An orphan called "Chapter One"

.....We were adopted in the wildest way again. On a crisp January morning luminous with icy jeweled branches an infant tiptoed into our lives. Standing 4 feet at the shoulder weighing about 350 pounds she cocked her head quizzically flipping large meaningful ears back and forth wondering what type of creatures she had stumbled upon. Being human beings with unlimited access to life experiences and the internet, we knew in a minute we were being stared down by an infant moose calf. It didn't take long to figure out this baby was living solo. We had seen her, (coloration around his face indicates he is a he, but not really for sure yet)., and mom wandering about our property not two weeks ago; just before heavy snows hit hard and fast. Now we watched this gangly miniature wild thing wander aimlessly looking and waiting for a parent to return. So where was mama? Just speculation here, but the only predator thriving in this area is man. No hungry wolves, they would have taken baby first anyway. Grown moose, especially females with calves, are admirable adversaries for even wolf packs. They will kick and stomp with brutal ferocity to stay alive and protect their young. Definitely no grizzlies living on our mountain top awake or asleep. So one can be fairly accurate in deducing that mama was poached.
.....At this writing the youngster has been around for three days. she has been stripping fir boughs for nutrition, consuming snow for moisture and saving valuable energy hunkering beneath a grove of conifers less than fifty feet from our front door. On the first day she showed up about noon, slept a while, walked around for a while then wandered back down the path into the woods. Day two she appeared at exactly the same time, staying and leaving as the sun went down. The third day I pulled my Canon out of its pack and started filming this haunting creature. Why did she keep coming back to this spot? Loneliness, companionship, even from strangers .. sorrow? Maybe this was the last place she was with her mother. I wondered if she was getting enough to eat. Did the snow contain enough moisture to sustain her? If history is correct, we reasoned she was about nine months old. Moose calves are usually born late spring, May through June. So the nine months she had a mother to teach the basics of survival it appeared she learned well. The cow moose would have chased her out of the nest come late spring anyway when brother or sister was born. But until then it would have been nice to have that giant furry cushion of comfort standing guard beside you during this worst of the worst winter weather.
..... We will call this writing "An Orphan Named Chapter One," part one. Let us hope that by next week I can cheerfully write part two to this docu-minit-tary. Log onto http://www.metacafe.com/ and you can watch the saga unfold. Video will be posted January 10th. Type in the keywords "Travelin Yeti, orphans" See you next week.