Meet My Friend/ Stalker...

As of late, I've been running into a lot of deer while out walking Maverick. Maverick, my super strong pit/ lab mix, goes crazy over anything- birds, squirrels, other dogs- so just imagine how he is with multiple deer.

Because of this, and the fact that the roads were super icy, I decided to walk him a completely different route than normal. About half way into our walk (and as I was picking up his biz-niss), I looked up to see a moose standing less than 10 feet away- staring at me straight on. What the?!

I live in town people. My first thought was: "AWESOME!... My second- "Crap!" I was standing on solid ice, less than 10 feet away from a moose, with a dog who was now jumping, barking, and pulling towards the moose like no other.

I slowly and carefully backed away, and rounded the corner into the alley. The alley was icier than the sidewalk I was previously on- great. It was here that I noticed that the backyard the moose was in went into the icy alley I was now in. I stopped for a second contemplating what I should do. I decided to go back out of the alley and down the road, away from the moose. As I made my step towards the street, the moose ran in front of me, looked in my direction, and stopped. Grrr! I wanted to yell at the moose- "What are you thinking?! I'm trying to give you space and get this almost uncontrollable dog away from you!" If the moose decided to charge us I was out of luck. I was in an alley of solid ice, fenced in on both sides and that moose was blocking my closest exit.

So I stood still, or as still as I could with my raging dog, and the moose finally looked away, and took off trotting down the middle of the street.

The next morning I walked Mavi a completely different route. And when we were almost home and only 2 blocks away from my house, guess who we ran into again.

So I again, slowly backtracked, and took Maverick home yet a different route. But this time, I drove back with my car, and took some pictures for proof

Meet my friend/ stalker:

He's kind of cute right?

Many tourists would see my incident as a perfect picture taking opportunity. But moose are wild animals and deserve their space.

Earlier this year, an elderly man was out walking his dogs in Alaska and a moose, that was much further off than mine, charged him and almost stomped him to death. Luckily his 80- something year old wife ran to their truck, got a shovel, and whacked at the moose until he took off. Had it not been for his bad ass wife, the man could have died. I never felt like I was in this amount of danger, but wild animals are unpredictable- and deserve respect :)

Comments

  1. oh my gosh he is SUCH a cutie- seriously i just want to say "come her moosey, come give me a hug" (but said like a 4 year old/grandmother.. if that makes sense)

    but yes, you are SO RIGHT. wild animals need space and respect, and i'd probably have been terrified, as well...

    i can only hope to be such a bad-ass when i'm older.. "you go girl" for beating that moose with a shovel!

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  2. Majestic and terrifying at the same time! What an amazing animal.

    My parents have a house in the sticks and they carry pepper spray with them when walking their dog in the event that they run into wildlife that are getting a little too friendly. I just hope they never have to use it!

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  3. Oh wow, that is so amazing! What a beautiful creature, but I'm so glad you used caution around it!

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  4. Ash- I know exactly what you're talking about- 4 yr old grandma voices exist :)

    Shannon- That's so smart of them. We carry bear spray (crazy strong version of pepper spray) when we're out hiking in the summer just in case.

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  5. Oh my goodness, how scary and exciting at the same time. He's cute...but dang it I'd have been terrified!

    Glad you got to take some pictures from a safe distance though! He was totally creepin on you...that second photo cracks me up!

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  6. oh wow, that is amazing to see a wild animal like that up close, but i am glad that you were careful. maybe he wanted to make friends with maverick, and that's why he was stalking you.

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  7. Some weird moose tip my husband taught me: if you are ever by a moose that starts to charge/come at you, get behind a decent sized tree and hug it. Keep moving around it. Apparently since the moose is so big and gangly, it has a hard time running around a tree. Who knew?

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  8. Mina- That's what my cousin said haha. He's quite cute :)

    Jessica- what?! I have never heard that before- but that's really good to know lol

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