I've lived in New Hampshire for nearly 20 years now, and in that time I've seen exactly one moose in the state.

I've seen moose elsewhere, most notably while canoeing in Canada, but never here in New Hampshire until Saturday.

Evan and I were just relaxing between park runs and kite flying (it's a hard life, eh?), when he remarked, "Dad, there's a moose in our backyard."

"Yeah, right," I replied. Evan's developing quite the sense of humor, often at his father's expense, and I assumed he was kidding. Fortunately, I looked anyway.

There it was, an adolescent moose, standing there by the swingset and looking as though he might consider nibbling the lilacs. Unfortunately, the moose turned and stepped off into the woods before I could even think about grabbing a camera (I believe I'm out of film anyways). It had no trouble at all clearing the chainlink fence that keeps Clover around.

I hear the creature had been roaming the streets for a while, and plenty of my neighbors saw it. The police were patrolling the area, too, just to keep tabs on its whereabouts, Lt. Bruce Hansen said. Moose are notoriously shady characters.

I imagine it felt more at ease in the swampy woods around Salmon Brook than strolling down Catherine Street... but then again, a chance of scenery is always nice. Perhaps it was looking for the Moose Milers? They've merged with the Gate City Striders. Or maybe it was looking for the Loco Moose race, next month in Hollis.

A passer-by, Frank Walley of Nashua, spotted the moose while driving on East Dunstable Road, on his way to his daughter's basketball game. "He almost ran into me on East Dunstable," Walley said.

Walley circled around the block, pointed his camera and the window and commenced clicking.

"I was only like ten or fifteen feet from him," Walley said. "He didn't seem nervous or anything."

The moose paused for a frontal portrait in front of 5 Catherine St., Walley said.

"He did stop just for a second," Walley said. "He was looking at me, wondering what I was doing."

Here are some of the shots Walley got: