First off these are NOT my photos...I took them from the Internet!
I don't even know who was so fortunate to take them!
BUT...
...this very shot could easily have been mine last night... On my way to the local store for a loaf of bread & some bananas,
I found a cow & calf on my road!
Because the snow is deep & capped in an ice crust,
Mum didn't want to give up the road!
Once they are in deep snow, they can't move quickly enough to escape the wolves, and even if there are no wolves around at the moment...their shins can be ravaged by the hard crust!
Instead, she took her calf, that was about the size of this one, down the road in front of my truck!
I was SOOOO glad that I was driving my new 1/2 ton instead of my tiny little car...especially when she turned around and looked right at me!!
You see, a Mama Moose KNOWS she is big & powerful & for her to challenge a mere vehicle is NOT unheard of! Heck... a few summers ago one kicked a Grissley to death for killing her calf!
Anyhow, the two sauntered in front of my car for a good long time.
At one point I stopped to see if she'd look for a safe place to leave the road.
The two just stopped & stood there in front of me!
I really needed that bundle of bananas for the twins & the store wasn't going to open it's doors after hours just because I'd been held up by a moose or two...
With this in mind, I tried, gently, to nudge them along!
With icy roads, I was careful not to send them into a frightened run for fear one of them would silp & break a leg...I also couldn't help but worry that I was sending those two magnificent creatures straight onto the Alaska Highway (as it was only a stones throw up the road). Suddenly their saftey was far more important than a bundle of bananas...I stopped again.
Finally, once in the residential area, Mum found a break in the snow & bounded into the bush, taking her child with her!!
So...I ask...
Who has ever watched the TV show "North of 60' "?
Well, for a very long moment, I felt like I was in the middle of their filming set!
Really now, I know I live in the Yukon & all, but...a Cow Moose & Calf in
down town Haines Junction impeding my efforts to get to the store before it closes? THAT, friends, doesn't happen every day!
Not that this has anything to do with last night's adventure...I just have this thing about Mummy's with twins...
no matter what the species.
:)
****************
Wishing that all of your traffic jams
are as fabulous as mine ;)
9 comments:
At the beginning of May last year, I drove behind a cow moose for a good 3 km because she wouldn't leave the road. This was after a winter with a LOT of snow and miserable grazing for the moose. She stopped and looked at me a few times (I was crawling along at maybe 5 clicks) as if to beg me to go away... She eventually took off along a bush road.
downtown Haines Junction. HA!
Hi Allmycke! Aren't we lucky! I really wish I'd had my camera with me...but than again, it was too dark to get any image anyways...The whites of their tails & hind legs reflecting back from my highbeams, really surprised me....They are such beautiful animals...THAT was NO surprise :)
And dearest Tricia...everything IS relative ;) hehehehehehe
Ha! Here, killing a cockroach sometimes temporarily keeps me from what I was going to do! At the same time, I don't really miss having only one grocery store that closes at 6pm!(Is that it? Can't remember anymore...) Although it IS entertaining to run into everyone you know at Madley's....
Just last week a moose ran across the road only 500m from my house!! Same spot two grizzlies crossed last summer, but one was hit by a car and died. I prefer the moose in town over the grizzlies though!!!
Hay Kara! Heather here...I'd rather take my chances runninginto a lone Griz, than a cow & calf! Mind you NEITH would be desirable hiking mates!
heheh good point!! Those mama moose are pretty damn mean! I remember my parents having to drive us up the driveway to catch the school bus because a cow moose and calf were camping out in our bales. She even charged the truck a few times!
Hello Fitzgeralds - Toronto calling - As dogsledders hope you would check out this book from one of the people that I knew in the 70's when I was up in the Yukon. His name is Bruce T. Batchelor and he and a gal went out in winter with their dogs to live it RUFF - LOL - The book is called NINE DOG WINTER - Bruce had a dome shaped cabin somewhere out of Whitehorse that I used to visit - its still all a dream to me living up there - here is a link to his CBC interview - http://www.ninedogwinter-book.com/BruceNDWcbc.mp3 - hope you enjoy - I have very fond memories of Bruce - he now lives in Victoria and owns a publishing company. My friends Jon Rudolph and Carol Racz had a bunch of dogs up at Fish Lake Road just outside of Whitehorse and Jon used to do the Iditerod (sp.) - While I lived in the now Duffy's Pets with sunken livingroom - white shag carpet - my expression was - "DARLING I LOVE YOU BUT GIVE ME PARK AVENUE" - LOL - TDOT just got another dump of the white stuff - I love it. Blessings Gone To The Dogs.
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