Scrim My Tail: As Told to Margaret Orr

In 2025, the Mystic Krewe of Barkus named Scrim—New Orleans’s most infamous canine escape artist—their grand marshal. In a dramatic leap from a second-story window triggered by a cat ambush, this seventeen-pound Westie mix bolted in April 2024. Surviving hurricanes, a blizzard, and two gunshot wounds while roaming fifty-seven square miles of the city, Scrim’s every move was tracked by a network of volunteers, surveillance cameras, and crowdsourced maps.

Defined by his dogged fortitude and c...