The Bear

It's true that when you get up in the morning, you really have no idea how your day is going to end up. And yesterday was no exception.

When I went to bed last night, I heard the dogs barking and figured that it must have been the oppossum or the raccoon that likes our cat food. I listened for a while, but when I heard the trashcan overturn, I angrilly went to the porch to see what was going on and shoo away whatever was causing this chaos. I flicked on the light and didn't see anything on the back porch. But when I leaned over the railing, the bear and I saw eye-to-eye, and I'm not sure who was more surprised. I called my husband.

After closing (and locking) all the doors (although not sure why locking was going to help), my husband and I spent the next few hours watching the bear take full bags of trash out of the can. He (still not sure about bear gender) took some of the full bags to the woods and then returned. The next bag he broke open, ate a few things and then looked as if he was taking a little nap. Did I mention that this is all outside of our bedroom window, about 8 feet down and about 24 inches from the house? You would think that the bear would have been afraid of us, with all of the talking, lights, TV going and the photo taking (although no photos are available because apparently they cannot be taken through a screen).

I admit, I really do not know how to deal with bears. The only ones I've ever seen were at the zoo. And that got me thinking, could the bear get in the house, do they have opposable thumbs like humans, could he open the door, etc. I should have learned more about wild animals, I should have watched more Animal Planet, what would the Crocodile Hunter do? After I spoke with the game warden (who thinks that a bear eating trash is amusing, not threatening) I felt a little better. Evidently bears are not really preditors, and at this time of the year they are just looking for a good meal.

So tonight the trash can goes inside, the cat food no longer stays on the porch and I'll try to remove the screen to get a better photo. I'm sure that he'll be back for seconds.