Until recently, Janet Messineo never considered herself an artist. Never mind that over the past 25 years Ms. Messineo, the Island’s only taxidermist, has recreated life itself thousands of times over, as evidenced by the glistening fish of all sizes adorning the walls of her basement workrooms. Although there are a few odd birds in one room, and a set of deer hooves lying on a shelf in another, there’s no question about what Ms. Messineo’s speciality is.

Mary Hurley Gosselin had an awful blind date in high school. She and her date had gone to play mini golf, she remembered, but “the game was terrible, [and] the date was worse.” After that, Mrs. Gosselin said, “I wanted nothing to do with mini golf.”

After enduring four games in three days, the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Soccer under-15 team defeated the Dorchester Lions 2-1 Sunday in the finals of the Massachusetts Tournament of Champions to bring home the state title — a prize that’s eluded them throughout each of their nevertheless-successful seasons.

There are seventy-two alpacas grazing the daisy-dotted acreage of Island Alpaca Company in Oak Bluffs. But chances are, the first animal visitors seen upon walking into the enormous barn on the property won’t be one of them.

Newcomers often furrow their brows, puzzled, and ask the staff if the tall shaggy creature with the skinny legs, big ears and knowing, curious face is a male alpaca.

“This is Sudrina,” the staff answers. “She’s our llama.” The only llama.

Pitchers’ duels ruled the day in the two Little League Championship games at Veira Park on Saturday afternoon. The league-leading Cubs picked up their second title in a row with a 2-1 win over the second-place Pirates in the Majors game, while the Marlins won 3-1 over the Reds in the Minor League contest.

Early threats of thunderstorms faded into cloudless blue skies as Cubs ace Aidan Aliberti took the mound for his first of four 1-2-3 innings to start things off.