Shipoke Sheena has officially retired
While working on updating our list of Groundhog Day 2022 events, we discovered that Bubble, who portrayed Shipoke Sheena, has officially retired.
According to a post on Bubble’s page, Bubble will no longer be prognosticating on Groundhog Day due to health concerns. Bubble has a stage 4 heart murmur, and her owner was concerned that continuing to play Sheena would be too stressful for her. Additionally Bubble has moved to New Orleans.
As Shipoke Sheena, Bubble provided Ground Dog Day predictions in the Shipoke neighborhood of Harrisburg, PA starting in 2014 and up until 2020. Shipoke Sheena did not provide a prediction in 2021 due to the global pandemic, but was honored with an ice carving at the Ice in the Burg Ice festival later that winter.
With Bubble’s retirement, the Groundhog Day prognosticating field is currently without any dogs that dress as bears and pretend to be groundhogs. Will another pup step up to follow in Shipoke Sheena’s footsteps in the future? That remains to be seen.
Either way, we hope you enjoy your retirement Bubble and good luck in Louisiana! We’ll never forget you!
Tags: ground dog day, shipoke, shipoke sheena
Thank you for this tribute to Shipoke Sheena! Sadly, she passed away in October of 2022. She was a very special dog and touched many lives. I miss her every day.
However, Ground Dog Day lives on! In February of this year, we celebrated with Sir Desmond of Algiers here in New Orleans. We had about 40 attendees and Sir Desmond, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel-chihuahua mix, predicted six more weeks of hurricanes…only the libations not the storms. We hope to continue this tradition in 2024.