- [Narrator] In this edition of Nebraska Stories the wildly wonderful world of animals.

Coming up, these hotdogs race for the finish line, coffee, cats, and adoption, the return of the Sandhill Trumpeter Swans, and celebrating Groundhog Day in Unadilla.

(steady rock music) - [Narrator] For over 30 years, on a Saturday in July, the little town of Syracuse celebrates its German heritage.

(light polka music) They'd hold their annual day long festivities in October, but it's hard to compete with Husker football.

(music continues) Even when your event includes a ceremonial keg tapping.

- [Man] There we go!

(group sings in German) - [Narrator] Other activities include folk dancing, (light polka music) hammerschlagen, - [Man] We have a winner!

and a town parade.

But among all the various things you can do at Germanfest, it may be that the most popular event involves man's best friend.

(music continues) (woman laughs) (intense music) - [Anna] We say "wiener dogs" but with the German pronunciation it would be "viener".

So we first started off with the wiener dog races.

It's always been known as wiener dogs.

- [Randy] People come from all over and bring their dogs and race them, t's the cutest thing.

- [Announcer] "Loves to sit on her pillow in front of the fireplace."

"Jumps and rolls for treats."

"Carmen will kiss you to death."

"Lloyd loves his baby poodle."

(man laughs) - [Anna] People come from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, I mean right in this Southeast Nebraska corner come all over from these four states.

The community for dachshunds in general is such a strong, close knit community.

I mean they are hard core dachshund owners, they are so involved.

They come today and they are just pumped to be here.

- [Announcer] "Bailey loves belly rubs and herding goats."

"She loves green squeaky toys."

and then when the announcer says "go" the dog is supposed to run to the welcomer at the other end.

The first dog to cross the finish line wins that heat.

And then we'll run a couple, three heats, and then we'll have the finals and the grand champion.

- [Announcer] "On your mark, get set, go!"

(festive music plays) (crowd cheers) - We have the senior Long Dogs, so the older dogs that want to race.

- [Announcer] "Go!"

And then we have the Brats, the middle age dogs.

And then we have the Little Smokies, so the young pups.

Those are our three categories.

(music continues) (crowd cheers) (music and cheers continue) - [Offscreen] Go!

Come here!

- Hank is the dog that everyone has fears of because even when I was calling past contestants to see if they would come back this year, right away on the phone they say, "Well Hank has won the past two years."

- [Announcer] "Go!"

(music continues) "Hank is your winner for the 2019 Brats Division!"

- [Offscreen] I tried.

- [Narrator] The Germanfest Wiener Dog Races are a near perfect mix of fun and heart.

The money collected from the small entry fee is donated to local animal shelters.

(music continues) (crowd cheers) - [Announcer] "23 is your winner!"

- [Narrator] And as it turns out, all that worry about the reigning wiener dog champ, Hank, dominating this year's race was unnecessary.

This year's top dog was Cooper.

- [Announcer] "Cooper will be your winner in the Senior Division!"

- [Laura] He's eleven years old and he was number eleven in the race, and this is the eleventh year for the dachshund races.

So it was really kind of an omen at the beginning, that he had a real chance at something special.

(light guitar music) (whimsical music) (bowls clink) - [Jessica] Oh man, you guys partied real hard last night.

Come on guys, it's time for breakfast.

Come on.

Yay, look at all of you guys.

Your tummy looks like you've already had five breakfasts.

- [Narrator] Jessica Hoien might just have the best job ever.

- You're so sweet, are you ready for a busy day?

Get it.

Good job, girlfriend.

- [Narrator] She's the cafe manager and unofficial cat wrangler at Felius Cat Cafe.

- You are so sweet.

- [Narrator] It's an inventive non-profit, located on the western edge of Omaha's downtown.

Serving up equal parts coffee and cuddles.

(espresso machine whizzes) - Felius is the first and only cat cafe in our state, and we have celebrated our one year anniversary with over 100 cats adopted within that first year is pretty amazing.

I feel like that's an amazing thing for a first year non-profit.

- [Narrator] But before the cafe opens for business, Hoien spends some quality time with the cats.

- Everyday starts attending to the crazy kittens in this room.

They need food, they need water, they need their litter pans cleaned.

Keeping this room tip-top, sanitized, clean is so essential.

It's essential to their health, their happiness, of course our health and happiness.

I try to get everything done to spend enough time with them before we open for the day.

It helps me grow connected, have a little connection with the kitties and with the cats, get to know their personalities.

I almost feel a little bit like a human and cat matchmaker.

I know which cats could go well with which personalities.

(toy jingles) (kitten meows) They're all completely different.

Some of them come in here really shy and timid.

Some come in ready to party 24/7.

And I just get to know their sweet, different personalities.

(light music) - [Narrator] The concept of cat cafes first became popular in Japan, but the trend has taken root in the US in recent years.

The goal is to revolutionize the cat adoption experience, and to educate the community through interaction.

- Hi.

You have pretty eyes.

- [Narrator] With a full service coffee bar, patrons can sip on a latte in the cafe and watch the cats through a large window.

- [Patrons] Aww.

- [Narrator] Or, for a few dollars, they can take their coffee inside the playroom, and score some snuggle time.

- [Jessica] It's being able to be around cats and seeing them in their natural environment.

How they are in a room, how they would be in a home, letting them choose you.

Letting them come up to you.

We want you to be able to see the personality of the cat without making them come to you.

This is their house until they go to their forever home.

- [Narrator] But Felius is about more than stray cat rescues and adoptions.

Some people aren't ready to adopt, some people have cats of their own, but they like to support our mission, which I love.

I love that.

I have my regulars that come in just to have a little bit of kitten therapy every week.

I love that too.

It's not all about coming here and taking a cat.

It's also about having a space that feels safe, having a space that feels really happy, really comfortable, you know almost calming.

- [Narrator] With an estimated 60,000 feral cats living on the streets of Omaha, Felius also hoeps to educate the community on the importance of caring for these cats, with their trap, neuter, and return program, or TNR.

- We really want to help community cats, that's why we started our TNR program.

That's really important.

So many people don't understand how easy TNR can be when you have so many feral cats that keep producing cycle after cycle after cycle of kittens.

Like 80% of kittens that are born every year are born on the streets and they don't make it.

Either they're too sick, or shelters are completely overrun.

(cage clinks shut) See setting a humane trap is really pretty simple, and it helps these cats to not have to fight to mate or fight for their food anymore.

Poor mama cats won't have to have litter after litter of babies, it's really the most humane thing to do for them.

We have a pretty interested population of people who love cats, and would support a non-profit like this where they can come and have a good cup of coffee but also have a really great experience hanging out with cats and kittens, getting to know them.

Alright hun, this is the adoption contract.

- [Narrator] Still, there's nothing better than when a feline finds his favorite human, and his forever home.

- Are you ready to go get your little guy?

- [Alicia] Yeah.

My friend actually saw their page on Instagram and in other states we knew that they had cat cafes but in Omaha when they opened this one we knew we had to come.

(Alicia laughs) - [Alicia] So cute with his little paws.

So when there were kitties here I came and I played with all three of them and I liked him the most because he was the most energetic and he was kind of like attracted to me as much as I was to him, so I picked him.

(ball jingles) - I think we got a good one.

Here he is at least you can see his tiny little face.

- Oh yes.

(laughs) Okay.

(light music) (light rock music) (ethereal music) - [Shelly] The Trumpeter Swan is a really neat success story.

- [Heather] It went extinct in the Sandhills.

- [Man] The Trumpeter Swan is a really good indicator species of habitat quality.

- [Mike] They're a big, beautiful, white bird that is an icon of the Nebraska Sandhills.

- [ShellyÑ The Sandhills is still one of the last remaining intact grasslands left in the world.

- [AB] This is probably one of the few places where private industry, private ranchers, have improved the land.

- [Shelly] I hope that I always get to make my life here in the Sandhills.

- [Mike] They're huge and they're heavenly white.

The Trumpeter Swan actually is the largest waterfoul species in the world, and they're beautiful.

Their appearance is a good indicator of water quality.

They need big open grasslands and wetlands and open bodies of water in order to thrive.

- [Heather] We really don't know a lot about them, about their behavior.

It's really fun to learn about them.

My name is Heather Johnson, and I'm researching Trumpeter Swans in the Nebraska Sandhills at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and I'm also a wildlife biologist with Nebraska Game and Parks, studying waterfoul.

So historically, Trumpeter Swans' breeding range ranged all the way up in Alaska and the Memorial Forest and then the Sandhills was the very south tip of that breeding range.

And populations were upwards probably about half a million to a million.

The fur trade industry played a large role in the depletion of the population of Trumpeter Swans.

Their down feathers on their belly was very desired for women's powder puffs, the feathers were desired for clothing and hats and quill pens.

In fact, Audubon himself preferred a quill pen for his drawings.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is what saved these birds in 1918.

Had that treaty been not put into place, we would not have Trumpeter Swans today.

- Nebraska Sandhills was a core of their range, and they were wiped out of the Sandhills, wiped out of Nebraska, and then through conservation laws, and a lot of conservation efforts, over the last hundred years, Trumpeter Swans have started to come back.

(boat fan winds down) (boat fan whirs to take off) - [Woman] You make that look easy.

- [Man] I didn't know you had one.

- Oh, yeah.

- We take an airboat out We run up next to these birds and gently scoop them up with a big old scoop net, then we bring them back.

And then we collect what we call body condition data.

That's how you can determine how healthy a bird is.

And over the last three years, we've been putting on GPS satellite collars.

So we've been tracking these swans, we're looking where they're going in the winter.

- [Man] Let's take her back down there.

(hopeful music) (plane engine roars) - [Mark] We're trying to get a handle on the population numbers and not necessarily just the numbers but the trends, if they're going up or going down.

What we have been seeing actually over the years is we've seen an increase in population, so the overall number of swans has increased, but the proportion of juveniles is kind of slightly decreasing.

(hollow guitar music) - There's a lot of opportunity for predators to get ahold of these birds.

Some predators would include the Northern Pike, snapping turtles, birds of prey, those are kind of their main predators.

And then there's also weather, many other factors that can affect survival.

- Well one of the things that we're anticipating or could anticipate, you know wind energy is one of those things that may be cropping up in the Sandhills and it has in one or two spots.

And with that you have a lot of transmission lines and soforth.

And some of those things may be cutting across some of the wintering areas that these birds use.

And so, what would that do for those swans?

(birds crow) - Where we put those transmission lines is really important because if you put them next to a key wintering ground, you know, these birds didn't evolve with big, long, thick wires spanning across the sky, you know?

So that can be a death trap.

(western solo guitar plays) - [AB] The first time I saw a Trumpeter Swan was probably in the late '60's at the creek, up there north of Merriman.

My name's AB Cox and I live on Calf Creek Ranch, this is Calf Creek, north of Mullen, Nebraska in southern Cherry County.

- [Shelly] I'm Shelly Kelly, I grew up by Brewster, Nebraska on a ranch, family operation, and just always loved the Sandhills.

The Trumpeter Swan is kind of an iconic species because it sticks out so much.

People pay attention to the swans, and even ranchers who have lived here their whole lives, like myself, when we see a Trumpeter Swan it's really exciting.

What we do know is if we have a healthy landscape, we know that it's better for the swans.

It's not a competing interest.

You know, wildlife and ranching, they're not on different hands.

They share the same goals.

- [Man] Most ranchers have been real good stewards of this landscape because they need good grass, too.

In a way, they're grass farmers.

- We just see it as we are trying to be good stewards and leave it as best we can.

- I care about these birds because they're remarkable.

I think about what would the world look like if they weren't in it, you know?

To me it'd be a pretty boring place.

It's a real conservation success story.

That's because of an awful lot of people who have dedicated their lives and their efforts to help bring these birds back.

(soft orchestral music) So it's a pretty cool deal, but there's no finish line in conservation and so we have to keep thinking about these birds and what they represent and really celebrate them so we can have them around for a long time.

(music continues) (steady rock music) (light mysterious music) - [Bob] Unadilla Bill is a groundhog that was eating cabbage in my garden, I saw my cabbage was ate, and I looked over and there he was laying there, so I picked him up and I took him to the taxidermist.

He stuffed him for 14 dollars.

He's going to determine if he sees his shadow or not, and of course if he sees his shadow it's six more weeks of winter.

If he doesn't see his shadow then spring's right around the corner, that's what we're hoping for.

But the facts are the facts, you know that.

- 7:32, I don't see a shadow, do you Brody?

- [Brody] No, I don't.

- Bill's requested that I make a short statement: "Hear ye, hear ye, I'm Unadilla Bill.

I'm in my thirtieth year.

No shadow I see, and predict spring is near."

(crowd cheers) - Early spring!

(crowd laughs) - [Bob] Thanks Brody, thanks for the help.

- So it's just, we're you kind of fudging on it?

Uh-oh!

(laughs) Don't record that!

Is it better than Christmas?

- Probably.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- That's a pretty good day then, isn't it?

- The best part is the parade, probably.

(triumpant music) - Great time for kids, a great time for people to come back to Unadilla that, naturally with a town of 311, a lot of people that lived here moved away.

- [Andrew] It's a good reason to get out, see people you haven't seen in a few years, a few months, a few days, catch up.

- [Nick] People you graduated with in high school, people you grew up with when you were this tall, and they'll come back.

Enjoy the day.

(music continues) - [Randy] We're the Syracuse Germanfest float, and I've got the wiener dog hat on today because of the wiener dog races that are always at Germanfest.

- [Child] He likes wiener dogs!

(crowd laughs) - We're very fortunate.

Everybody's here to have a good time.

- [Terri] It's about community, it's about tradition, it's about having fun.

- [Kent] Something to do to break the monotony through the season, actually.

And it's fun, and we brought a pair of mules here.

One to ride and represent a saddle mule and the other one as a driving animal is what we've done.

- [Pete] You know you guys have a huge advantage by having a parade on a day when nobody else has one.

(men laugh) - Now therfore I, Pete Ricketts, Governor of the State of Nebraska, do hereby proclaim the community of Unadilla, Nebraska as the Groundhog Capital of Nebraska.

(crowd cheers) - One of the special things about crazy small towns is that the community really comes out and supports it, it really gives it a special flavor.

(motorcycle revs) - [Groundhog Dude #1] Bob and the parade asked us to dress up as groundhogs today to just help celebrate Groundhog Day and the parade we have in Unadilla.

Masked identity.

No one knows who you are.

You can just hug people and give them high fives and dance.

- [Groundhog Dude #2] We just work for him in the summer and stuff, do whatever he tells us.

- We have an official car of Groundhogs Day, the Ford Falcon, which was introduced on Groundhog's Day back in the late '50's.

- [Kurt] Well we were just told that the groundhog was killed about 20 years ago, and they just drive him around and he's stuffed.

Unadilla Bill is dead.

- [Toddler] Mama?

- [Mike] Well if you're not here you should be here because you're missing out.

This is huge.

The whole town's here.

Half of Lincoln's here, part of Omaha, we're all having fun.

- [Announcer] We're celebrating the 15th anniversary.

- What made it successful was all the kids just being happy, that's all that counts.

The thing that makes it successful is whenever they have a smile on their face, you know it's successful.

I put a smile on kid's faces, and that's what I'm happy about.

(rock music continues) Watch more Nebraska Stories on our website, Facebook, and YouTube.

Nebraska Stories is funded in part by The Margaret and Martha Thomas Foundation.