The Blue Moose of Pinkwater
By Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife.
Based on "The Blue Moose Hunt" by Michael J. Pellowski, (Ducktales Magazine, Spring 1989) with a "Hi there!" to Daniel Magnus Pinkwater, author of "The Blue Moose" and other crazy kids books.
Psst! Fans of Huey, Dewey and Louie! Try reading "Sea Legs"by Alex Shearer, even if the three of them are twins!
The Jr. Woodchucks were holding a contest for the most unusual photograph taken by a Jr. Woodchuck. Huey, Dewey and Louie and Webby had entered the contest and were running all around Duckburg, trying to take unusual photographs.
So was every other Jr. Woodchuck in Duckburg. And having lived in their city for quite some time, they actually had gotten used to it. It actually seemed kind of dull to THEM who LIVED there day after day. Besides, what could they take photos of that no other Jr. Woodchuck could take photos of?
Launchpad soon found out about this and wanted to help. That's Launchpad all over the place.
"Listen, I've heard in the nearby town of Pinkwater there are rumors of a blue moose in the woods outside of Pinkwater." Launchpad said.
"If one of you could take a photo of it, you'd win your contest for sure! Nobody's ever taken a photo of it. Nobody one hundred percent sure it exists. But all the other Jr. Woodchucks are taking photos in and around Duckburg. They will be photographing stuff found in and around a city. " Launchpad continued.
"Even if we can't find or photograph the Blue Moose, we can take photos of wildlife- the woods around Pinkwater are beautiful and are full of animals and birds. That should be different than the sort of photos everybody else will be taking." Launchpad finished.
This made sense and sounded like fun, besides. So after obtaining permission for Mr. McDuck, they packed up Launchpad's plane and flew off to the small town of Pinkwater.
Once there, they spoke to the locals about the Blue Moose. Who told them it had been seen drinking from the local lake.
"It's the only water around, so it has to drink there. It used to drink in a hidden spot, but lately it's been drinking out in the open. This is weird, considering it's shy and that there are a lot of hunters around here. That's when we've caught a glimpse of it, when it comes to drink at the lake. It always runs back into the woods and disappears as soon as possible." the locals agreed.
Finding out where the blue moose came to drink, they decided to camp there and wait for the moose. Once at the lakeshore, they all said :
"OOOH. Pretty."
"So THAT'S why the town is called "Pinkwater." Launchpad said.
There were pink flowers growing all around the lake, and more pink flowers on nearly all the trees (except the pines). The lake was pink from reflecting the pink flowers and from pink flower petals that had fallen into the lake.
"And look closer!" Webby said "there are pink pebbles on the bottom of the lake!"
They looked closer and saw thru the clear, deep water pink pebbles covering the bottom of the lake.
Launchpad set the army surplus tent right next to some pine trees so the green tent was VERY hard to see. He took out some fishing gear and they heading to the lake to fish.
"We might as well relax and enjoy ourselves. This is going to take a while. We're hard to see here and we're got our cameras. So let's just fish and wait. We'll take some photos of unusual flowers and wildlife and us fishing, so we can always enter one of them in the contest. Since everybody else is taking photos of city stuff, you could still win with one of those- even if we can't find the blue moose." Launchpad said.
"This is fun." Huey said.
"And the locals did say they saw the blue moose." Dewey added.
"And there are a lot of rare birds and animals here." Louie said.
"And we might get lucky and photograph the blue moose?" Webby hoped.
After a while, they caught some fish. Launchpad took out the Swiss army knife I bought him for Valentine's Day (I am so glad I bought him that silly thing. He's having such fun with his new toy.)and used one of it's multi-numerous attachments, a magnifying glass, to light a fire.
Launchpad made it a small fire, over rocks and with rocks surrounding it so he wouldn't start a forest fire and so it was hard to see. Soon, the fish was cooking over the fire. They ate the fish, put out the fire so it would stay out and buried the fish bones.
Then they spotted the Blue Moose. He looked sad and sticky somehow. There was something weird about his coat and not just it's color. But some hunters spotted the Blue Moose too. They wanted to kill him for his rare coat- for "bragging rights", like there is something about shooting a defenseless animal worth bragging about.(1)
The Ducktales Ducks forgot all about trying to take a photo of the Blue Moose, they were too busy warning it to RUN! The Blue Moose looked back, saw them and the hunters and ran. The hunters chased it. The Blue Moose tried his best to lose them. Finally, the Blue Moose ran into the thick woods...where he had avoiding running into before.
Only when the Blue Moose had been left with no other choice, did he in desperation, run in that direction. The Ducktales Ducks wondered why he had been so reluctant to do so earlier. The trees were thick in that direction and it seemed the best way to "lose" the hunters.
The Blue Moose finally lost the hunters. And the Ducktales Ducks.
"Ut-oh. We're lost, too." Huey said.
"Which way is camp?" Dewey asked.
"There's the lake! We should be able to see it from there." Louie said.
They headed in that direction and saw not only the grove of pine trees where their camp must be, (it was the only group of pines growing near the lake) but the Blue Moose, too. It was looking at the lake thirstily and sadly. In the otherwise pristine lake water were several large rusty metal containers. The gang investigated them.
"Ink! There's an ink factory in Pinkwater! It's the major employer of Pinkwater! Looks like they've been dumping their used ink drums into the lake, rather than disposing of them properly!" Launchpad said in disgust.
"THAT'S why the Moose is blue! It's not naturally that color, it's covered in INK! He must of tried to get a drink of water, slipped on the spilled ink and fallen into the inky water!" Huey said.
"And since moose are clumsy (I should talk!), he probably slipped back in the inky water trying to get up!" Launchpad said.
"That's why he looks sticky! His coat is covered with ink!" Dewey said. "That's why it started drinking out in the open, even if it had to risk getting shot at- at least the water is still clean there!"
"Are they crazy? This is the only water around here! The ink's bound to seep throughout the entire lake, sooner or later! "People" have to drink it too!" Louie said.
"We have to help the poor moose. He's miserable." Webby said.
So they built traps to catch the moose without hurting it. Once it was caught, they took it to a clean part of the lake and used soap and lake water to wash off the Blue Moose as best they could. They took photos of the Blue Moose, the rusty ink drums in the lake and of themselves washing the Moose.
But ink is hard to remove and they ended up having to shave the Moose and give him a haircut. This wasn't easy, even dogs hate being groomed and this was a wild animal. Luckily, it was spring and the nice weather had settled in. By the time winter comes back, the moose will have grown a new coat, in the usual brown moose color.
"I'm afraid he'll always be a little blue. We can't get all the ink off of him, it's been on for too long." Launchpad said sadly.
"But he's not sticky anymore." Huey said.
"And the hunters won't be after him especially, now they can see he's just a normal moose." Dewey added.
"And he isn't miserable any more." Louie finished.
And indeed, once groomed, the moose's reaction was obliviously "Oh, that's better!". Even if moose can't talk. Once they let him go, the happy moose ran back into the woods.
The Ducktales Ducks took some of the photos of the ink drums to the cops and the EPA. (2) Soon, a full-blown investigation was going on. The Pinkwater Ink Co. managed to prove that they had paid truck drivers to take the damaged used ink drums(the undamaged ones they refilled and reused) to the recycling plants and that almost all the truck drivers had done so.
ONE truck driver was lazy and couldn't be bothered and dumped the ink drums into the lake, without the company's knowledge or permission. (3)That truck driver got fired post-haste.
The company got fined anyway, because they were legally responsible for what their employees on their payroll did on their job.
The company turned around and sued the truck driver more because he made them look bad (the headline in the Duckburg Daily News read "INKwater")then because of the money (the truck driver didn't have that kind of money.)
But at least it got the town of Pinkwater on the map. Tourists came to see the pink lake, to drink at the Blue Moose Lodge (soon famous for it's hard pink lemonade)and to try and spot the still-a-little-blue Moose.
And the kids not only won the photo contest for their photo of the Blue Moose, they each won medals for helping the environment.
The End.
(1) Yes, I eat meat. I just don't brag about it.
(2) Environmental Protection Agency
(3) It can't ALWAYS be the company's fault. Some of them have to trying to do the right thing.
By the way, "I" couldn't come with them. "I'm" a free-lance photograph for the Duckburg Daily News and if I went with them, somebody might think I took the photos, which would be cheating. Me staying home avoided trouble.