They Own What? Because we have been visited three times, this will be a combined story of three bears who came to visit the first two weeks in October 2008, and what a neighbor man said. It was a cool Thursday morning, October 2nd. My hubby Joe had already gone to work, and our boxer came into the bedroom, bouncing on the bed to get me awake and up. She wanted out, so I put on my robe and left her out. She was running around, sniffing and tracking, and I thought UH OH. But I saw nothing, and when she was done, she came to the door and was ready to come in and eat. When Joe came home I told him how crazy Lilah was acting that morning. But I didn't see a bear or any other critter around. Friday we were outside working, putting up panels around our front porch, when a young man we knew, stopped in front of our place. He had been up on his property the day before, checking out his blind, then when leaving, he came by our place. His eye caught a bear walking around in our yard sometime around 8 AM. The bear was playing with the windsock hanging from a dogwood tree. The young man said the bear walked around for about ten minutes, nonchalant, like he owned the place. My comment was - he does own it. We all laughed. Would you argue with a bear? But now I know why Lilah was so excited and tracking that morning. Because it was only a matter of about half an hour between the time the young man saw the bear and when I left Lilah out. YIKES! Sunday October 12th. Another early morning visitor. Joe had gotten up and was going to leave Lilah out when he saw a very large bear walking around in the yard. Lilah also saw it and was barking fiercely, stomping, and slobbering, when the bear walked close to the house. The bear heard her, and ran off. And you can believe Lilah wanted to chase it. Leaving Lilah indoors, Joe and I then checked out the perimeter, and found that the bear once again pushed over our ten foot steel pole at least a good three inches, and also dragged the garbage can down into the woods behind our shed. Clean up time AGAIN and erect the pole time - AGAIN. Because we could not move it this time, Joe got a wench, tied a heavy hemp rope to it, and then tied the other end of the rope to the pole and pulled the pole back in place. So you can imagine the strength of this bear. Joe then mixed a batch of cement and poured it into the hole. Will the bears be able to push it again, who knows. October 12 was also our 6th. wedding anniversary, so we decided to go to the old train station (a real one) restaurant to celebrate. This restaurant was where we went on our first date seven years ago. It was a beautiful sunny warm day, and an awesome drive up through the mountains, ablaze in brillant fall colors. It was a wonderful dinner, and I had the waitress bring a piece of chocolate cake with a candle on it for Joe's birthday. She started singing happy birthday and even the other customers started singing and everyone clapped. He was totally shocked. :-) When we finally arrived home, there in the yard was a small black bear, but when he heard the car pull in he ran off. But not to far, for he was back in about ten minutes. This time he decided to push the fire barrel over and check out the contents, finding turkey bones that were burned several days before. We hollered at it to get going, and it walked "SLOWLY" I might add, down to the open field. However this was one persistant bear. About ten minutes or so later, the sun having gone down, the motion lights came on, but it was still light enough to see that the bear was back and up to no good. We did not have any bird feeders up, but had forgotten a suet cake holder that was hanging on an oak tree for the woodpeckers and nuthatchers. The bear being small could not reach it just standing on it's hind legs, so he started climbing. We of course were hanging out the window and telling it to get going. He tried several times to get the holder, but gave up. Looking defeated he went down into the open field and this time he headed towards the mountain. Joe went outside and retrieved the holder, just in case any of the bears come back during the night. The end of the fall season is near, and by this time next month the bears will hopefully be fattened up, ready to go to their caves, or thick underbrush for their winters sleep. This means the bears will be very active these next few weeks, finding whatever they can to sustain them through winter. As I was writing this story, I noticed movement outside and checking further saw that there were fifteen wild turkeys in our yard. The young ones we watched all summer are full grown now, pecking away, finding what ever it is they eat. All wildlife and birds will be looking for food, with the cold winter months soon upon us. The migrating birds like the evening and red-breasted grosbeaks, and Juncos (snowbirds), will be stopping by, and some will make their home here till spring. Written by ©Barbara L. Chambers Carter AN EXCERPT FROM DIAMONDAVID: so funny, the bears know where, and what to do at your home. LOL! They know where everything is at so they can pick and choose their points of attack LOL! ... Too funny - thankyou Sandi & Fran/DesertRose for these graphics. CLICK here ~ Gonna Be A Bear ~ Funny Click here for More Real Bear Stories!! Click bluejay Icon ~ My page listings.