodding toward her sister.

“That’s my sister Deena,” Ellis said in a tone of voice that also said “of course.”

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, then started crying. 

“My family just cried,” Ellis said. “I probably was like, ‘What is going on?’ because apparently, whenever I did talk, I was like, ‘When are we heading to the NFR? What are we doing here? We need to get to the NFR.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Grieving Her Old Self"}]

Ellis’ first clear memory after the accident is Christmas Day, sitting on the floor with her grandbaby and opening presents. 

In between, there were things the 49-year-old said and did that she still doesn’t remember. Like the times she insisted she had to get to the NFR, and not understanding why she wasn’t in Las Vegas running barrels. 

She’s told that doctors kept telling her to take it easy and wait on anything to do with riding horses and rodeo. 

And she’s also told she kept ditching all the doctors who said things like that.

“I went to therapy and stuff, and I guess, again, I’m not a very good patient,” Ellis said. “And apparently there were doctors who, I was like, ‘I”m not going back to that guy.’ And my husband was like, ‘Why?’ And I was like, ‘He’s not taking me seriously.’”

The physical discomfort from her injuries was one thing. The real obstacle, though, has been the mental storm.

Weeks into her recovery, Ellis remembers lying on the floor with her family watching a movie when a crushing wave of sadness hit her. 

“It was overwhelming, like the worst sadness I’ve ever felt in my life. It felt inhumane,” Ellis said. "It didn’t even compare to [losing] a family member.”

Ellis didn’t know then why she felt so overwhelmed and sad, but realized she had to just let it go.

“I started telling myself to relax,” Ellis said. “And I was like, ‘This is your injury. This does not belong to you. This sadness is your injury. Let it pass.’”

Eventually, she came to realize she was grieving her old self — the woman who could read for hours, teach math without thinking, drive trucks and haul horses without anxiety, and run barrels like she was flying on the wind. 

“Even if you don’t come back to the way you feel like you were, you can still love who you’re becoming,” she told herself. “Loving yourself is what’s going to get you through any of this.”

She would give all the sadness up to her injury, and who she became after that would be up to her.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Learning To Ride Again"}]

It took about two months before Ellis felt ready to even think about getting back on a horse. She knew the dizziness had to be gone. Her balance had to be right.

“I had to be really careful with myself, because I just didn’t feel good,” she said. “Like, if I looked too fast in a certain direction or up in the air, I would just get instantly dizzy.”

In January, Ellis and her husband, Brendon, spent some time with her parents in Arizona. The sunshine felt good, and so did the idea of being near horses again. 

The moment she got back on a horse for slow-walking felt like she’d found her place in the world again.

“It was like healing my soul,” she said. “I just felt so much better, even though I was so nervous.”

Ellis took it one day at a time. She walked, she trotted, she eased back into old patterns. And she wore a helmet every time.

She also started studying brain injuries, learning more about nervous system regulation and trauma responses. At first, reading was too difficult. She listened to audio books instead.

That led her to discover hyperbaric oxygen treatment and a doctor who had been working with wounded military veterans. 

“At first, it was weird,” Ellis said. “They were telling me how comparable my brain injury is to all of theirs, and I’m feeling guilty in a way, because they got blown up by bombs and stuff like that.”

It also put things in a certain perspective. 

Ellis realized just how difficult the injury she was trying to overcome really was.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Another Futurity Race"}]

At the end of January, Ellis decided to run in the Royal Crown, a futurity race about 20 minutes from her parents’ home. 

That made her husband and her parents nervous. 

“I can do it,” she told them. “If I don’t feel good, I won’t. It will be OK.” 

Everyone at the race knew who Ellis was and knew what had happened to her. 

“When they announced my name, they shut the music down,” Ellis said. “Everyone was so quiet. And then I ran and made a clean run, and everyone just started cheering and clapping. It made me feel so good. I was just waving to everyone in there. It felt so good to be back.”

That clean run in Arizona gave Ellis confidence to aim even higher.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Winning San Antonio"}]

Before Cheyenne, Ellis marked her comeback with one of rodeo’s other crown jewels, San Antonio. 

“When I got there, the nervousness was just trying to take me over,” Ellis said. “I had to lay down a few hours before my run and listen to a book that helps me. I like to listen to Neville Goddard. I love the way he talks. It just calms me down.”

Goddard was an influential mid-century spiritual teacher who taught that human imagination is the ultimate creative force in the universe. 

“So, I was listening to that and just telling myself, ‘You’re OK, you’re safe, and just — whether people use the word ‘universe’ or ‘God’ or whatever — just knowing that I was in God’s hands and I was being saved and protected. That’s what helped me get past the anxiety.”

The walk to the arena took Ellis past fair rides and flags blowing around, which was a little nerve-wracking, and then she faced a long, dark tunnel to walk down, where the horse’s hooves echoed. 

“So everything could have been overwhelming to me, but I just wouldn’t let it happen,” she said. “I was just thinking about all the things I’m grateful for, happy about, and then I kept telling myself, ‘You’re gonna be so happy after you have a successful run.’”

Four successful runs later — three qualifying runs and one in the finals — she had won San Antonio on her big, gray horse Rico, launching her into the world standings, where she now sits around 21st.

“I’m close,” she said. “But I don’t really get intense or worry about stuff now. It’s in God’s hands. I’m just gonna show up and see what’s in store.”

Cheyenne didn’t go the way she’d hoped, but she can feel herself and Ax coming back together. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Basically Unstoppable'"}]

Today, there are still times when things feel too difficult. She remembers growing terribly anxious when one of her horses spooked over a piece of paper.

She told her doctor about that to see what he would say about it.

“He’s like, ‘We’ll, check your blood pressure again,’” Ellis said. “And then he was like, ‘Was that the first time that you’ve been riding since your accident?’”

Ellis then had to fess up that she’d not only been riding since January, but she’d recently won a barrel-racing event at San Antonio.

“I thought he was going to get upset at me,” Ellis said. “But he stood up and he’s like, ‘You’re basically unstoppable!’”

Ellis felt relief wash over her. Here was a doctor who was going to help her fight for her dreams.

“I need to keep you around more,” she said, laughing with him.

Her doctor ticked through a few things to watch for, but also told her he’s glad she’s challenging and trusting herself. It’s exactly what she needs to do to overcome her injury. 

Anita Ellis 7 25 26

<title>A Head Injury Nearly Killed Her, Now She’s Competing At Cheyenne Frontier Days | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After a devastating head injury nearly ended her life, barrel racer Anita Ellis is on an inspiring comeback trail that runs through Cheyenne Frontier Days. “I don’t really get intense or worry about stuff now. It’s in God’s hands,” she said.

A Head Injury Nearly Killed Her, Now She’s Competing At Cheyenne Frontier Days

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Business & Tourism

A dinosaur was spotted near Yellowstone National Park this week for the first time in 68 million years.

A 12-foot-long Sinclair dinosaur that usually stands outside Gardiner Sinclair & Yellowstone Dino Lube and Repair north of Gardiner, Montana, was stolen, taken and anchored down 10 miles away on a cliff overlooking the Yellowstone River in Yankee Jim Canyon.

Drivers traveling along U.S. Highway 89 on Sunday could clearly see the majestic beast looming over its prehistoric stomping grounds.

The dinosaur couldn’t bolt away because it was literally bolted to the rock on which it was standing.

That made it more difficult to retrieve, said Derek Johnston, who works for the Sinclair station.

“I’m the guy who had to retrieve it,” said Johnston, adding that he likes to call the 6-foot-high and 12-foot-long, 150-pound fiberglass dinosaur “Dino.”

“It could’ve been worse,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “Whoever took him obviously planned this, because they brought all the proper tools to remove it from our location, then drill into the granite and anchor it to the cliff face.”

Throughout Dino’s excellent adventure, the dinosaur wasn’t damaged at all, Johnston said.

“They did a pretty good job, and I was absolutely impressed,” he said. “They didn’t even damage it — and definitely put some thought into it.”

That the pranksters didn’t damage Dino is a bonus, he said, because it costs about $8,000.

There isn’t a camera covering where the dinosaur sat on a concrete pad outside the Sinclair station, he said, but there is on a second dinosaur on the property.

“It might be a smart thing to put a tracker on it in the future,” Johnston added.

Nobody’s stepped up to take credit for taking Dino, but Johnston has a theory.

“The jury’s still out on who actually took it,” he said. “We suspect it was locals because there’s no damage.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Unbolted And Rebolted"}]

A 12-foot-long dinosaur nicknaed Dino that usually stands outside a Sinclair gas station near Gardiner, Montana, was stolen Sunday night. It reappeared bolted to a 100-foot cliff face overlooking the Yellowstone River.

Daily Smile: Saturday, February 8, 2025

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