IDAHO
Here’s a hare-raising news story. While releasing rabbits into your neighborhood might seem like a harmless way of getting unwanted pets out of your, um, hare, rabbits have a tendency to, well, behave like rabbits, swiftly propagating and eventually taking over, which is what happened in the Boise Bench, a prime residential area located above downtown Boise. In the last several years, the proliferation of libidinous Leporidae has become an issue, and some residents are not particularly hoppy about it. “They ate my shrub,” Melody Haile told Idaho News 6. “It’s a problem. They’re really taking over now.” The bunnies are burrowing under her bungalow, tearing up her yard, eating macramé lawn chairs and digging big holes next to the foundation. “Now, we routinely walk the house and make sure they’re not digging at the house.” Humane Society representative Kristine Schellhaas thinks the bunny abundance might be owing to Easter, noting that rabbits “are really great gifts when in chocolate form (but) not necessarily an animal you want to get.” The Humane Society is asking people to surrender their unwanted bunnies at the shelter instead of letting them frolic around freely. Or better yet, think twice before getting into the bunny business.
CALIFORNIA
If you plan on visiting the coastal paradise of Montecito, California, the sixth-most expensive ZIP code in the U.S., be sure to drop by what locals have dubbed the infamous “Pig House.” It isn’t hard to find: Just a few blocks from Butterfly Beach, the home is truly hog heaven, featuring a menagerie of swinish tchotchkes and farmyard furbelows both inside and out — even a backyard grill shaped like a big “pink oinker,” SFGATE reports. Nikki Grosso, the 77-year-old owner (and curator) of the Pig House, estimates that there are about 6,000 pigs “scattered around her home,” making her porcine property really stand out in what she calls “hotsy-totsy Montecito,” home to many wealthy celebrity types. Grosso’s pig accrual started when she was living in Los Angeles in the 1960s. One year she gave her husband, Ronald, a “cheeky” ceramic pig for his birthday — Ronald was a police officer — and the collecting took off from there. But she really went whole hog after they moved to Montecito in 1993, though Grosso stopped collecting pigs after Ronald passed away in 2019. “There were too many by that point,” she said. There have been mixed reactions to her “piggy paradise” over the years, with some neighbors calling it an eyesore while tour buses often stop outside to take photos. In any case, Grosso is planning to sell both the home and her collection in the near future and move back to LA. If you’re in the market for some unique curly-tailed knick-knacks, you’re in luck: She will likely sell her treasures online.
MONTANA
T. rexes and stegos and velociraptors, oh my! The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, hosted its 5th Annual Dinosaurs and MOR! Festival, March 27-29. There were panels, workshops, keynotes and kid-friendly activities, and participants who completed paleo-related activities received passport stamps from various stations on the Montana Dinosaur Trail — including the Rudyard Depot Museum and Montana State University’s Dead Lizard Society — as well as a Junior Paleontologist Certificate signed by MOR’s paleontology curator, John Scannella. The speakers’ list featured a “who’s who” of paleontologists, field experts, museum curators and biologists from around the U.S. and Canada. Check out the Museum of the Rockies webpage, and the Montana Dinosaur Trail. And plan on attending next year with your binoculars, pith helmet and (maybe) some velociraptor repellent.
IDAHO
What do you do when your state bans pride flags from government buildings? Answer: Come up with a creative alternative. That’s precisely what happened in Boise after Republican Gov. Brad Little signed HB 561, a law that prohibits the flying of any flags that are not “pre-approved.” To comply with it, City Hall took down its pride flags — which had flown for over a decade — and then wrapped its flagpoles in LGBTQ+ pride colors and hung up a rainbow-striped banner that reads “creating a city for everyone.” The city stated that the decision was made in order to “demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the people that call Boise home,” KTVB reported. In addition to the ingenious workarounds at City Hall, light displays featuring the light blue, pink and white of the transgender pride flag were installed around the building’s windows and perimeter, illuminating Boise’s downtown at night.
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This article appeared in the June 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Heard around the West.”
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