A Heart-Warming Story to Make You Smile

Baby moose falls through Spokane family's window

Associated Press - January 9, 2009 9:04 PM ET

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A Spokane family got a surprise arrival when a moose calf fell through a basement window and into a bedroom.

The Spokesman Review reports that the baby moose was apparently foraging in the shallower snow close to the house when it fell into a deep window well on Thursday. As it tried to get out and join its mother and sibling, the moose kicked in the window and ended up trapped in the bedroom.

Washington state wildlife biologist Woody Myers got the call, thinking at first the police officer who phoned him was joking. Myers managed to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the moose's rump. Then he and four other men used a tarp to haul the 375-pound baby up a narrow stairway.

Wildlife officers were later able to track down the calf's mother and sibling and trucked the reunited family out near Mount Spokane for release. The area has gotten more than 6 feet of snow in the past three weeks.

Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com

What makes me smile is at my agency we would have no doubt not have been able to have reached a wildlife biologist in a timely manner.

Which means we would have to "dispatch" the moose.

After inadvertently shooting the plasma TV, the Wii Fit, and a water bed, we would have reloaded and shot the moose 4 dozen times with two calibers of ammunition and exhausted 2 packs of Tazer batteries.

Then we'd have called a charity to harvest the meat from the rec room. Baptists with chainsaws and boning knives would show up and drag the moose parts up the stairs and through the patio to their trailer.

Finally we'd have told the home owner that we were not allowed, by policy, to recommend a company to clean up the blood from the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Doesn't Spokane seem nice?