Trapped in the Outhouse by Moose
Shane Castle
Alaska Dispatch News
February 28, 2016
LAZY MOUNTAIN — On a recent cold night, I decided to wash some dishes.
My wife and I live in a little dry cabin up near Hatcher Pass, which is to say we don’t have running water. So I put a big pot on the propane stove to heat, rousted the dogs and took the 5-gallon bucket of dirty dishwater from under the sink to go dump it in the outhouse.
I was a little over halfway there when the heavy crunching started in the snow about 15 feet away, behind a large birch tree.
The dogs, Biscuits and Slippi, had been lazing in front of the wood stove all evening and were even slower to react than me. By the time they started barking, I had already hustled ahead to the outhouse and was just starting to open the door when a second moose charged around the far side and rushed by me, so close I could have reached out and felt its fur.
The moose skidded to a stop right where I’d been walking a moment before, head lowered aggressively, threatening the dogs.