Tucker wins Pet Idol
$3,952 raised for shelter
With a piece of newspaper in his teeth, Tucker the Yorkshire Terrier pauses to look at the camera while opening a present. He was congratulated at the Delta Animal Shelter on Thursday for winning the Daily Press Pet Idol contest. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)
Tanya Lund and Tucker hand a $3,952.50 check to Vonnie Bruce at the Delta Animal Shelter. Tucker earned the most votes in the fundraiser that collected funds for both the shelter and the Newspapers in Education program. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)
Tucker looks up while sitting on a new dog pillow gifted to him by Daily Press Publisher Sarah Greenlund as a reward for winning Pet Idol. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)
With a piece of newspaper in his teeth, Tucker the Yorkshire Terrier pauses to look at the camera while opening a present. He was congratulated at the Delta Animal Shelter on Thursday for winning the Daily Press Pet Idol contest. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)
Tanya Lund and Tucker hand a $3,952.50 check to Vonnie Bruce at the Delta Animal Shelter. Tucker earned the most votes in the fundraiser that collected funds for both the shelter and the Newspapers in Education program. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)
Tucker looks up while sitting on a new dog pillow gifted to him by Daily Press Publisher Sarah Greenlund as a reward for winning Pet Idol. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)
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ESCANABA -- The votes are tallied, and the runaway winner of this year’s Pet Idol contest was Tucker the Yorkshire Terrier.
The reader-determined contest coordinated by the Daily Press asked pet owners to submit photo entries, with one winner ultimately becoming the following year’s mascot for Newspapers in Education (NIE). The fees collected -- five dollars for each submission and fifty cents for each vote -- were divided evenly between NIE, the program that sends newspapers to local schools, and the Delta Animal Shelter, the area’s no-kill, open-admission shelter.
The contest received a record number of submissions this year, with 58 photographs entered. The votes stacked up, too, with many animal lovers happy to support one of the area’s most popular nonprofits. Ultimately, a total of $7,905 was collected from the start of Pet Idol in late May until voting closed in August.
This year’s winner, Tucker, is owned by Tanya and Perry Lund and comes from an international lineage of prestige. The three-year-old pooch’s parents — Kazanova, a show dog, and Kerra, also with a long-charted pedigree — immigrated from Russia and Belarus just one before the war in Ukraine started, Tanya said.
Kazanova and Kerra only knew Russian commands when they arrived in the States, but Tucker, a first-generation American, understands English.
Tanya described the Yorkie as affectionate, mischievous, and sometimes more like a cat than a dog.
She entered Tucker into the Pet Idol contest as a tribute to her father, Richard Wilson, and uncle, Charlie Wilson. Richard, a military veteran, had been a Russian linguist, and Charlie was in continuing education.
Thirteen years ago, another Yorkshire Terrier owned by Tanya — Oliver — won second place in a “cutest pet contest” that had gotten over 150 entries. Just as the contest approached completion, Tanya’s father died.
So, this year, Tucker takes the crown home for Richard.
Tucker, who earned 4,867 votes in the Pet Idol contest, will serve as the mascot for NIE throughout the school year; in addition, the Daily Press presented some gifts -- pet toys and the like -- to him and the two runners-up. Second place in the 2026 Pet Idol was Toby the dog with 1,643 votes; third was Oliver the cat with 945.