Rocky and Bullwinkle

So there I was...having my morning coffee when I heard the squirrels running on the roof of the house again.  It was common as we have this huge pine tree close enough to the roof to make it easy for them.  I noticed the sound being louder than usual and with a little investigation found the critters to have taken up residence in an upper section of the attic accessible only from a damaged roof vent.  Before I could fix the vent I had to get these guys out but they had no intention of leaving despite my many efforts.  Then I bought the "Squirrelinator" (cue dramatic music).  After mounting this devise to the roof I captured the varmints within a day.  I secured the roof vent so I don't have to pull out the "Squirrelinator" (cue dramatic music) again.  This brings me to my other animal story from several years ago.
So there we were...winter camping on Mt Moosalamoo in Vermont.  My close friends, John and Rich, had been doing this annual excursion together for some 30 years straight and through the years others would join them, this being one of the years I did.  We "Robust Trampers", as the guys aptly named us, would backpack on snowshoes through the 4 ft deep snow a fair distance into the woods to set up a base camp and day hike out from there.  It was usually 3 days in zero degree weather sleeping in tents and cooking your meals on small camp stoves laid on a table you cut out of the tamped down snow.  We came back from a day hike on Moosalamoo to our camp and within a few minutes John quietly turns my head to show me a huge moose that is standing no more than 30 yds from us.  After she effortlessly trots off through the 4 ft snow we go to where she was standing to check her tracks.  My two hands end to end equaled the size of her hoof.  Then we saw her calf, some 6 feet tall, run off in a different direction from the mother.  I put on my snowshoes and told the guys that I had to track it.  After all, moosalamoo is the Abenaki Indian word meaning "trails of the moose".  As I followed its trail I saw where it crossed a snow covered frozen pond where it obviously slipped and took a digger as the snow was cleared from the ice where its body slid.  A memory of the scene from the animated movie where Bambi slides spread eagle across the ice came to mind.  Its tracks leading away from the site indicated that it was walking normal and no harm was done except maybe to its pride.  It was turning dark fast and the thought of the mother moose finding me tracking her young might end badly for yours truly so I headed back to camp.  These huge animals just thrilled me and made my weekend.  Can't say the same for the squirrels.