My wife and I attended a wedding at a fishing lodge a few hours south of us this weekend. As the wedding reception wore down, my wife and I decided to take our dog Buddy out for a walk and give me a chance to lunt. I packed and lit my pipe (a nording signature with Rattrays Highland Targe), and we headed on down the gravel road. On the walk spotted a moose in a yard. We passed with no incident, but realized with that sinking feeling that I had forgotten my gun in the car as we were at a wedding, we weren't wearing proper footwear and we had no charged phones. We turned around soon after realizing we had no option but to cross paths with the moose again (which was not acting normal). On our way back, the moose was closer to the road. We kept our distance, hanging back, I started to shout and make a commotion to try and drive it across the road, and it seemed to work, it crossed over and went enough into the trees for us to take the opposite path. We slipped into the trees by the road, trying to pass but allowing ourselves the protective cover. After cutting through some private property and getting past, we decided to veer back to the road, we saw the moose had u-turned..... and as soon as it saw us, it charged. I immediately unleashed Buddy, pointed him toward the moose and yelled, "Buddy, go!", he rushed in, head to head with the moose, and they started their dance. We ducked back into the trees, and when the kerfuffle moved away we ran like hell back to our car. Buddy came back to us like he'd just had a leisurely stroll, uninjured, happy, and tired. I've never truly had my Karelian Bear Dog tested in a wild situation, for what he was bred for, but after that, I trust my dog to the end of the world. He got a nice hunk of sirloin steak last night. Oh, managed to keep my pipe lit the whole time as well, had to go back to the cabin and pack a new one to calm the nerves after that run in though. By far one of the more exciting lunts I've had.
