More Moose

I was just wrapping up a tender phone call with my beloved last night when I heard an unusual "clunk." I looked down from the 3rd floor just in time to see a mooseling trip across my deck, through a rock garden and down the path to the "kitchen" - which is how I've come to think of the area around my house.

I think I am glad I did not see Mama moose lead the way - which I am sure she did. However, she must have skirted the rock garden, while baby went straight through. Somehow all the damage that was done is one two-inch deep depression - with a squished pansy plant at the bottom. I've come to understand that the long stride of these animals mitigates damage. When moving, they pass over much - much better than the mess left behind by a roving porcupine. How the little one managed to avoid colliding with the trellis for the canary vine at the top of the rock garden beats me. But I'm grateful. It's one of the mysteries of human/wildlife interaction. Maybe they have sonar.

Though I love these animals; though my Medicine Cards tell me that moose medicine is "knowing what to say, when to say it, and to whom" - medicine which I sorely need - I wanted this particular moose family to move on. But the local pantry was just too appealing. I began to wonder if they had their eyes on the fresh straw I just used for garden mulch. It took me the better part of an hour - and the application of multiple methods - to convince them to leave.

As a last resort, I started my skill saw. It's very noisy. The little ones skittered away. Mama ambled after them completely unconcerned about the noise - only, presumably, about keeping her offspring in sight. But, as she went, she looked over her shoulder as if to say, "I'll be back." I am choosing to think that she is both pest and protector - as long as she is around, my more ferocious friend, the grizzly, isn't. That's good. I hope to never see them in the "kitchen" together. That might be a terrible mess.