Daniel Boone and the Bear

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the livingroom doing some work, when I heard the back door slam, and Dane ask Briton what was wrong.

Apparently, Dane had heard Briton running up to the backdoor. He had been literally panting as he flew through the backdoor, turned and slammed the deadbolt shut.

"Bar, Bar." (bear)

He came running into the livingroom, with Dane close behind, with a look of utter panic on his face. I got up and figuring he must mean there was a big dog in our yard, picked him up and went to the backdoor, and asked him to show me where he saw the bear. We stepped out the door with Dane following, and headed around the side of the house.

I walked up the side of the house carrying Briton and there before me (about 14 feet from me) was a black bear.


I stopped dead in my tracks and simply turned and walked quickly back to the house, all the while telling Dane to "Get in the house!!!!"

I didn't clue in til later that there are two ways to handle bears:

1) if it is not showing signs of aggression then you *do not* turn your back, but walk slowly and calmly away from the bear. Do not move quickly!

Or 2) If it is aggressive then you make lots of noise and raise up your arms, while backing away slowly. Do not move quickly!

Okay, so I did the wrong thing. We moved quickly and we turned our backs! As I slipped into the house I noticed that Dane was not coming in with me. Warrior that he is, he had picked up a large stick and was about to go back into the yard to chase the bear away!!! Uhhh, NO!! I got him into the house and once I had the doors locked I got the kids to grab the phone, while I grabbed my camera! How many times do you get a bear in your yard?

(Actually, we have been the 'lucky' recipients of bear visits ten times! *laugh* Once a male bear knocked over our 5 foot chest freezer and stole our baskets of berries! He was huge!! The conservation officer came and trapped him and got rid of him. Another one reared up her head and stood at my window, while I sat a mere three feet away at a desk! That was freaky!!! That was while I lived in a trailer with four tiny children, while building one of our houses. She subsequently visited three more times with her babies before she and her cubs were caught, but not before they smashed in a windshield to get the lunchbox that was in the front seat of a car. And I was newly moved from the city!)

I called the police and told them I had a bear in my yard. They gave me the number to the conservation officer and I called him. He told me there was probably no worries about it, as there were often bear sightings. I could tell he was a pencil pusher!! *laugh* We are residential and this bear showed no fear of humans!

Shortly after, another local conservation officer that actually gets out in the field called me and asked for my location. I told him the bear had now left our yard and was heading north. About an hour later, he called me to tell me that he had found the bear and had to shoot it. It was actually a male bear of 3-4 years, not fearful of humans, in the least (he had approached it and it did not startle at all), was showing signs of aggression, and was eating out of garbage cans. Those are the worst kind, apparently.

The irony of this situation is that Briton has this fear of bears. Every night when I put him to bed he always makes sure the closet light is on because of 'bears'. He has never even seen a bear, until this bear incident, but for some reason he has a fear of them. So it is totally ironic that he should be the one to meet up with a bear.

We talked about how he had handled the situation and then he went out and showed me what he had done. He had been out at the log cabin playing when he had seen the bear. The bear was between him and the house. Briton was a smart little boy!! He ran down the fence line all the way past the garage and then cut around the back of the garage and up to the house to the back door. When I was having him show me, I asked him if he cut between the house and the garage and he said no. He had continued on down the fence line to stay as far from the bear as possible. I was very impressed to see how wisely he thought! Fear might have made him simply run past the bear to the house, but he didn't. And I am sure because of this he is safe today. So we are very thankful.

Briton tells me he is Daniel Boone cause he is not scared of bears. The funny thing is that after this incident, for a couple weeks, Briton thought bears were wonderful. No more fear of bears. Actually, I think to him, they were just big teddy bears. But then the childish fear came back and the closet light had to stay on, again.