A Moose and His Toy

Moose is turning out to be a very interesting little guy! It's been pretty cool getting to know him. I was a little nervous when we brought him home because I had no idea what to expect from him and no idea what kind of life he had before. Would he be trained to do anything? Would he have psychological problems from being horribly mistreated? Would he be nervous around people because he was neglected? Would his time spent in the shelter have given him any issues (it is incredibly loud in there!). Would he even be house-broken?

So many questions! But we are gradually getting answers. He doesn't appear to have any serious problems, aside from the submissive urination, which isn't too much of a problem. He is very friendly and affectionate and seems pretty intelligent. I can tell he already loves our family, and he is protective of us and the house.

When we picked him up from the animal hospital, I took a toy that I bought at Walmart for a dollar to give him in the car. I bought such a cheap one because I wasn't sure if he would like it, but I wanted him to have something that didn't have Baxter's smell on it. Well, Moose and that little toy have been inseparable ever since! He takes it everywhere. Even outside to do his non-submissive urinating and other business. Today, I noticed him sitting by the back door for a long time after I had just let him out, and when I finally let him go back out again, he trotted right up to a mound of snow and pulled his toy out of it. He had left it out there and wanted it back! He got a little distracted with some various smells, and left it again when I called him to come in. At first I was like, "Great, now I'm going to have to freeze to death going to get that thing for him because I know he'll want it, and there's no way I can get him to realize that he forgot it", but then I decided to try something crazy, just for the heck of it.

"Moose!", I said. "You forgot your toy!". He stopped in his tracks and did a total cartoon-dog "huh??", with his head cocked to the side and ears perked up, one paw up off the ground. And then I watched in total amazement as he turned around and went back for it! I could not believe he just understood what I said! Cool, right?! I experimented with it a few more times during the day-asking him where his toy was-and he went to get it every time

In other funny-things-Moose-does-with-his-toy news, he likes to carry it around with him, as I mentioned before. Very often, I will be trying to give him a treat and you can just see him struggling with the choice he has to make-hold the toy, or put it down and have a tasty treat? Until today, he would eventually drop the toy, but today he figured out that if he opens his mouth just a little bit, he can keep the toy in there and slowly pull the treat out of my hand. And thus I have determined that Moose is an excellent problem-solver.

I think that's pretty cool, especially since Baxter has only ever been interested in playing with dirty socks. And occasionally a flip-flop.

Anyway, in case you can't tell, I'm kind of with smitten him. He's a pretty awesome Moose.

:)