Tracking A Mystery Animal?

So there I was, playing with my dog at the end of the shed....  I went in for five minutes at most, to get him something.  But after a few minutes, my dog starting barking like crazy.  When I peaked out the window, he had stopped barking and I saw nothing.

But upon further investigation, THIS is what I saw:

I call this pic, "tracking bear," because back then, that was my first thought in that first split-second of seeing this print in the sand, next to my dog's dog house.

This thing plodded up a slight incline, across a field that was behind the house, by the end of a shed (where the silver car is, in the pic below), crossed the yard, the road, and I presume, into the foliage and trees across the street.

The footprint was located, at best description, at the point where the two cars facing each other, would intersect.

This giant of an animal, went completely, visually undetected while it made its way into the woods.

Oh, and so what was it really?  This "bear" of an animal, that left those frightening prints in my front yard, was a VERY TALL moose.  And for it to leave a print that large, and that deep in clay-like sand, that I could not even dent, well, this thing must have been quite the site to see!

Look closely, and you can see where he put his back foot into the tread of his front foot, and while doing so, apparently was changing direction.  Thus creating one of my first ever, huge, mystery animal mysteries of my young life back then.

(this house is located on Rt 106, near North Leeds, ME, just north of Jennings Road.  What fond memories I have of that place.  Sigh.)


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