Late Night Snack

I let Little Girl out for a last potty at 10:30 p.m. and she was gone forever. I went outside and heard rustling from the pasture grasses and figured she was sniffing rabbit scents. I was going to give her another ten minutes or so. I went back out the front door again. She was on the porch and went down from it, onto the lawn not wanting to come in. Then I saw the large, dark shape on the white snow of the front lawn (last night was our first snow fall of a couple inches). Little Girl slinked towards it on the lawn but kept her distance. As my eyes adjusted, I could see it was Mom Moose, making her way to the chokecherry tree just off the Forget Me Not Room bathroom. Moose just plod along slowly and don’t deviate often from their intentions. Little Girl went over to within about 10 feet of her. Little Girl sat down in the snow and just watched. I did, too, from the porch. It was so still and silent. The air smelled good, fresh, and a little wet, from the snow. I could hear not only the leaves being ripped off, but also lip-smacking sounds, and the pits of the cherries being ground between her teeth. I stood and waited. Yes, there it was. There’s a certain blip-blip-blip when she puts her mouth around a branch midway up, then zips down it, stripping off all the leaves and cherries. She pulled hard on one branch and it ripped its bigger branch closer to the trunk. It was a sharp sudden crack. That startled Little Girl who got all up in the moose’s face, barking her fool head off. She chided that moose and decided it was time for that moose to go. Mom Moose disagreed and kept eating. I was a little worried about Little Girl waking up the guest downstairs. Little Girl will have good dreams tonight, letting out little muffled woofs and paddling her feet as she sleeps on her dog bed.