All about Moose

We have so many Moose stories I could probably write a book.

However right now it's more important to do the ugly side of the website which is exposing Chemlawn.

For now, I thought I'd write some quick vignettes about Moose:

• Moose was Stephanie's 13th birthday present. She asked for a dog ever since she could talk. We waited until she could help take care of one.

• Moose was my first dog. I didn't realize how destructive puppies were and I threatened to get rid of him every day  for the first year.

• When Moose was a puppy he ate my favorite black leather sandals, the only thing left were 2 heels.

• When Moose was about 4 months old he somehow got on the kitchen counter and devoured 2 pounds of frozen stew meat that was thawing out. I have no idea how he did it since he was so small and it seemed there was no way he could've reach the middle of the counter. I think he got a chair!

• Fuzzy and Moose were never more than a foot apart when Moose was inside.

• Moose's AKC registration says: SIR MOOSELOT II. (The 1st was already taken.)  Moose's sire was: Bullet of Allens Fresh, 1992 and his dam was Franny B of Allens Fresh, 1995.

• He would eat an entire loaf of french bread that he'd snatched off the counter and the only thing left on the floor was a partially eaten, shredded wrapper.

• Moose was a porker, we should have named him Pig instead of Moose. Talk about "food motivated".

• Moose made a good pillow.

• He loved to go swimming with the kids.  In the summer to keep cool, he'd take about 10 quick dips a day, if no one else was in the pool to play with.

• Moose was really smart and seem to understand everything we said.  So we started to spell words and he picked that up, too.

• Moose loved being dressed up in costumes. Sometimes he'd wear them all day. I think his wardrobe is bigger than mine! (Stephanie is our resident doggie stylist.)

• Moose loved having his picture taken and he'd pose. He'd also horn his way into every picture that he wasn't the star of.

• Moose hated pills and wouldn't take them in food. I had to shove the pills down his throat. Picture a lion tamer. That's what I did.

• The "in and out" dog. I think I opened the door for him about 50 times a day.

• Moose was on the Food Network in 1999, when he was one year old. How many dogs can claim that?

• In our backyard, Moose would pee 'like a girl'. On the street he'd pee at every mail box like the macho man he liked to think he was. He was just a big baby.

• Moose would bust himself. If he did something like get into our outside trash cans or a neighbors trash... he'd come back in the door with his head down, ears down, not make eye contact, tail between his legs, walk slowly and deliberately into the den and sit down, not facing us. "If I can't see them, they can't see me".   "Mooooose?   We're you a "bad dog"? Busted!!!  He definitely knew right from wrong.

• Moose could learn a new trick in 3 treats. He could sit, lay down, roll over, we could 'shoot him', "Bang bang, you're dead!",  I'd yell "Bow down before the Queen!!!" and he take a deep bow, he'd dance in a circle, he'd play hide and seek with the kids, he could hold a milk bone balanced on his nose and wait for the command to grab it, he would ring the outside door bell, sing on command, sing and play the electric keyboard on command.

• The tail was always wagging. Sometimes he'd whap Fuzzy in the head accidentally.

• Moose would defend his territory and he had a "big dog" scary bark that sounded like he could kill someone, but in fact he never bit anyone. The mailman was terrified of Moose, and would never come to the door. Also, scared were the Meter Reader, any new service worker, plumber, electrician and the UPS guy.  He didn't like strange men on our property, but he had no problem at all with women. If it was someone I wanted in the house, I'd say to them "Shake my hand" and the second I did, he'd stop barking and start being affectionate with them. I always said he  would never hurt anyone but he might "lick them to death!"

• One time some Mormon boys came to our front door. They kept ringing the door bell because they saw all the cars and knew we were home. My husband let Moose out the back door to chase them away. It worked! LOL We knew he wouldn't bite them.

• Moose LOVED women. You can read between the lines on that one.

• Thanksgiving 1999. Moose was 1 1/2. We didn't  know you weren't supposed to give dogs poultry fat. It gives them diarrhea, big time. It was everywhere. We had to replace the den carpet.

• Moose loved Cliff, our FedEX guy, who we've had for the last 10 years. Cliff always brought him a treat.

• Moose's ideal weight was 75 pounds. In the beginning we over fed him because we didn't know what we were doing. His all time fat boy weight was 92 pounds. The Vet said "Keep Moose at 75 lbs. that's the perfect weight for his frame." We kept on a diet, but he didn't like that.

• The neighbors trash looked awfully appealing during the first diet year. One time we got a call from our next door neighbor Angela when I wasn't home and my sons had to go over to and pick up all the trash Moose had knocked over inside their garage. Included were a lot of dirty diapers! Ewwww!

• Moose had an invisible fence. It only kept him in about 70% of the time. If he really wanted to get out, he'd just take the shock, because it was worth it to him. Plus, he had all the flab around his neck (hence the nick name Flabby Labby) and he hardly even felt the shock collar.

• The Moose Cam story: EVERYBODY LOVED MOOSE! Well, everybody except one neighbor and we never found out who that person was. That person called animal control 2 or 3 times on Moose. Every time the police showed up, Moose was inside.  So Moose never got in trouble and we were never fined. Everyone I asked said it wasn't them. We decided to try and find out whose yard he was trespassing, so we bought a wireless camera. (From Walmart , $70.00) We hooked it up to his boating life jacket and then turned on the big screen and watched Moose roam around our neighbors yards. The camera was mounted on his back so we could see the back of his head on the bottom of the screen. We got to see the world from Moose's perspective.  It was a wild ride being with him as he chased deer, red fox and rabbits. We could see where he peed in other yards. It was so funny to see the expressions on people faces as they went to pet him.  ("What IS that on your back?") We saw him in our neighbor's garage. LOL  We had friends watch it with us, like a TV show! It's never boring when you are owned by a flabby labby!

• We couldn't break Moose of the very bad habit he had of chasing cars down our driveway. He'd lunge at and try to bite the spinning tires. I always thought he'd die by getting hit by a car. He only did tire biting at cars leaving our driveway, not entering. Go figure.

• When Moose was a puppy, he ran onto the school bus with Sean who was in kindergarten. He broke free because I wasn't holding his leash tight enough and so he followed Sean and he quickly ran to the back of the bus. Then when I climbed on the bus and tried to drag him by his leash, he flipped onto his back to oppose me and I had to drag him, spread eagle down the isle by his foot. The kids and the bus driver were laughing hysterically.

• "The Neighborhood Dog". Places to go... people to see. Moose loved playing with his neighborhood dogs...Raphie (dec.) Jade, Molly, Gordie, Bandit, Misty and Dexter.
  
  
  
  Steph's friends, Fuzz and Josh, tried to play a practical joke on her and they decided to "kidnap" Moose. They got half way up our street and Moose started flipping out and jumping all over the car like a maniac. They decided that was a bad idea and they took him right home.

• He loved rolling in deer crap, hence one of his many nick names, "Poo Poo".

• In 1998, I got my first digital camera. It was a piece of crap the pictures were horrible, but I used it anyway and neglected my film camera. In 2002, I found 12 rolls of film in the house I'd never developed. I had no idea what they were when I took them to Costco for developing. The girl hands them back to me and says:  "You like your dog a lot, don't you?" Every single picture is of Moose, taken by Stephanie. The cost was about $150.00.

• Dog hair was my life. It was everywhere! That was the only thing I really disliked about Moose. Now I miss it. Dog hair and dirty carpets are a small price to pay for that kind of love.

• Moose loved to lick babies faces.  Slurp!

• When Moose was a puppy he ate "cookies" from the litter box. EWWWW!

• Moose loved chasing deer and red foxes.

• We called him "Mooseatariat". My husband clocked him at 34 miles an hour running along side his car.

• Moose LOVED going for a ride (except to the VET!) Moose had to ride shot-gun. If you were in the front seat, he climb on top of you until you got in the back. (We always had his harness/seat belt on for safety.

• If anyone was sitting down at Moose's face level, he'd be an opportunist and lick them on the face. One time my husband had a friend over and they were sitting on the edge of the pool. Moose started licking Andy on the face. We told Andy: "You have to say: "No, Moose", or he'll lick you forever."  I suppose Andy took this as a challenge to see if we were telling the truth. After 15 minutes, Andy said "No, Moose!"  LOL

• He loved sleeping with his human siblings and hogging the covers. He'd sleep on the pillow like a human.

• Moose would go for family walks with other families.

• Moose LOVED my neighbor Angela. When Angela became pregnant, Moose became very protective of her. One day, Moose knew Angela's husband wasn't home, so he took it upon himself to pin a service worker to her front door. I heard him barking from her yard and when I walked over to see what was going on, I saw a terrified man with his arms in "hold up" position, pinned to her front door.  "Call him off!!! Get him away from me!!!"  Oh yeah... he was a real killer... LOL.  He was the perfect watch dog.  He scared strangers to death, but he would never bite. But they didn't know that.