Moose encounter

In 23 years I've had many encounters but never felt seriously endangered or without some escape, never been faced with a direct and protracted attack until tonight, in the dark woods as we took our usual quick trail walk for last outs before bed. It was terrifying. We are unhurt and I am bewildered as to how that is; not sure how we are even alive except for my bullheaded dog, who fought and chased and fought some more - on the one hand it maybe saved us both, but I also couldn't get him to break off and come back to me. It went on for about 15 minutes, up and down trail and through the snowy woods, and somehow in that black spruce forest bog with tons of stumps and deadfall, his leash never snagged on anything--that would have been the end of him. Hunter took six charges that I was able to see, and successfully cut off both of the charges that came at me. Now I know how it feels to think death is coming in a few seconds. It actually feels kind of awful, although there was kind of a stop-motion calm the second time she ran at me, when I thought okay, well, then this is how it ends. Left my stomach back on the trail.

Once they had fought and chased back and forth quite a while, the moose walked up into someone's backyard and Hunter didn't give chase - she came back and charged him again once, but I think she was sick of it, I think he was sick of it, and I know I was sick of it. Once Hunter began to look back at me a little more frequently I felt that he must not perceive her as an extreme threat, so I carefully made my way through the snow up to where he stood - still closer to her than I wanted to be, but we were getting close to streets and traffic and I was afraid I'd never get him back if I didn't act soon - and got him by the leash and led him home.

I would expect that sort of aggression from a moose defending young, but from the distance we covered in this, I don't think that was the issue (and to walk home we would go back past where it started, and I think a mother wouldn't have let us do that). I wonder if it had been harassed by either people or dogs earlier in the day and when we stumbled past her it was just the last straw.

What I didn't expect is that it would go on and on, but that was probably Hunter's fault - had he turned tail and run, she might not have chased him far, and I might have had an easier time retreating too. But that's okay - any safe outcome is okay. The second time she ran at me I was in an open area with nothing to hide behind, I saw her front hooves start coming up high, everything in my head got quiet for what seemed like a long time as I realized those jackhammers were going to land on me with at least 600 pounds behind them - and then there was just a black flash in front of me and she wheeled and went after him instead.

I also learned that a woman screaming for 15-20 minutes gets no attention from anyone in the houses along that trail. I love the city.