Where's the Moose?

I'll dedicate the picture above to my dad.  Instead of "Where's the Deer?" I'd ask, "Where's the Moose?"

After my stepdad Harold and my mother were married, we started enjoying new forms of family entertainment. 

Occasional slide shows on Saturday evenings kept us fully entertained.  I think my folks took at least several thousand pictures of deer when they went on their Montana honeymoon in March, 1954. 

And, when the slides came back from processing and were projected on the screen in the living room, a question was posed many times, "Where's the deer?"

Somebody, usually Kevin, would jump up, run toward the screen and point to a spot on the image,  and the rest of us would agree.  

That vague form, colored pretty much the same  and blending in with its background, surely had to be another Bambi of Montana. 

Deer spotting on slideshow screen and counting deer along the roadsides from the back seat of our Ford ranch wagon, were staples among our early forms of entertainment.  

In the car, I also think it provided a means of keeping the kids engaged and quiet while Harold was driving down back roads of Western Montana.

Switch forward to 2013.  Moose watching/spotting could be running a close second to counting deer. 

These big cumbersome creatures, which we seldom saw in this country until my adulthood, are now seemingly "thick as thieves," as they say.  In our area, one would not be stretching the truth to say there's a moose around every corner.

As mentioned in earlier posts this week, Moosie has been hanging out around every corner here in our little nook of Selle.  

I think our nearby neighbors have all gotten to know her, and yesterday, she provided me with three opportunities to chat, chomp and chew.  She chomped and chewed, while I chatted in the morning, late afternoon and evening when I snapped the photo above.

This morning Moosie was standing in almost the same spot between our place and Kauble's, but three dogs and I came from behind while walking through the woods.

That must have startled her, or she had polished off most of the good eats from the bush branches next to the road.

She crossed the road, jumped Taylor's fence and trotted off far to the east, maybe looking for better pickin's.

The instinct and eagerness to view yet another creature of the wild among us six children of Harold and Virginia Tibbs certainly had its start during those early years and family drives.

Heck, even sister Barbara spotted her first wild critter one day when she was maybe 4 years old.

"Green bear! Green bear!" she shouted.  I don't remember if any of the rest of us saw the green bear, but, like the deer on the slideshow screen and Moosie in the photo above, the animal probably blended in with its background, and maybe it was a summer scene.

In later years, junior photographer (as we like to call Laurie) had the sharp eye and the quick camera to actually capture a shot of a mama bear and her cubs crossing the highway near Heron, Montana.

A tradition, long ago fostered by our dad who loved the outdoors and all animals continues to this day. 

I'd say he'd be mighty proud to know that his children get "tickled pink" (as Harold would say) with each and every sighting of deer, green bears, Moosies, deer, herds of turkeys, deer,  red-tailed hawks, deer, eagles, deer, geese, wolves, deer, antelope, deer, bighorn sheep, etc. and even a school-yard moose as Barbara features on her Flickr page today. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/misstshs/  Once there, be sure to scroll down for some phenomenal photography and spring scenes. 

Harold Tibbs would have been 97 today, and so I celebrate his memory with these little snippets which provide first-hand evidence that his influence lives on through his children and all who knew him.

Happy Birthday, Harold!  We're doing our best to keep our noses clean. And Moosie sez the same.