ELVIRA

In the lobby of our motel, The Best Western King Salmon Inn, there's a story in photographs about a locally well known moose named Elvira. Elvira lost her mother in a car crash in 1987, right  in the center of town when she was just a young calf. Elvira was hit by the car too. She survived but was badly injured. The owner of our motel, Kearly Wright, treated the injuries and fed Elvira wheat bread, lettuce, and water. Later, he found her sick in the woods and had a veterinarian give her an antibiotic.

Elvira started hanging around all winter, and they fed her from the back of the inn's restaurant.  In the spring she went back to the woods.

Around next Thanksgiving, she showed up again, looking for food.  By now she would eat out of several people's hands, especially Kearly's. She hung around again all winter, then disappeared come spring.

The next Thanksgiving, she showed up again, this time with two calves, who also soon learned the benefits of hanging around the hotel.

She kept coming around for a total of thirteen winters, including at least one more time with calves. Around 2001, she stopped. She had probably met her end that year, as moose don't live much beyond 15 years.  But thanks to the staff at our motel, she had a good run.

It rained all morning today and well into the afternoon. We're staying here two nights, so Regina wrote and mailed about 30 of them out while Jim did other things.

Finally took a 3-mile hike in the wildlife refuge pretty much right here in town (Soldotna). Saw a youngish moose along the trail. Probably one of Elvira's grandkids.