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catbyte

(34,401 posts) Fri Jul 12, 2019, 10:04 AM Jul 2019

Family Snuggles Up To Tiny Moose Babies They Helped Save

Look at them run 😍💕

BY SARAH V SCHWEIG

One lucky family in Canada recently found themselves welcoming some very unusual — and completely adorable — visitors into their home.

It's hard to say who was happier — the moose calf brothers, Chocolate and Clover, who needed a safe place to stay after they lost their mom, or the family of four girls and their parents, who couldn't stop grinning ear to ear whenever they even looked at their fluffy and gangly houseguests.

[Adorable moose discovery video]

https://www.thedodo.com/videos/in-the-wild/watch-baby-moose-held-by-rescuer?jwsource=em

"The moose stayed with my family for five glorious days," Lee-Ann Kramer told The Dodo. "Sleeping in my boot room at night, playing outside all day, bottle-fed goat milk every few hours and grazing freely on forest vegetation."

But how did this family come to receive these wild visitors?

It all started earlier this month, when Kramer and her husband spotted the siblings on a local road all alone. And that's when they put two and two together, so to speak.

Several days before, an adult moose had been found with a terribly broken leg and she had to be euthanized. These calves, Kramer realized, were probably her babies.

So Kramer did what their own mother could no longer do — she decided that she would take them home and take care of them until expert help could come.

Normally, she wouldn't think of intervening with wild animals, but Kramer got permission from the British Columbia conservation office to foster them until they were taken into government care. "The calves were not going to survive long in the woods without their momma," she explained.

[Another adorable video]

https://www.thedodo.com/videos/in-the-wild/watch-rescued-moose-orphan-playing-with-rescuer?jwsource=em

But this turned out to be easier said than done.

Kramer caught one of the calves easily — this was the one later named Clover. But the other, later known as Chocolate, proved more elusive; he got spooked and ran deeper into the forest, beyond Kramer's reach. Luckily, Chocolate was rescued by some other people, and soon the brothers were reunited at Kramer's house.

As some footage of them frolicking around the yard shows, Clover and Chocolate were clearly happy to be together again.

[Yet another adorable video]

https://www.thedodo.com/videos/in-the-wild/watch-baby-moose-orphans-frolic-around-rescuers-yard?jwsource=em

"I was ... super elated that we could help get them to safety," Kramer said.

For the next several days, Kramer and her family did everything they could to make sure Clover and Chocolate felt happy, following a veterinarian's advice about what to feed them and how to keep them comfortable.

[And another:]

https://www.thedodo.com/videos/in-the-wild/watch-rescued-orphaned-moose-in-familys-house?jwsource=em

After five beautiful days with Clover and Chocolate, it was time for the family to say goodbye — the moose had a place ready for them at the Northern Lights Wildlife Society's sanctuary in Golden, British Columbia.

"The sanctuary in Golden borders on Banff National Park," Kramer said. "We’re hoping they become safe park moose, where hunting is prohibited."

First they'll learn how to be wild again — and the sanctuary hopes they'll be ready to be released in the fall.