The Day We Learned About Moose

I love our little city... some days it feels like we live in an episode of Northern Exposure and today was no exception.  Over the past few weeks there have been multiple sightings of a moose around the town.  One day the elementary school kids had to have inside recess because the moose reportedly charged the fence and then decided to go across the street and hang out in the church parking lot.  The moose also chased my friend Jessica on her run and then later that day ended up in my friend Tami's yard. 

Tami called us to tell us about the moose in her yard and so we did what any suburbanite family would do on a Saturday night, we grabbed our camera and packed up our family and the friend that was over in the mini-van and headed out for an adventure. 

Sure enough, a moose was in Tami's front yard and was really having his/her way with their bushes.  We snapped pictures and the kids were very excited.  I got a little nervous when Katelyn and Anna rolled down the window while asking numerous questions that I am sure the moose could hear with Brooke squealing "moose moose moose" in the background.  But since we like to live on the edge, we drove down the street a little further, turned the van around and parked on the same side of the street as their house for a better view.  That is when I learned about moose. 

Honestly, it's one of those animals I don't think about that much, so I couldn't remember what the plural form was... are they mooses, or meece?  Well, as I re-learned, moose is both the singular as well as the plural form.  When I learned that eons ago in an animal science unit in elementary school, it didn't seem like an important distinction... a detail I won't soon forget this time.   The mama moose sauntered around from the back of Tami's neighbor's house to check on her baby and that's when a moose became the moose.

The pictures don't do their size justice.  Between low light and my shaking hands, these photos were the best we could do.  Who knows, maybe they will come to our house next time for a better shot - after all, they are probably buddies with our porcupine friend.