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http://www.fox21online.com/animaltales/animal-tales-follow-file (http://www.fox21online.com/animaltales/animal-tales-follow-file)

DULUTH - This year FOX 21 has brought viewers and readers "Animal Tales" of a portly pooch, a lucky rabbit and fledgling falcons. Now, we're checking in to see how all of them are doing.

We start with an update to a beagle mix in Duluth who weighed 70 pounds and had a leg injury when his current owner adopted him,

In January, Duluth News Tribune city editor Jaime DeLage introduced the Northland to Boo, a dog he adopted from a friend.  At the time, Boo weighed 63 pounds.

"Obviously it's unhealthy," DeLage said in January.  "He's twice the size he should be almost."

Eight months later, Boo looks very different.

"Sit with me," Jaime tells Boo, coaxing him onto a couch.

In January, Boo couldn't get onto that couch without Jaime's help, but now he jumps onto it with no problem.

"The weight is apparently coming off even faster than I realize," DeLage said. 

DeLage picked up Boo and got on the same scale he used in January to weigh Boo and couldn't believe the results.

 "Holy cow! 236! And I was 190.. That means he weighs 46 pounds," he said.

Boo is down at least 24 pounds since DeLage brought him home a year ago.

Furthermore, in January, Boo struggled with a knee injury.  DeLage took him to his veterinarian, who told him Boo needed surgery.

"But she didn't want to do it as long as he weighed as much as he did," recalled DeLage.

Now, there's little evidence Boo had any trouble at all.  DeLage says his secret is an age–old one:  less food and more excercise. 

"I cut him down to about a cup and a half of food a day and more of a diet food," said DeLage. 

He started walking Boo just six blocks — round trip.

"Now, we're walking a solid mile, mile and a half everyday, probably some days pushing two miles somedays," he said.

And there is one more motivator for Boo — DeLage's other beagle, Daisy.

"Both of them love carrots," he said.

Since he was giving them less food at breakfast and dinner, his vet recommended a healthy substitute such as green beans, carrots or canned pumpkin.  The carrots came with an unexpected side effect.

"Now they wrestle and they spar, especially after their morning carrot," said DeLage. "For some reason that energizes them...they get all frisky."

It's a success story that humans can learn from.

Now, an update on Scarlett O'Hare, a house rabbit in Carlton County who was shot twice by her owner in Holyoke in June.

She fled to the home of a neighbor, Doug Engie.

In August, Wayne Rogers of St. Paul pleaded guilty to one count of reckless discharge of a firearm. On Sept. 3, a judge ordered Rogers to pay $457 in restitution and vet bills to the Engies.

Scarlett O'Hare is doing well, recovered from the bullet wounds and getting along well with her new family.

And one more update... The peregrine falcon family that made a home on the Greysolon Plaza of Duluth.

Four chicks hatched to begin new lives as the fastest birds in the world.

One of them is doing well, but unfortunately, two siblings flew so fast that they hit obstacles and broke their necks.

The fourth, named Mariah, was also injured and taken to the Raptor Center in the Twin Cities to recover and was released into the Northland sky in July.

Hawk Ridge bird watchers say she seems to be doing well and flying high. :thumbsup: