You know your an Alaskan when...

...you witness Marlin Perkins' Wild Kingdom unfold before your eyes right there in your backyard. After a long day of work and chores we decided to unleash a soak in the hot tub and as we usually do were enjoying the sights and sounds of days end on the lake. It is interesting actually because many times we have noticed that the different animals/waterfowl that reside and loiter around the lake kind of 'talk' with one another. I mean literally we have noticed that things tend to happen when you here more than one species of wildlife babbling at the same time. Such was the case this particular night as the sun had set over the horizon and dusk was abound.
One of the local Loons came in for it's last splashdown for the day and the other was up in a tree squawking away and wouldn't stop. Almost like it was trying to say something. Indulged in the moment I was oblivious to Maryann seeing what she figured was a dog running along the shore on the other side of the lake. As I looked to see what she was talking about I am thinking to myself that this is too big to be a dog, and its running on all fours so it isn't Sasquatch. Through what little light was left I make it out to be a moose. She shuts off the jets and you can hear the brush and grass crunching as it runs....kind of a cool sound. Being in the midst of open season, I honesty expected to see Elmer Fudd trailing in hot pursuit! It eventually disappears from our sight through the trees and we settle back into the water. Then she wisps me out of my oblivion again and asks if "that is a loon" she is seeing floating rather rapidly across the lake. I look and think to myself that looks like a dog.... Then I realize, no, its a moose head! Now they have seen moose swim the lake before, and up to this point I haven't. So I am intrigued at watching how graceful this huge animal is in the water and am impressed to say the least. In our focus on the floater we failed to see that the moose whom had already run past is now also in the water and about to the shore below the house....ironically where this other moose is swimming to. Now the chatter from the Loon has seized to exist and it is dead quiet. You picture in your head the Loon at full attention in the tree watching the calamity unfold. Moose are in fact very quiet swimmers except for an occasional grunt they expel as they swim along. And they are pretty darned quick. The first moose lands on shore, gets out and does a quick shake off and starts running again, heading up towards the back of the sauna. About this time the other comes up on shore and does the same shake off and starts a full run through the trees. He....and about this time we realize by his girth that in fact he is a bull...isn't running towards the back of the sauna like the other one did. No, he is running right towards the hot tub! I am a little startled and am starting to think things. Like how the hell are we gonna get out and where are we gonna go when he gets there in a few more seconds. Maryann...well, I am not sure what she is thinking, but find out later that she wasn't thinking. She was observing the wildlife action as Maryann does! =) The bull gets to about 20 feet from the hot tub and stops. We are quiet....very quiet and I am still thinking. Maryann goes to peak up over the hot tub cover which is leaning against the outside of the tub and makes a little water splash sound as she does, and he is now looking right at us. About this time I am thinking oh, lord please no, and as suddenly as he he came, he turned and ran off past the sauna after the other one. Now needless to say we are a cross of excited that we just witnessed another episode of Wild Kingdom and excited that we didn't become pulp in the tub! Which is where I thought we were headed the way this thing was urgently coming up on us. Turns out that as well as being in the middle of moose hunting season, we are also coming up on the heals of moose mating season. Ahhh, love is in the air! And so we will leave you with the lingering question that we ask ourselves after such an evening. Was it love and hornyness that propelled our moose's in motion, or in fact was it Elmer Fudd that they were running from. We can only go on wondering!