Just a few weeks ago, close to 6pm in the evening, our dogs suddenly started to bark like crazy at the glass screen door. We let them out and they tore off into the scattered trees that are between our home and the lake. We followed and heard a terrific rustling in the bush, and just caught a glimpse of this beautiful black bear scaling one of the trees as fast as he could!
How surprised we were! We know there are bears around ... we've seen them occasionally as we have driven the local roads, and noticed their scats as we walked our woods with the dogs. I even saw a mother and two tiny cubs once in the spring as I went out to the road to pick up my mail. They wanted nothing to do with us, and with our dogs always 'patrolling' our property, we had never seen any close to the house. Until now!
He or she stayed up that tree just calmly looking down at the wildly barking dogs, seeming to know it was quite safe where it was. We took a few photographs, then called the dogs inside so the bear could escape. Only a few minutes later, we saw the bear's wide rump disappearing into the woods.
Was it the smell of our barbecue that drew it closer to our home? We've barbecued many summer evenings without attracting such a dinner guest. Was it the very dry summer we've had which resulted in fewer berries this year, that led a hungry bear to bravely come closer than he usually would? Who knows? We haven't seen it since ... but, it created some very animated dinnertime conversations that evening!
Bye for now ...
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