Hello there, Bear…

One afternoon a few years ago, I came home from work to discover that a few of my plants on the steps and front porch were tipped over, so I righted them, put the potting soil back in and went to get the dogs. We head back outside for a potty break with Kiwi on a leash and Ginger running free. When we get to the spot where the plants were knocked over, Kiwi goes crazy with the some lovely-to-dogs smell. She really wanted to just stay and sniff there for awhile. But necessities await. We are near the flag pole/planting bed you see in the photo when, I hear the unmistakable sound of cracking underbrush. From the sound of it, it was something large in the tree line ahead of us. I realize that we are not alone and pick up Ginger who has yet to go potty and wait to see if it moves on or stays put. I am watching the tree line as a bear moves out into view and just stares at us. (Gulp.) I know I’m not supposed to turn and run and I really don’t want to ’cause Ginger still needs to go potty, so I just take a few steps backwards. The bear, seeing me move, decides to turn and run away from us. (Whew.) Unfortunately, it runs into the road just at the end of the driveway as a car was just going by. We get maybe four cars on our dirt road every day, so the odds that a car would be driving by at that EXACT moment, confounds me! The car misses the bear, but spooks him enough so that he turns back around and start running towards us!! My sensible back-up, baby steps plan turns into a full fledged turn and run maneuver. The bear is headed towards us. The car that spooked the bear sees what is happening and backs up and watches (My hope is that they wanted to lend a hand if I got into trouble!). I make it to the front porch and see that at bear has turned off and is now running parallel to the road/stream, across our front yard and back into the woods. But he is going slow, so we all got a good show of it and I got to snap off some quick photos.

Now the old “terrified-of-bears” me would have turned tail and gotten back into the house as soon as she had heard the cracking in the woods. Or she would have figured out that those plants were probably knocked over by a bear and not ventured out at all for the rest of the day. But, no… this is the new “embracing-all-parts-of-country-living” me and she knows that bears are all around us and has decided that she is not all that scared of ’em anymore. Respectful, but not scared!