There's a Moose in the House

There's a Moose in the House - Try to keep that pesky moose out of your house.

There's a Moose in the House! Maybe you will find him sleeping in your bed. Or maybe he is taking a bubble bath, raiding your refrigerator, or warming himself by your fireplace! Those moose can be down right pesky animals! Your job is to either catch them or shut them out so they can't wander in in the first place, while at the same time adding pesky moose to other player's houses. 
 
There are four rooms altogether (bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living room) and each room has two cards - one showing the room with furniture but no moose, and one showing the same room with a moose (see image below). As you play, you will be adding rooms to other player's "invisible" houses as they add to yours.

There is also a card showing a moose walking into the house, a card with a shut door, and a card with a moose trap - a mouse trap with spinach on it. I just learned that moose are herbivores, or in today's lingo, they eat a plant based diet. You go moose!

Object:
Keep moose out of the rooms of your house, put moose into your opponent's houses, and have the fewest moose in your house when the last card is played.

Set up:
Deal four cards face down to each player. Place the remaining cards in a face down pile in the middle of the players.

Play:
You will be building a "house" of cards in front of your opponents as you play, and they will be building one in front of you. These cards, the house, will be played in a horizontal line in front of each player. The first card in this line will always be the moose entering the house. You can place empty rooms in your opponents houses, but until this card picturing a moose entering the house is played, no cards showing moose inside these rooms can be played.

On each turn, a player will draw one card and take one of the following actions:

• Play the There's a Moose in the House card (moose entering the house) on any other player. Once all players have this initial card, anyone holding this card can discard it and replace it with another card from the deck. Any future Moose in the House cards that are picked from the deck are taken out of play.
• Play an Empty Room card on any player that has less than three empty rooms. A player can have more than one of the same room in their house, but no more than three empty rooms at one time.
• Play a matching Moose in the Room card on top of any other player's empty room already in play.
• Play a Shut Door card on one of your empty rooms. Once this card is played, no moose can be added to this room.

If you can't play any of your cards, discard one and your turn is over. If a player tries to add a moose to one of your rooms, you can immediately play the Moose Trap card. This stops the moose from coming into your room. Take the Moose in the Room card and the Moose Trap cards and put them both in the discard pile. Take a card from the deck to bring the cards in your hand back up to four. 

Play until all the cards have been played or until no more cards are playable. Each player then counts the number of moose in their house and in their hand. The player with the fewest moose is the winner. If there is a tie, the person with the most closed doors in his house is the winner.
 

Try this:

• Work on visual discrimination, shuffling/dealing/fanning cards, in-hand manipulation, logic, problem solving, manual dexterity, executive functioning skills, process skills, socialization skills, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: 20 empty room cards, 20 moose in the room cards, 10 There's a Moose in the House cards, 5 door cards, 3 Moose Trap cards

If you are interested in buying this game or just want more information, click on the image below.