Moose came a-calling to Clarks Point.
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The first clue was when I took the dog out for her morning walk, I noticed what look to be the hoof prints of a very large animal. Immediately I thought of a moose. After all, it’s Maine! But in fifteen years we haven’t seen one here, except in Grey at the Maine Wildlife Park. I just told Donna what I’d seen and began the day.
We drove to Portland to visit Trader Joe’s, dropped in at Running With Scissors where there was a craft show going on. Then we went to the outstanding!!! Miss Portland diner for lunch and then to New England University’s campus to see Everyday Maine, a wonderful exhibition of nearly 100 images of Mainers doing what Mainers do - work, play, sleep, laugh, cry, eat and live.
Returning to Wiscasset at about 3pm, I dropped off Donna and went to do an errand. Donna had been in the back, dead-heading some petunias when our dog, Pippa, went on point, not a usual stance for a herding dog. But she had sensed the moose and was watching. On Donna’s command, Pippa came back to the house.
Donna called me. “Remember those tracks you saw yesterday? It was a moose. And I’m looking right at him.”
I rushed back to Clarks Point, in about five minutes. The moose was still there. In fact she stayed an hour. Moved very little. Was not skittish, Just calmly munched away on an organic spring salad of green shoots, branches and leaves. As much as you know I wanted to get really, really close, even at 30 feet or so I could see that she was formidable ... about 3 1/2 feet tall and solid. A woman on Facebook, who saw the pictures, said it looked like a 6-7 month old cow.
After I went away, so did the moose ... carefully walking down the steep, rocky landscape. We can see the Sheepscot River, but we’re far back from the coastline. It’s rough going.
All day, Donna and I have been looking out the window - looking for the moose. So far, nothing.
