A few days before Canada Day, a North Bay, Ont., family had a surprise visitor swimming in their backyard pool early in the morning. A loud splash woke up Kurt Blaszczyk and his wife, Abby, at 4 a.m. on June 27. Turns out, an unexpected guest was taking a dip in their pool up in the Airport Hill neighbourhood. “We actually had a bear in our yard about a month ago. So, I thought maybe it was that,” Kurt said. “But you could see in the early morning light it was much larger and it was a moose.” He walked out to the bedroom balcony and saw the animal swimming laps. It was the first time he had ever laid eyes on a moose. Struggled to swim More than likely confused by her surroundings, the young moose fell into the water and was circling the deep end, struggling to swim. Kurt rushed downstairs to the pool and tried to entice the animal to swim to the shallow area where it could get out, which it eventually did. Once free, the frightened moose took a wrong turn and got stuck in a fenced-in wooded section of the backyard, where it stayed for nearly an hour, banging its body against the fence trying to get out. The Blaszczyks said the animal then trotted to a shorter section of fencing behind their pool shed, where she got herself turned around and slipped into the pool for a second time. “The moose got herself unstuck and kind of just almost hid behind our golf net,” Kurt said. “There’s a golf net there and it hid behind the nets, obviously exhausted. So, it actually rested for a couple hours.” The Blaszczyks called the Ministry of Natural Resources and firefighters also arrived to help tranquilize and remove the frightened animal. But the young moose didn’t give up without a fight, even charging towards them at one point. Officials used the family’s backyard gazebo as a “sniper’s nest” where they were setting up a shot with the dart gun. But they were unsuccessful twice in sedating the animal. During the chaos, the moose banged on the fence a second time, breaking and ending up in the Blaszczyk’s neighbour’s pool, where she got trapped in a solar blanket. Kurt then helped the MNR remove the cover from the young moose. After that, it stood still in the middle of the pool for nearly an hour trying to calm herself down, before making a quick dash out of the backyard through a nearby gate. MNR stayed with her for hours The moose ran off to several nearby streets before coming to a stop near the Laurentian Ski Hill, worn out. The MNR stayed with her until about 9:30 p.m. to monitor her cuts and other minor injuries. When they returned the following morning, she had already left, likely through a trail behind the ski hill. “After eight hours in my yard, I was kind of getting attached to it a little bit. I almost named her,” Kurt joked. “I have some friends in Ireland and Scotland. They were asking me about sharing the story and they were sharing it around, too.” The Blaszczyks said the ordeal lasted about 15 hours. Their pool liner ended up being damaged and was removed. Kurt said the family is in touch with their insurance company. The family plans on making some adjustments to the pool area, just in case the animal considers returning for another swim. They’re relieved the moose was relatively unharmed and now they have a story to share that they consider to be “very uniquely Canadian.” “I was thinking, like, this is going to be a good omen for Canada soccer,” Kurt quipped. “It was quite an experience.”
