Tranquilizer:1, Moose:0

Every so often something so odd happens that it deserves a sneeze of a discussion. Today a poor lost moose was minding its own business at a Fargo, North Dakota hotel, and suddenly found itself the object of much fuss.  Poor thing. It probably just wanted a room for the night.

Instead, the police surrounded it as though it had done something wrong.  A person has to wonder about how exactly that went for Mr. Moose.  For example, since a moose can not see directly in front of it, anyone standing directly in front of Mr. Moose might not have even been seen.  What if one person had come on its right, and then another person on its left?  It's bad enough to be worried about one person that might be a threat, but to have two problems might be more than any one moose could take! How scary it might have been.

Once the Moose Cowboys had the offending Mr. Moose completely encircled, they nicely sent the poor creature to sleepy land.  While the Big Antlered Guy snoozed on, they completely changed his environment.  When he awoke, no more nice hotel.  Instead he had to live in a Wildlife Preserve.

But oh!  to add insult to injury, they painted a large X on the side of Mr. Moose.  The reason;  the tranquilizer drug might adversely affect any hunter that might shoot and eat Mr. Bullwinkle. The people in charge of Moose Naptimes and Relocation Services are also optimists that anyone iwth a large gun might have the sense to see the side of the moose in the hunting scope and say, "Hmmm....there's something funny here!"  They are counting that the hunter will then not shoot. 

Instead, the hunter could end up saying, "That moose has an "X" on it's side.  I wonder if I should shoot it.  Maybe I'll get a prize in some sort of competition or something."  It makes a person wonder why these Moose Painting Artists didn't just paint on a bullseye!

I wonder if anyone thought about why the sleeping medicine might be all right for the moose if it might make humans sick?  And way in the back hallway of my imagination sits an image of a moose lying on a couch, talking to a glasses clad Beaver who is lounging in the chair.  The moose says, "One minute I was heading for the front desk to stay in Fargo for the weekend and do a litle shopping at the mall, the next minute a bunch of men surounded me and sent me packing to the back forty!"  Poor traumatized guy.  I wonder if he'll ever get over it.

It must have been a very slow news day on the Minnesota-North Dakota border when a minor moose invasion brings out the troops and hour by hour news updates.  But maybe that's what makes this area such a great place in which to live.