Our moose is headed back to Canada.
I'm not entirely certain about this but I think it's a good theory based on the signs. Literally, the signs.
Here's what happened.
For about ten years, there was a sign with a picture of a moose on it next to the southbound lanes of the interstate. I've never seen a moose in our state and always thought that it was a stray moose. A particularly adventurous moose that wandered down from Canada to see the sights. My husband and I have speculated that the moose was probably just passing through on some kind of tour, was spotted once and it prompted whoever puts up the signs to put up one with his profile on it.
Eventually the sign was taken down. We assumed that the moose had not been seen for so long that they finally decided it wasn't coming back. Since the sign only alerted travelers in the southbound direction anyway, we were pretty sure that the moose was traveling south and had made it to Florida and maybe retired. We were never sure though and wondered . . .
But an exciting development has occurred! I was driving out of the city which is about ten miles south of the original sign. Same interstate. And there, much to my surprise was a huge programmable sign next to the northbound lanes flashing "MOOSE CROSSING AREA - USE CAUTION".
The moose is back! I don't know if it was the weather or homesickness or what but the moose is on the move again and he's headed north. They're not sure how fast he's going but they're being careful this time. So they put up yet another programmable sign 15 miles north of that one on the same interstate. We saw it tonight.
I'll let you Canadians know when he makes his way out of the area. I'll know because they'll reprogram those signs to read something like "Squeeze Left". That will give a general idea of how much ground he's covering in any given period of time. Then, maybe, you could keep an eye out for a travel weary moose with not a lot of undercoat because he's been hanging out in near tropical weather for a while. Throw a blanket over him or something and welcome him home. He's been around and seen a lot and will be pretty tired by the time he gets back to you.
Thanks.
