It was a drive-by moosing

When I was younger, my mother took my brother and me to Yellowstone for a camping trip. Her main goal was to see wildlife - specifically moose. Each day she would tell us that we couldn't leave until she saw a moose and on the very last day that we could be there, she finally saw her moose. It was a big deal then and my mom still gets excited at the opportunity to see a real, in-person moose.

Fast forward to today...

I have been in Canada for a little over a week and for the past few days, two beautiful moose have been lounging about - sleeping, leaving moose drops, and eating their fill of the landscape. I am quite taken with them. Every time I see them, I think of my mom and how thrilled she would be to see a moose, live and in person, from her yard.

When I went out to gather some firewood this afternoon, I heard some rustling around the corner. I thought it was one of the neighbors, walking around their property. I was getting ready to introduce myself to them when a snout (complete with the "humph" of blowing out), a couple of ears, and then a full-sized, fuzzy brown face complete with neck, body, and legs lumbered around the corner.

Five feet away from me stood the object of my recent fascination and the only thing that ran through my brain was my mother's voice - "they can be aggressive". I froze, Mr. Moose froze, and I forgot all about the very heavy log I was holding. I didn't know what to do so I dropped the log, right in front of the door, and backed up to the hot tub, as Mr. Moose took two steps into the porch area. As my heart raced, my brain frantically searched for the things I should do. Do I make a lot of noise? Do I curl up in a ball on the ground? Do I just stand there and hope Mr. Moose decides he really can't fit under the porch and move on? All of these frantic thoughts were interspersed with "oh shit", and "just how can I tell Jackie and Rod what happened to their patio furniture?" In the thirty seconds we were standing staring at each other, I finally came up with a plan - I'll hop into the hot tub and just wait for the moose to head out. And apparently, the moose came to the decision that he could, in fact, fit in the patio.

As the moose took another two steps into the patio area, he looked up at me with a little shit-eating grin on his moose-y mouth. I've seen that look many times from my children so the next thing that came out of my mouth was a strong "NO!" followed by the mom-glare. To my surprise, Mr. Moose backed up. As Mr. Moose meandered away from the patio, his companion meandered in. I don't think I've ever moved as fast as I did just then. I had a few seconds before 2nd Mr. Moose filled 1st Mr. Moose's spot so I kicked the log out of the way of the door and spilled into the house, heart beating, sweat pooling on my brow, and breathing almost to the point of hyperventilation - but one hell of a story. Oh, and I also check the perimeter before using any door that exits to the outside.