An exhausted moose was pulled out of a frozen waterway in eastern Saskatchewan by a tow truck operator, who then nursed the animal back to health.
The rescue began last week when the moose’s eventual rescuer, Clint Gottinger, received some requests for tows in the evening. Gottinger is a tow truck operator in Kelvington, Sask., a community almost 250 kilometres outside of Saskatoon.
The moose was stuck in the ice at a junction near his home.
“Right across the road, I see in the water there that poor guy struggling,” Gottinger said, recounting how the days-long rescue mission began.
“I drove up beside him there to look over and I couldn’t leave him. I thought, ‘Oh, OK, everybody’s got to wait, I’ve got to get this guy out.’”
Luckily for the moose — whom he named Rebel — Gottinger had the tools he needed in his truck. He threw a sling strap at Rebel to pull him out. He said he was aiming for the moose’s front legs but landed closer to the animal’s head.
As he tried to yank the moose out of the frozen water, he said it was trying to push itself and help.
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With the assistance of some neighbours, Rebel was freed from the ice and pulled onto the deck of the tow truck.
“He was so tired and exhausted. He just sat there — but he was happy to get out of the ice,” Gottinger said.
On the way home, where Rebel would recuperate, Gottinger called his wife and asked her to get blankets ready for the family’s newest guest. She brought them outside, and Gottinger used them to warm up Rebel, who sat at the end of their driveway.
Rebel sat there for days.
Gottinger tried feeding him oats, but the moose was too exhausted, he said. Conservation officers also looked at the animal and said it needed to rest.
“The next morning, (we) checked on him again. He was still in the same spot, just sitting there on the blanket,” Gottinger recalled.
“He walked up and I would scratch his chin and his nose and stuff. And he liked that. My wife didn’t like that — she was hollering at me, ‘Don’t go up to him!’ (But) I think he’s fine,” he added, chuckling.
For the rest of the checkups that day, Rebel seemed to be on the mend.
“The next morning, he was standing up. Then he was gone,” his rescuer said.
On the night he saved the moose, Gottinger said he had to cancel on customers who were waiting on a tow, but most were understanding.
“Of course, once I got to them, I had to show the pictures for proof,” he said.
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