WGN-Channel 9, <\/a>where he's been chief meteorologist since 1978.<\/p>\nHis tribute followed a Facebook post by Sean Lewis, the news anchor who works with Skilling at WGN and also lived with Maddie.<\/p>\n
\"Baby girl, thank you for giving me your trust, your unending love, and teaching me more about myself,\" Lewis wrote. \"Your life mattered and gave another layer of love to my life. Rescue dogs will change your life.\"<\/p>\n
Here is the text of Skilling's tribute:<\/strong><\/p>\nThis beautiful and, for so many years, loving and vivacious young lady---our beautiful doggie \"Maddie\"---departed our world Tuesday night. She did so quietly and in her own way, having been an indispensable member of our household for 12 wonderful years. She had dealt with health issues on occasion in recent years but always managed to bounce back. Not Tuesday night.<\/em><\/p>\nMaddie, who many of you met when I originated my weather programs from home during the pandemic, leaves a void so huge and so painful, I simply haven't been able to sit down and put something together to tell you of Maddie's passing. \u00a0I am heartbroken as are my roommates WGN's Sean Lewis and Trover Wilson. This was a doggie whose zest for life---always on display as she went for her cherished runs in the park---produced a face which beamed with a level of joy and an exuberance for life no words come close to describing.<\/em><\/p>\nSean's tribute to our little Maddie is so beautiful, I had to share this with you. \u00a0Always one whose gift at describing the idiosyncrasies--the ups, downs and wonders of life---Sean--the talented journalist he is--- has accomplished something I simply can't adequately pull off at this very sad moment--paying tribute to a member of our family who has brought us such abiding love and affection and whose absence seems insurmountable at this moment in time.<\/em><\/p>\nHere is the text of Lewis's tribute:<\/strong><\/p>\nMadison 2008-2021<\/em><\/p>\nYou could\u2019ve clocked it on an Omega stopwatch, the time it took to fall in love.<\/em><\/p>\nA little pink nose sticking through the kennel door at Anti-Cruelty Society in April 2010.<\/em><\/p>\nHer name was Sally but she told me it was okay to change it.<\/em><\/p>\nWe don\u2019t know much about how Madison\u2019s life began\u2014other than it wasn\u2019t the best.<\/em><\/p>\nFor almost 11 1\/2 years, she made up for it.<\/em><\/p>\nRunning on the beach.<\/em><\/p>\nWading into a glacial pond in Alaska.<\/em><\/p>\nServing as sous chef\/cleanup crew in the kitchen at home.<\/em><\/p>\nShe gave face like she was Rita Hayworth in a previous life.<\/em><\/p>\nShe gave her opinion like she was in charge of the New York Times Op-Ed page. <\/em><\/p>\nAnd\u2026She gave her heart to me like she had nothing else to give.<\/em><\/p>\nWhether she answered to Madison, Maddie, Noodle, The Noods, Noggin, or Maddiebird\u2026she will always be the one who came into my life a tough girl and left with dignity as a tough ol lady.<\/em><\/p>\nBaby girl, thank you for giving me your trust, your unending love, and teaching me more about myself. Your life mattered and gave another layer of love to my life. Rescue dogs will change your life.<\/em><\/p>\nYou are missed.<\/em><\/p>\nWednesday's comment of the day:<\/a> Dana Legg:<\/strong> And once again, one of the most storied radio stations in the country gets another slap in the face by its new owners. No sense of history, no sense of the city, no sense of honor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A poignant and heartfelt tribute by Tom Skilling on the passing of his beloved dog Maddie elicited an outpouring of condolences to the famed Chicago meteorologist. More than 1,000 people wrote in comments of love and support on Facebook Wednesday after Skilling shared his sadness on the loss of \u00a0\"a member of our family who... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30605"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30612,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30605\/revisions\/30612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}