Moose

When we lived in Newfoundland, we rarely travelled on the Trans Canada Highway at night. The reason, MOOSE. The danger from the huge animals was real. Dusk, dawn, night, day, it didn't matter. The highway was a raceway for moose. Many moose-vehicle accidents occurred all over the island with numerous injuries and deaths every year. Night time on the roads was so dangerous because drivers were upon the moose before they saw the huge animals.

We had a near encounter once on the Buchans highway just after our daughter was born. That night, all my husband, Rick and I saw was the underbelly of the moose above our Volkswagen Rabbit. Our infant daughter, waiting at home, could have been orphaned.

One of our colleagues at school, Sister Amelia Mooney, had a prayer she said every time she was on the highway. Amelia taught me her prayer. She said, "Jesus, keep the moose in the woods." I said that prayer almost constantly when we travelled. There were even times it was not said in prayer!

On one of our picnic excursions in the autumn after we retired, we came upon this young moose on a road in Green Bay. 

We kept our distance and followed the animal up the road, hoping that another vehicle was not coming from the opposite direction. This encounter was uneventful.

Now, this beautiful creature is as close as we get to moose. 

This one had a place of honour on the mantel of Richard and Classie Mercer, Rick's grandparents. There aren't any moose on Prince Edward Island. We notice the absence of the threat to life and limb when we travel the highway at night. Short trips off island bring us back to reality however. For now though, a glass moose is as close to the real thing as we like to be.