Thursday, July 2, 2009

Bears!!

So I am driving home from Knit and Spin night and I realized that I have not posted to the blog in some time, suddenly the phone rings...

(Don't all good stories start like that?)

Anyway, it is James telling me all about how the dog scared off a bear. Cool, good dog - earn your kibble little one...

Then, with a loud bang, we both realize that the bear is back. Did I mention that our dogs nickname is Peanut - yea, exactly, not so scary as one might imagine.

Let me just set the scene: Our trashcan is up against the side of our house pretty much right next to the front door - but to get from said trash can to front door one would have to go down a set of porch steps, turn right and turn right one more time. So as you can imagine, even though the trash can is just feet from the door - we do have a little safety barrier.

So anyway, back to the phone call and the loud bang. I will do my best to keep this short: The bear came back, helped itself to some delicious table scraps, littered trash all around the neighborhood and then went about its business.

Or so we thought...

After about 30 minutes on the road I arrive to the house. Being concerned that a bear was about (and really curious how much trash we had to clean up the next morning) I drove around the neighborhood searching. Not once, but twice I drove around our block making sure the bear was gone. Then feeling safe, and seeing that James had left all the lights on for my arrival I pulled into the driveway and opened the door.

Sitting in the car I listed for any noises, watched for movement and waited for James to open the front door. Greeting each other as loudly as possible, we decided that all was safe.

Or so we thought...

As I approached the porch steps about to hand my spinning wheel off to James we both heard the craziest noise. It can only be described as clapping, or better yet horse hooves hitting the ground and a painful wailing noise. Looking immediately to our left we say a HUGE black bear headed right for us. Needless to say we both squealed like school girls and ran into the house.

Having found the camera and locked all the furry ones away we peaked out the front door and spotted the bear trying to (or at least so we though - yea see a trend with that phrase?) climb the tree a few feet back from the trashcan.

As we watched (and videotaped) we realized that she was NOT happy that we were so curious. But it was strange - she never went further then that tree. Teeth chomping, wailing and pacing, she simply refused to go any further then the tree...

The we saw why; Momma bear was not alone.

You guessed it, there was a bear cub up the tree.

Needless to say, the second we saw that second face - that cute little baby bear face - we slammed the door (yes there was a little school girl screaming at that moment too) and watched from our side windows as they sauntered off away from the house and into the woods.

Here is a clip from the nights excitement:

6 comments:

  1. How scary!!! Someone needs to be called about this. I don't know who, but, obviously someone needs calling

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  2. Holy shit! I'd just about die from combined fright and glee myself! I'm glad the both of you were oky.

    Was this Tuesday night or was it another knitting group? I love your "Ghost Hunters" style video. :P

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  3. Harriet,

    It was! Scary but really awesome at the same time. James called around and no one concerned. We received lots of safety suggestions, but nothing more. If the bears decided that our trash is their food source and come back day after day - that is when everyone we spoke with will be concerned. Lets hope it does not come to that...

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  4. Tina,

    It was so cool. Scary and spooky, but the most amazing thing we have EVER heard and seen in our lives. This happened on Tuesday, just after our Hudson knit group. Crazy huh?

    I just watched the whole video (not the edited version - ya know that one where we sound really stupid) with the mindset of Ghost Hunters and laughed my ass off!

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  5. Wow! That must have been quite exciting, and yes scary too. I do hope they don't become a problem for you guys.

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  6. Abletodream,

    It WAS! Scary and awesome at the very same moment - hopefully we don't have too many of those...

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