An early morning surprise...

On workdays, we are normally up around 5am and about 5:30, Squirt gets to go outside. Recently, we have had a lot of ice form on our deck and it is extraordinarily slick. Since I am the first one up and out the door, I am always very careful to hold onto the railing going down the stairs as I don't want to slip, fall and wait for 30 minutes for a rescue in the cooler weather.

One day this last week, I was taking Squirt outside and as normal, gripping the railing, going down one step at a time, very slowly while Squirt was already at the west gate waiting for me - impatiently - to get there. It was just another typical, dark and cool winter day.

Squirt finished running around the yard and I closed the gate and we headed back towards the door. That's when I heard...

"CRUNCH! CRUNCH! SNAP! CRUNCH!"

I stopped and peered off into the darkness...

Sure enough, there was a moose munching away on our crab apple tree about 5 feet from the back door of the house. She was on the other side of our East gate but I don't know how Squirt and I missed her on the way out.

She wasn't bothered by us in the least and Squirt knows better than to take on a dog that big without glass between them.

We watched her for a while and then went inside and told Robert there was a moose just off of the porch.

And that the SNAP I heard was one of the tree limbs being sheared off.

Robert immediately went out and shooed her away and sadly I didn't get any pictures.

As luck would have it though, this morning about 8am, there was a different moose in the same spot. This time, I got the camera to take a picture. Of course, it was still pitch black (sun rose this morning about 10) and I couldn't see anything through the view finder.

I have some great black pictures (I call them night sky with no flash). Several ear shots in lower corners of the frame. Here are two of the better ones. At least you can see how close to the deck she was in the first picture. (The wood on the left side is part of the trellis.)

I did run upstairs and to let Robert know we had a moose emergency and that I was going to try to send it to the front yard away from the fruit trees. (Just in case there was an icident and she decided to come over the fence toward me instead of the other way. Hey - it was -4 this morning. Not a day to be lounging on the back porch in your sweats and a simple shirt. (Who needs a coat when there's moose pictures to take!))