(More moose pictures below,)

Moose stories:

One very dark night in the dead of winter I went out to the back of my property to bring the horses to the barn.  At the time, there were 2 dark bay mares so I went after the one farther out.  To my surprise, I just about haltered a young cow that we referred to as "Cutesie".  She looked so much like the horses in the moonless night.  Of course, she wasn't going for the whole haltering idea and trotted off.

"Cutesie" the moose was so named because she was small for her age (about 6 months when she first arrived) and was alone.  We don't know if she was abandoned by her mother or orphaned.  She hung around and fed off the numerous willows around the property.  She would also help the horses with their hay.  One day a very disagreeable cow with a young calf came around and chased Cutsie and any human within eyesight.  Needless to say she was "not nice."  Jim McCann was boarding his horse with me at the time and offered to help get rid of the nasty intruder by spraying pepper spray at her.  After several charges and spray attempts the cow got the idea when some spray got in her eyes.  Cutesie made sure she stayed behind us through the whole ordeal...quite happy to see the old broad leave.

A few years ago, a huge bull with an impressive rack made our home his during every hunting season.  He would show up opening day and lounge around in the tall grass until it closed.  Its amazing how animals can figure this stuff out.  Most of the time, all you could see of him was his antlers sticking above the 4 foot high grass.  Sadly, after about 5 seasons, we heard that he had been hit by a car on Farmers Loop and died.  What a tragic waste of a beautiful animal.

   Just one of the local sites.

   Taken in a yard near Anchorage.