Move over, Taylor Swift. Rhode Island has another celebrity: Dawn the Duck.

From the Boston Globe, this is Rhode Island Report. I'm Ed Fitzpatrick. Welcome back to the podcast where we bring you big conversations from our very small state. So move over Taylor Swift, Rhode Island has another celebrity, Dawn the Duck. She's made headlines across the country when she marched at the front of a tartan army parade in Providence during the World Cup. Dawn has also appeared at events ranging from New England Patriots games to this past weekend's Dominican Festival. And now she's on the podcast with her owner, Justin Tames. Welcome to the podcast. What's going on? How you doing? Very good. So we've interviewed a lot of political animals here on the Rhode Island Report podcast, but this is the first time we've had a duck as a guest. So I know Dawn is a true local celebrity, right? And I see she has nearly 40,000 followers on Instagram. So am I right that Dawn now has her own manager and sponsors? Yes, absolutely. By Tizzy Kay's ice cream, Sophia's calf, the restaurant. Jeep Rangler will be going around ducking jeeps. We had a meeting with Tesla. They want to put Dawn in the commercial and call it Cyberduck. Dawn and I are going to be the next Emo and Doug. You're going to see us and press Skip ad because you want to play your music. And tell me about her jeweler. I see she has her own jeweler. Yeah, she does. Shout to her jeweler, Anthony. He's over there in North Providence, Ocean State Diamond Company. Wow. Yeah. And what's she wearing today? She's wearing her sunglasses, you know. She insists that I get her the matching pair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She has her jewelry on, her mother Mary. In her anklet. So bring us back to the beginning. Where did you find Dawn? And when was that? 2004, June 28th. I met Dawn at a store called tractor supply in Mike Johnston. How much should it cost to purchase Dawn? $7. $7. Where did you get the idea for getting a duck? I always wanted a duck since I was a kid. Huh. I had another duck before. His name was Affleck, but he was nothing like Dawn. Yeah, how were Affleck and Dawn different? Because Aflack wasn't socialized. I flak was just a duck that was just for one person and it wasn't getting shit. Yeah. I had a different mindset then. Yeah. I wasn't sharing my pet with people. Right. I wasn't really much about people's person. Yeah. So now ever since I got done, I've been a little more changed in my ways, a little more open, you know, realizing that everybody's somebody's somebody, and I take my time and spend time with everybody and get to know what's going on. And the idea of her becoming famous was not my idea. This was everybody else's ideas from Rhode Island put into one duck. All I did was listen to the smarter person. This was not my plan. She followed me everywhere. So she would just follow me everywhere. And then people, oh my god, that's a duck. That's your pet duck. I'm like, yes. Oh my gosh, she has a chain on. Can I take a picture? Sure. Why not? I was just a guy that shared my pet with the world and then the world would invite me in all these different places. I think you should bring Dawn hair. I think you should bring her hair. And everybody can have their own experience of holding her, taking pictures, and seeing her different places. Oh, I was there when she was at the UFC fight. I was there at the PC. Everybody has their own story. I seen her at the beach. She was at the club. Then my manager said, I think you should make a social media.

And that's why I made a social media. I made the one when she was two months, two months of age. What was the first event where you brought her out, where people were drawn to her? I would have to say, I had a nightclub called Fishko. Okay. By my buddy Buzzi Entertainment. He's the one that invited me there. And I went over there, I had a good time with Dawn over there, and then she became viral from right there. Yeah. And she likes the nightclubs, right? Yeah. And then I see you and Dawn started going to New England Patriots games. Yes. Yeah, what was the reaction like there? When we got there, they knew who he was. They let us right in. Wow. I was like, yes, let's go. We could ask, is that all that celebrity exposure changed on? Is she the same duck you knew when you got in the same exact duck? She doesn't even know she's famous. All she knows is that she's getting loved from everyone. Yeah. So I met you and Dawn in June, back in June when Scotland was playing soccer up at Gillette Stadium and the Tartan Army was here with their fan base and they had a march with, what, 3,000 people marching through the streets of Providence, playing bagpipes, beating drums. And Dawn was leading the parade, right? Tell us about that at that moment. When Scotland came, they already knew who Dawn was from when she made her appearance on ESPN. at the Gillette Stadium. Oh, and that's being from the Patriots game. Yeah, so they knew who she was, and then they gave us a flag, and they insisted that we led the army. That is so cool. So none of this was part of my plan, this was their plan. I just, you know, went with the flow. Yeah, what did the Scots think of Dawn? They love Dawn. They call it Dawn McDuck. I love it. And you're still in touch with some of the Scottish fans, right? What are they doing with? I've been talking to them every day, meeting new people from here. They went for me to get a passport and go out there so they can show me a good time. Are you going to bring Dawn to Scotland? Absolutely. He's going to be a star. She's going to be a star the show over there. And that story about Dawn leading the parade, how far and why did that story go? I saw headlines in a lot of papers. Yeah, she made it on about six ESPNs that night. Wow. All across the globe. I've seen Brazil, Mexico, Scotland. Dominican Republic, Haiti, Spain, Africa. She was a hit. So Dawn's got an international worldwide following him at this point, right? She does. All from starting an attractive supply to this kind of exposure. I also read that Merlin, a two-year-old duck named Merlin, has become the face of Mexico's soccer team wearing a tiny team Mexico jersey. So what's the story there? Are Dawn and Merlin buddies, or are the competitors? Dawn and Merlin are buddies. I love animals. Still love for the animals. Never die down. I love Merlin. I just think it's crazy how Merlin became more famous than Dawn in two weeks. And Dawn's been doing this for two years. Proud of Merlin. I love that. He even got to meet his own president. We didn't get to do that yet, right, Dawn? Not yet, right? But Dawn has met a lot of the elected leaders here in Rhode Island, right? Yes, absolutely. And I saw that Dawn just appeared at the Dominican Festival and Providence this past weekend. How did that go? Oh, that would wonderful.

She's actually Dominican. It's my Dominican Pato, you know. Dominican dog. She's a party animal. Nobody parties hired to Dominican people. So, yes, we had fun that day. You know, we was part of March there, too. And I saw that she got to meet and greet with some of the local leaders, right? The mayor and the candidate for mayor. Brett Smiley, Dan McKee. Yeah, so, you know, Rhode Island Report covers politics. And I've seen Dawn posing, as you mentioned, with Governor McKee, Democratic Challenger, Helena Folks. Has Dawn decided who she's going to vote for in the September primary? I don't believe that Dawn's voting at all. She's just a duck for the people. I mean, all people. Yeah. She's worldwide famous, but we're not too famous for our Rhode Islanders, and we're reping Rhode Island. So we're here for everyone. The good, the bad, the uglies. And do I remember correctly that you registered Dawn as a service duck, right? So what does that mean? Can she get into? certain places that other ducks can't go? That means she should be allowed everywhere that I can go. Right. You know, for my own personal service reasons. But that doesn't always work that way. And that's fine, too. Yeah. The duck made me realize that everybody is somebody and the duck's not for everybody. And that's okay, too. So I saw on Instagram a form for students to interact with Don. You've seen that. Yeah, yeah. So you must bring her to schools, right? Tell us how that feels. They love it over there. They know who she is. How did the kids respond to Dawn? They love Dawn. They go crazy. She's like you said, she's a local celebrity. So when they see Dawn, they go crazy. They want to hold her. And she's only three pounds, so anyone can hold her. They take their pictures with her and make that day. Yeah. How does someone get along with other ducks? I know she gets along great with people. She's just very unbothered. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty chill. Pretty chill. Does that take up all your time working with Dawn or do you do other work? Yeah, I quit my job for this duck. So everything I do is this. with this duck. This duck does a lot, though, you know. She goes to schools, nursing homes, children's hospitals, adult daycare centers. We do cancer races. We do autistic walks. I'm even working on the children's book right now. It's going to be called how Dawn phoned her quack. It's going to be based on recycling. It's going to have two messages in this book. Yeah, what are the two messages? The first message is going to be the reason why it's safe to recycle. And the second message is going to be no matter how old someone is, they can still learn something new from somebody younger than them. Oh, great messages. What did you do before Dawn came into your life? Yeah, I quit my job for this dog. But before Dawn came in, I was an Uber driver and a mechanic. I can fix your car, I'll give you a ride. And then I have my own hobbies where I collect old school cars. I pimped rides and I go to car shows. So for a while, I saw that Dawn was described as the unofficial mascot of the Providence College friars, right, the men's basketball team. But in 2024, Dawn was banned from the amp. Ban from the amp. Yeah. And the convention center general managers told WJR as much as some people might have thought it was key. There were other people that we got responses back from the public thinking it was kind of cruel to the animal. What do you make of that? I call that a blessing in disguise because we went from college to the NFL. So we're still living our best life. No one's trying to really stop Dawn shine, you know? Yeah. But what do you say to people who think that bringing Dawn into a crowded arena or any other place is bad for the duck? No. I'd be like, oh, I'm happy. I'd you like my duck more than I do. You know, you care for my duck. I appreciate that. Yeah. And she's so calm around people. Is that just her demeanor? Oh, yeah. I had this day she hatched, and I raised her by passing around to everybody in Rhode Island. So she thinks everybody's her cousin in them. In Rhode Island, it could be the case. It's a small place. What's next for Dawn the Duck? That's a good question. Every day is an adventure with Dawn and I. We can go anywhere and we're making somebody's day. We can leave here and go to the restaurant at that store, and we've been waiting to meet this duck.

My mom loves this duck. My kids love this duck, you know? So anyway, we can go outside and just walk the bridge. She loves the bridge. Yeah, is that one of her favorite places to go to the pedestrian bridge. So since it's Tuesday, I go by the days of the week. So today is Tuesday. So today I will be hanging with Providence Drum Troops. Every Tuesday, they come to the bridge and perform. And I like to be part of that and help them turn up. That's cool. Way do you see Dawn in five years? That's a good question. How long do ducks live? I'm from 18 and 25 years. Oh, wow. So, yeah, Don't just getting gone. Just getting gone. So five years, I'm probably doing the same thing, but reaching out to more states. They're visiting schools in California, nursing homes over in Florida. You know what I'm saying? Yep. A family flew all the way from Texas just to do a meeting group with the duck. Wow. And a couple of other states been reaching out to me. Like, I can't wait for you to come in my town. How has Don changed you? She changed me by... All the priceless smiles I get to see on people's faces. I'll see somebody having a bad day. They see dawn their eyes light up. They forget whatever the problem they had. They forget that they had to pay their bill that month. And I was like, yo, you just made my day. Or I never held a duck before. That's my favorite line right there. It makes me know that I'm making history with everybody. Oh, I held the duck. Yo, I never did that before. I just made history. I'm the one that did that for you. So I got another goal, right? Got two goals. My first goal is to be following more people than anybody's ever following on social media. Huh. Because Ducks follow people. This is out the eyes of her. And my second goal is to become like the next Alan Sean Feinstein. Huh. I'm saying? Visiting all schools, putting smiles on faces. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So maybe a Dawn the Ducks scholar instead of an Alan Sean, Feinstein scholar. Yeah, that'd be pretty nice. If we could reach them goals because we're pulling up for the right reasons every time. Yeah, what are the reasons? What's motivating it? I guess they're calling us a role model. So when you get looked at as being a role model, you got to make sure you're making all the right moves, you know, helping the youth out because the youth is the future. So if we could, you know, get in their heads and let them know that life does get better and that change can be hard and we're going to get through this together as a community, you know? Yeah. We could do this because now don't. That's one thing about Dawn. Don't come bring a community together. I would stand in one place for 20 minutes, and you see so many people surrounding Dawn, and they don't even know each other, but they know Dawn. Right, right. And Dawn speaks all languages. Seriously. Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of different languages being spoken during the World Cup here, and Dawn was in the middle of it. What's the main question people have for you about Dawn? I would say, does she fly? Does Dawn fly much? No, she doesn't fly much, but she stays fly. And what does she eat? What does she eat? She eats anything. But I try to feed her the good stuff. So I like to feed her duck food, like the little duck pellets. Fruits, fruits, vegetables, she loves lettuce. I mentioned Taylor Swift in the introduction. You know, could Dawn get as big as Taylor Swift? I would say, yes, it's possible because you can't really compare an animal to a human. And I know a lot of people that don't listen to Taylor Swift, but know who doing the duck is. Good point. So it's like, you got to put it in different departments, you know. Animals is animals. Humans is humans. So Dawn the Duck, I want to give her a chance any final words? Well, well said. All right. Well, Dawn, Justin Thames, thank you for joining us today. Oh, thank you for having me. Rhode Island Report is a production of the Boston Globe. Today's episode was produced by Megan Hall. Our music is from 8 p.m. Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. I'm Ed Fitzpatrick. See you next week.

I gotta squeeze out in there sometimes.