You hear about all sorts of things men do with peanut butter and a labrador, or the odd farmers wife who gets caught giving it to the ranch stallion, but a moose? Their faces aren’t even that cute. We’d go for a cat, or if we were feeling brave and exotic, perhaps an elephant.
We jest, we jest, 23-year-old Alaskan Vanessa Gibbons has a moose as a friend. Weighing in at 1000lbs you wouldn’t think it sensible to play chase and tag with such a big beast, but considering Vanessa has nursed Jack the Moose since he was 3 days old there’s little chance that he’s going to horn her to death with his antlers.
Commenting on her unhealthy relationship with Jack the Moose, Vanessa said, “When I first met Jack, he was 11kg (25lb), three days old, had a gnarly bite mark on his right hip and a fracture above his right front knee.”
Vanessa then ended up spending every night in the barn with the baby moose and feeding him formula every 4 hours, confusing him for a human baby. Continuing, Vanessa said, “As I grew attached to him, he also grew attached to me and never wanted me to leave. As I closed the door of the barn one afternoon after his feeding, to begin to walk back to work, I heard him cry at the door and kick it with his hooves.”
As Jack got bigger and better he was moved to the outside enclosure of Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, however Vanessa had to camp outside with the silly moose and he would sleep outside her tent. (Sounds a bit Brokeback Mountain to us)
Vanessa concluded her lovely story saying, “I’m at the centre from May to August each year but, after nine months of being gone, it shocks me how much he remembers my voice. When I open the gate, he can’t get to me fast enough and rubs his face all over me.” But does he rub her face all over him…
Hmmm. We bet she’d like to set Jack’s moose juice about her hoose!
By Fanny Frangipane
@fannyfrangipane
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