The Big Bear Caper

I always wondered why, when I'm at the top of a mountain ridge, I never see any wildlife. It doesn't make sense. I see the elk, deer, cougar and bear scat on the ground. But, when I'm hiking and look down on a distant meadow, they are always empty.

Except this one time...

We were hiking up a steep, rocky ridge near our house, and when we reached the top, as usual, I scanned all the open meadow areas for critters. Nothing. Then- ah! Some movement! As I squinted to see what it was, it came right out into a clearing. A bear!  A BIG bear!

I was so excited, until I realized that it was making a bee-line for our neighbor's house. Now, these wonderful neighbors are retired. They feed half the hummingbirds migrating through Colorado, I'm sure of it. They normally have 8 feeders out, and by July, every feeder has a bird at every station. It's a wonder no one has gotten an eyeball skewered walking around their porch, there are so many birds swarming.

On this particular day, our neighbors had mentioned that they would be in town. I knew their feeders would be out (they go in at night) and calling that bear like a honey-lullaby. I also knew he would break every one in the process of drinking them, worse, associate humans with food. So, quick as we could, we scrambled down the steep rocks and grassy slope, jumped in our good 'ol truck and drove up to the neighbors.

When we got there, 10 minutes after we saw the bear, our neighbor came out smiling.
"Hi! What are you two up to today?" She said, blissfully unaware.

"Rescuing your hummingbird feeders from a huge bear because you're not home." I replied.

He was probably sitting up the hill listening to us and planning a midnight raid, but we'll never know. None of us saw that bear again that day.

Things that go Bump in the Night...

We had a visitor last night. I awoke when our motion-detector light went on outside the bedroom. Even half asleep, I registered that I had not heard the noisy dog-door...it wasn't a dog. I listened....silence. Then, 'boom, bang, clatter!' By the time I got to the window, I could see a huge paw wrapped around a tree, then a big face turned toward me. A bear was shimmying up the tree to reach our hummingbird feeder! The feeder is strung 15 feet above the ground and between trees, so despite his best efforts, it was out of reach.

In the time it took my husband to get kitchen pans for the farewell party, the bear shimmied down the tree and checked out the pond. No fish. Only puny tadpoles. Bummer.

I wanted to throw him a bag of dog food. Poor guy must be hungry. But I never would. "A fed bear is a dead bear"

I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of him, but he left this behind.

Bear-y-go-round

I was running one summer day not far from my house, when my 90 pound german shepherd-mix, Kota, excitedly bounded past me. His buoyant enthusiasm warned me something was up, so I watched. As I came up a rise, near a large pond, I saw an adorable baby bear scurry up a tree - followed closely by Kota.

Kota stopped to look up at the little bear, disappointed that he didn't want to play.

Then mama bear showed up. Clearly she DID want to play. Round and round the pond they went, Kota's tail ringing around in glee.

Meanwhile, I stood above the pond, yelling at the top of my lungs at dog ears that could not hear. Until they did hear. After five or so revolutions around the pond, Kota began to run directly to me. I knew immediately- I was now "home base," safety zone. I bent down in my scanty summer running togs, picked up a rock in each hand, and yelled something I won't type here. I think that was the first time the bear noticed me ... and, you know, she stopped. Then looked at Kota like he was the stupidest coyote she'd ever come across, turned and disappeared.

Now, we still had to get home, and baby bear was in a tree near the road. I didn't fancy another encounter with mama bear, so we took the high road, up and over and around to get home.

Kota was so pleased with himself.