By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
“When I found out that my name had been drawn for a moose permit, I starting just bouncing up and down, I was so excited,” exclaimed a very personable 12-year-old Patricia O’Leary from Gray. If you can imagine how excited she was then, one could only surmise how she felt at 7:03 a.m. on Oct. 12, when she took down a 640-pound moose. 
Contributed photo
Twelve-year-old Patricia O’Leary of Gray stands proudly beside the 640-pound, nine-point moose she shot on Oct. 12. With O’Leary is her sub-permitee Jeff Morin of Woodland.
The hunting permit served the seventh-grader two fold as she not only had a chance at fulfilling her hunting dream but also gave her and her Mom Sherry, a chance to visit with her grandmother, Verna O’Leary of Woodland, where they were staying during the hunting trip.
In the company of O’Leary’s sub-permitee, Jeff Morin of Woodland, friend James Michaud of Caribou, and Mom, on the second day of her hunt the young sharp-shooter and her fellow hunters saw a moose come out into a broccoli field. “I knew this was the one,” O’Leary stated. “My first shot hit him, and the second one hit him in the spine, I was so excited, I yelled, ‘oh, I got him.’” Advancing closer after the second shot, it was the third that finalized the nine-point trophy.
O’Leary, who lists her favorite past-times as dancing, singing, fishing and of course hunting, said that although she didn’t actually participate in field-dressing her moose, before it was taken out of the field and brought to be tagged at NorthStar Variety in New Sweden, she stated, “I did pick up and hold the heart.”
The now veteran hunter said she really likes moose meat much better than other beef and plans on having the moose’s rack mounted and put on display in her home.
O’Leary said she would like to also thank Gerald St. Pierre of Fort Fairfield, along with Morin, Michaud and her Mom for making her moose hunt so successful — and fun.
