Magic Moose

The sun was rising across the swake, mist was swirling upward as the earth warmed with daylight.  It was Sunday, September 22, 2013 and we were sipping coffee and visiting in the living room as we watched the day emerge.  Kanti was lying peacefully in the corner of the room, acting like a grown up mature dog for once.  The sounds of our houseguests getting ready for their day rose up the stairwell.  All was well on the swake.  Heartbeats were at normal resting rate; it was a moment of repose.

But repose is generally short-lived in our lives these days, and Sunday morning was no exception.  Greg suddenly whispered to me, "Don't move just look outside."  Well I had been reading Dan Brown's, Inferno, so my imagination leapt forward to SWAT teams in full military gear and my heart rate soared.  Gone was the peaceful relaxation of a Sunday dawning on the swake, gone in the wild imaginings of an instant.  

As my imagination raced from one improbable possibility to another, I dared to peak outside and there sauntering across the front of the house was a young male moose.  Imagine if you will, Kanti on the inside of a wall of windows and a moose wandering through her territory about forty feet away on the other side of the windows.  We were on the brink of sheer chaos and the poor houseguests had no idea of the events developing above them.  

Two things happened simultaneously that prevented the chaos from becoming reality.  Greg walked quietly to the stairwell and let the guests know there was a moose visiting.  His actions diverted Kanti's attention from the windows and I was able to wrestle and bribe her into the garage before she caught on.  Chaos was averted as the guests scrambled up the stairs to see the wildlife.  

There we stood, the four of us, watching as the moose meandered by.  Greg had mentioned to me the previous evening that he wished our guests could see a moose.  You see, one of our guests hasn't ever really had a close encounter with a moose and therefore has a standing story about moose only existing as pictures on yellow signs labeled "attention" in the national parks.  Even if we had been able to custom order wildlife viewings for our guests, we wouldn't have dreamt of asking that a moose walk right by the front windows.  That would have seemed demanding and outrageous, somewhat self-serving.  We probably would have placed a wildlife viewing order of the moose crossing the swake out in the swampy area, somewhere it would be more comfortable, even though it would have required keen eyesight.

The moose provided one of our classic magical moments on the swake.  The kind of moment where we are able to share the wonder of the place we are privileged to live with others, and it was all because Greg wished it to be so.  I'd better get him busy wishing on other things since that worked so well.         

  

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