Blogger Kathleen O'Brien Wilhelm an Internet Celeb After Her Patch Blog Goes Viral

If you haven’t read the blog from Avon-Avon Lake Patch blogger Kathleen O’Brien Wilhelm about the deer crossing sign, please come out from the rock you are hiding under.

Wilhelm’s blog, Animals Can’t Talk, was posted on Feb. 10, and got widespread attention on Feb. 16, when a popular website, buzzfeed.com, shared the link just before 3:30 p.m.  

Gawker.com, which focuses on celebrities and the media industry, reposted the blog, which earned more than 27,000 page views on that site alone. The blog inaccurately referred to Wilhelm as a columnist at first, then amending her to a blogger. (Bloggers are not employees of Patch.)

After spinning around the Internet for a few days, Cleveland-area media jumped on board. The Chronicle-Telegram did a front-page article featuring Wilhelm and the blog. WEWS Channel 5 ran this story.

The story was re-tweeted more than a thousand times, “recommended” on Facebook almost 8,000 times and resulted in a YouTube video poking Wilhelm in the eye on 1OneMinuteVideo.

Commenters across the globe wondered whether Wilhelm truly believed the signs were for the deer, much like "Donna the Deer Lady."  

Most comments directed toward Wilhelm were less than kind. Some believed it was irony and some humor. Some believe she really did think the signs were for the deer, not the humans. 

After nearly 150 comments, we closed it down when too many comments violated our Terms of Use.

We asked Wilhelm, whose blogs often take a political bent, if humor was what she was after.

"My blogs have included topics regarding government out of control at the expense of Americans, illegal aliens, jobless, and entitlements with titles like ‘Democrats are goosestepping to Obama,’" Wilhelm said. “None have received as many hits or gone viral as this blog. Anyone who reads it should see that the focus is concern that humans are becoming second rate to animals.

“Yes, I know the signs are for humans, but provide false hope to where the animals elect to go and another example of government wasting taxpayer's money on these signs. Perhaps, others should consider a blog; as in America, the greatest country in the world, we still have freedom thanks to our soldiers. "

Wilhelm has been a good sport about it. Neither the comments nor the notoriety stopped her from submitting another albeit less-than-controversial blog on Feb. 20.

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