Beanie said to me tonight, "Did you know I saw a moose at the park today?"
Me: "A moose? Really."
Bean: "I think so. It was big like a moose, and it had a moose’s tail."
(Because, you know, a moose’s tail is its distinguishing characteristic.)
Bean, continuing: "But it was a long way away."
Me: "Like, say, in Maine?"
Beanie (laughs): "No, Mommy, at the park. Here."
Me: "Ah, yes. You said that. Here. In San Diego. A moose. How did I miss it?"
Bean: "You were at the swings. I saw it from the climby thing. It might have been a dog. But I’m pretty sure it was a moose."
Me: "Well."
Bean: "Or…it could have been a person."
Hmm. Could it be that we are not quite the astute observers of nature I had supposed we were? I mean, there I was all proud of myself for identifying a viceroy butterfly on a eucalyptus tree, and I completely missed seeing the large dog-man with the tail of a moose.
A tiger? In Africa?
I completely sympathize with Beanie. I was once convinced that I saw an ostrich. In a wildlife preserve. On the Outer Banks. In North Carolina.
Everyone else thought it was just a man on a bicycle, but I ask you, what would a man on a bicycle be doing in NORTH CAROLINA??
Sasquatch. Definitely Sasquatch.
My mom once tried to tell us that she saw an alligator out in the ocean waves in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She was quite serious at the time. We called her on it and then she claimed that she was only joking. Hmm…it wasn’t her joking voice.
Still laughing!
It couldn’t be a zoo escapee, could it?
Tail business aside, you have a very prescient daughter.
That’s today’s dateline, by the way :). Now she just has to learn to say, “I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried”, with an earnest expression, of course.
Adorable! We moved back to my home state here in New England and my husband, after 4 years here, still has not seen a moose. Maybe he should visit a park in San Diego. (=
Maybe it is the start of some new CA trend for people to wear a tail and antlers? I’ve heard strange things about CA…
Well, you guys will just HAVE to come up to Maine, to see a real moose!
Hey, you see antlers, hooves, and pizza crusts, and you’re not thinking aardvarks now, are you?