A woman who lives in Pine Brook had a run in with a bull moose in their driveway last week. The moose was startled, and the family dog was kicked. The family wants to share the experience and encourage people to be vigilant during this time of year.
Laura Francese has enjoyed watching the bull moose grazing and bedding down in her yard this winter. Earlier that day, she saw him in her front yard a fair distance from her house.
A little later that afternoon, she walked into her garage with her two dogs accompanying her. The garage door had been left open and the bull moose was lying at the entry and was startled. Her two dogs barked and lunged at the moose.
“There was the bull moose right in front of my truck and next to my garage door. And of course, this dog doesn’t recognize this animal as another dog. They wouldn’t normally bark or even approach another dog with a warning bark. Of course, the moose felt threatened, I am sure. He got up and had a good swipe at her. She went down on the ground. I, of course, was completely shocked about everything that was going on. I did not expect to see the moose sitting there. I did not see him go from down by the road up by my house.”
Francese says it all happened so fast. She was frantic and screaming as loud as she could to try to get the moose to run off and leave her dog, Pippa alone.
“And I could not get her to come to me. I didn’t know if she had run off and died. I didn’t know what had happened, so I went in to my house, out my front door, in hopes that she was standing by the front door, trying to get in. And she was standing out there and I just called her to come in the house and she came in. And, he stood out there by my truck just kind of looking around for quite a long time and he just walked down the driveway and down the road.”
Francese says her dog is not doing well. She regrets not checking before letting the dogs out of the house.
“Since then, Pippa’s been at the vet a couple of times. Lots of testing. She is not acting well at all. However, they can’t find any broken bones or internal bleeding or anything like that. They don’t know if she has been traumatized and now has changed her personality, whether it’s permanently or temporary. We have no idea. She was on pain medicine for several days. This last Saturday, she stopped eating and drinking. I am doing what I can to get food and fluid into her.”
On February15th, KPCW reported on a moose that fell through a basement window into a Pine Brook home. The Utah Department of Wildlife Resources is encouraging people to be aware of the large game animals wintering in the area. They say animals are stressed due to the time of year, the struggle to find food and the deep snowpack.
