Dear Folks, I've posted this story to the list about four years ago and I want to post it again. I have a special reason for doing it this evening and I'll tell you why at the end of the story. Moose the Dog and SPICCA May14, 2001 For a very long time I've been wanting to say a few words about a very dear departed dog friend of mine named Moose and his relationship to SPICCA, more commonly known as the SPCA. Around 1983 I decided that what I needed in my life was a big huggy dog to call my own and so I went to the SPCA to pick one out. I walked among the kennels of dogs and cats and my heart went out to each and every one of them. In the very last kennel I saw a Labrador retriever mix dog that really seemed to be reaching out to me. Of course he was barking and wagging his tail like all of them but what impressed me most was that when I walked up to his kennel he sat down very properly and just looked up at me with a sad look in his eyes and with his tongue lagging out, still wagging his tail. His name was Moose. I hadn't really made up my mind by then and I walked back to the other end of the kennels. When I looked outside down the rows of running yards, there at the very end was Moose, jumping up and down with flapping ears and waving desperately at me to get my attention. Well, that did it! I took Moose home with me and we were both ecstatic. But our ecstasy together didn't last very long. We got along wonderfully but I was still on active duty in the Navy, I didn't have a fenced in yard, and putting a leash on him in the early hours of the morning just so he could go the bathroom wore pretty thin with me. As a result my friend Fred who was retired took Moose to live with him. They got along just fine. Fred fenced his yard in and before long Fred and Moose and me were a threesome in Fred's pickup truck, Fred in the driver's seat, Moose in the middle and me in the passenger's seat. We'd go out for drives in the country and Fred would deliberately call Moose's attention to any dog alongside the road. Moose would jump up and down and bark and yell, all the while being in the front seat between Fred and me and generally stomping all over my lap. Despite the bruises I ended up with, all three of us had a great time on our drives. Over the next few years, Fred traveled to Switzerland periodically and he left Moose with me to take care of. Moose and I lived together and had some great times. The two of us would walk back into the country fields of my property where he could wander and sniff all over the "wilderness" and in general we had lots of fun together. Then came Moose's very special adventure. Fred had planned to visit his Swiss cousins once again and this time he decided to take Moose with him. Both of them boarded the jet (Moose in his comfortable cage) and they ended up in Switzerland. For the next few years this was repeated several times again to the point where eventually Fred sold his house here, all of his possessions and moved permanently to Switzerland to live near his Swiss family. Fred packed what possessions he had saved for the move into his pickup truck, he and Moose hopped into it and they waved goodbye to me. They drove down to the port of New Orleans where they boarded a freighter bound for Europe. Fred had booked passage as one of the very few passengers aboard the ship and for the first couple of days, Moose stayed in a protected kennel on the top deck. After just a few days, the captain realized what a good boy Moose was and allowed him to stay in Fred's cabin. Moose was also allowed to accompany Fred into the mess where the meals were served. Moose knew that he had to lie still under the table and never beg for food. When Fred described how their voyage went, I wanted to write a diary from Moose's point of view and what he would have written on post cards back to the SPCA where I had picked him up. Can't you just imagine what he might have written back to SPICCA about his adventures and the encouragement it would have given the other dogs and cats there? Such as, "The ocean voyage was an experience you'd have to have gone through yourself to believe. At the dinner table when they were having their after-dinner coffee, the passengers and crew beckoned me over to their chairs so they could pet me. The captain was right along with the rest of them. In addition, you've never lived until you've sniffed the salt air and felt the ocean spray in your face." Then he would have written from Switzerland, "Fred and I boarded the cog railway and slowly traveled up the steep mountain slope to the Jung Frau today. When I saw all the cows on the slopes with their bells clanging loudly, I wanted to bark at them, however I knew better. When I saw the huge glaciers, I was speechless. The view was magnificent!" Then "Today Fred and I dined at a cozy chalet on the shores of the Boden See. The view of the vineyards stretching down the slope below us was beautiful and the food was exquisite." Or, "Everyone just loves me and I've learned to bark in Swiss!" Moose lived out the rest of his life in Switzerland and adjusted to it just as well as he had adjusted to my adopting him from the local SPCA. He never really expected much in the first place, the two of us got to love each other and when he finally went off permanently to Switzerland with Fred on an unusual journey aboard a sea going freighter out of New Orleans, well I guess you can appreciate why I wanted to tell a story from Moose's point of view. It's a pity that Moose didn't keep a diary! It would have been an unbelievable dog story! Now here's what happened yesterday afternoon. I had just finished editing the story when the thought came to me that maybe the Niagara Falls SPCA would enjoy such a happy dog story, especially since that's where I adopted him from. As a result, I emailed the story to them with the hopes that at least I would hear back from them to let me know they received it. This is what I received this afternoon. Vee- I loved your story. I would like to submit it to petfinder.com as a happy tails story. I need your permission. thank you for helping our homeless fur babies! Charlene When I received such a lovely response I jumped up and down with joy (OK, so I only bobbed up and down with joy!). It made me feel so good to know that Moose's post cards back to SPICCA had finally been receoved. I know that it would have made him jump up and down with joy too! vee