Have you ever come across a baby moose lying on the side of a Canadian road? Probably not.
But if you did, what would you do with it? Do you just leave it there? Or do you take it home with you, then later go together to a coffee shop?
If you chose the latter, that’s exactly what a northern Ontario man did, according to Canoe.
According to CBC News, Stephan Michel Desfroseillers said some of his friends found a moose calf on the side of a highway. The baby kept walking into oncoming traffic.
He said his friends called Wild at Heart Wildlife Refuge Centre, and the staff told them to put the baby back into the bush and leave her alone so the mother could find it.
And his friends did that – six times. But the baby kept on coming back to the side of the road and oncoming traffic.
That’s when they called Desfroseillers for help.
“I went up there,” he said. “And after trying to get her back to where she belonged, she kept following us like a little puppy.”
He and his friends decided to bring her back with them, but they couldn’t get in touch with anyone to help.
“I couldn’t figure out what to do,” he said. “I was pulled over by the police at this time, and they tried to help me out and contact the people. They couldn’t get a hold of anybody.”
Police told them that they had a pet until they could get in touch with the right people to take the baby moose in.
So Desgroseillers took the calf home and soon realized the calf missed her mom.
“She followed me everywhere,” he said. “As soon as I got three feet from her, she started whining and complaining.”
That night, the calf slept in his bed with him.
“I had to bring her with me and let her sleep in bed,” he said. “It was comforting to her.”
According to Canoe, he and the calf stopped at a Tim Hortons en route to the shelter the next day.
And a woman at Tim Hortons took a video of the calf. Shirley Erkila posted the video of her petting the calf on Monday to her Facebook page.
Desgroseillers told Erkila that the calf was still wet when he found it, and it still had the umbilical cord. He took the calf with him because if he didn’t, the wolves would have gotten to it.
As he told CBC News, the baby moose “was very comfortable with people. She would go and see everyone and be comfortable.”
The baby moose is being taken care of at Wild at Heart Wildlife Refuge Center, according to a Facebook post on Sudbury radio station Q92 Rocks page.