At long last…

It seems as though you’ve been waiting as patiently for the story of my first moose meeting as I did get to meet my first moose. Excellent. Here goes….

The adventure began earlier than planned. Even before we left Ontario, I had a sneaking suspicion that I might have my first moose sighting. Little did I know I’d have two.

Ok. Admittedly, the first was a bit of a letdown. The moose didn’t look very real, and to top it off, it did not look impressed by me at all.

The second, though more life-like, was equally unimpressive. I was beginning to lose hope that I would ever run into the real thing. I mean, knowing my luck, the zoo would be closed or their resident moose would be out with the flu.

On Friday, after very little sleep due to Air Canada’s unexplained delay and some idiot’s decision not to take the plane after everyone was boarded and belted in, forcing the crew to go through all the luggage until they found his, we made our way over to the famed Saskatoon Forestry Farm. Let me mention first of all that we may have been the only adults there without children accompanying them. I felt a bit weird wandering around, but my mission was too important to abandon because someone might get creeped out by us.

I have to admit that the SFF was way better than I thought it would be. They have a tiger who was immense and beautiful and terribly annoyed at the sprinkler they had going off in her cage. Among other things, they also have a lynx, a grey wolf and two bald eagles, all of which I had never seen in real life before. The wolf was extremely cool. And scary. But he didn’t stay out of his house very long. We quickly learned that visiting the zoo at high noon in the heat of the summer isn’t the best idea.

Anyway, we made our way through all the sections; small animals, birds, carnivores. And as if the zoo knew I was coming, the hoofed animals were the last on the path. But I didn’t care. I was there and I was about to meet my moose.

Unfortunately, the heat forced him into the water at the faaaaaaaaar end of his enclosure. I wasn’t able to get the feel for how giant moose really are – but he was still amazing. Much to Dan’s chagrin, I stood there snapping pictures from every angle for much longer than I should have.

So, there you have it. I saw my first moose. I thought I would feel somewhat changed by it, but I feel quite the same as I did before the sighting. But it was still worth it. I can officially scratch it off my ‘101 things to do before I die’ list and concentrate on the next item, though I imagine that the African safari isn’t going to happen anytime soon.