Living in Luxury Off The Grid - Bear Incursion! Run, Freeze, Attack, or Be Eaten?

in #nature6 years ago

It was a magical summer morning until I opened the door.


There was the shortest pause before the dogs threw themselves past me in full attack mode.


Black bears are somewhat common closer to town



but the people near town keep their mouth-watering trash in bins outside their homes, they keep compost piles that still smell of ripe fruit and have the remains of vegetables ruminating it the depths, they keep chickens, and they leave pet food outside their back doors.

It’s a wonderland of bear bait. We intentionally avoid all these things and yet here was an older bear cub getting cosy with our back door.


Are these the faces of insanity?
Why yes! Yes they are!




That’s when it occurred to me that I should have taken more care to put the fish composite lawn fertilizer away the night before.

A plastic bag was all that was left of the fishy pellets and though the cub was able to climb the tree fast enough to avoid tangling with the dogs (yes, I man-handled them back into the house) the bear still stuck around outside our back door for a week.



Before the bear left it returned our fertilizer
in nice steaming heaps.




So… did you decide?

Run, Freeze, Attack, or Be Eaten?








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I think I would have wrestled the dogs back inside too and then watched the bear cub from the window! Such beautiful creatures! I would be scared about where mummy bear was though...

The first few days bear spotting was a lot of fun but by the time he figured out that there were no more free handouts we were somewhat tired of his company! The black dog, G'narl, was really savvy to hunting and wildlife but she really didn't like that bear there. It's a good thing that it was so shy.

The dangers of living in such a beautiful place I guess! We don't really have any dangerous animals in the UK, apart from the humans of course lol

It might seem that America has a few more of those here too! 😉 I have to tell you, before we moved here we lived in the University District in Seattle. I feel safer here!

That's too funny! I had totally forgotten that part of the show. Are you implying that you might just go ahead and be eaten? You're one of those extreme sports junkies, aren't you? Hahaha.

No, i read various posts and when I see a chance to make a wisecrack I can't resist.

Actually the saying should be, "sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you".

I so understand the wisecrack impulse. It seems to be one of those things that bring me and my man together, He does a bit of trolling on one of the news sites and then waits to see how many upvotes he gets and I do a bit of wiseacre replies here. I guess it all comes around. Good to meet you! 😉

That's some serious wilderness!

I went jogging with a fox the other day. The little bastard just kept trotting down the road about 100' ahead of me, then looking back to see if I was still following him.

I wouldn't have minded catching up because I know he's the same one that ate some of our chickens.

Pardon the pun, but do you "bear arms" up there, just in case? I'm no gun nut but I'd want something with some stopping power in case his big brother came wandering by.

We're good on the arms issue. Doug used to like to go out shooting. He doesn't do much any more but he does look avariciously at the old guns that they used to mount on top of the cargo carrier we have! He gets a magazine about old military vehicles and sees them completely restored, guns and all and gets this look in eye!

Happy New Year! I had to laugh about your bear post as I myself did a bear post today, although mine didn't leave any 'packages' for me in my garden ;) Have a Steemit New Year! (I hope it's ok I posted my image here)

The texture comparison between fabric and the bear fur! I love it! The bear so totally in the Lady's face and yet that she's still riding a bear is such an excellent analogy. In my normal way of thinking I'd bet on the bear but Ms. Crypto is so unimpressed I'm going to have to consider the issue more closely.

I appreciate that you share these pieces so freely. The drawings and the theme interpretation is both beautiful and always suggests I should give a little further thought!

I did one the other day with a bull to balance out the outlook of Crypto. :)

As long as momma bear wasn't around, this one probably didn't know much better than to retreat to the tree if he was young. We get coyotes here and they can be vicious. Bears were up where my cousin lived in the north. It's hard to teach folks not to leave food the bears like lying about. Restaurant garbage bins are also quite an attraction in town. Glad the dogs are safe and you too. I week is a long time to be house bound because of a bear!

Thanks much! We were pretty tired of having to take the dogs out on leashes. It's only been a problem once before when a mountain lion was hanging out near the house. The dogs were completely happy staying in then!

I got the impression that this bear had just set out on his own. He was young and small but not a baby.

We have coyotes too, in fact we had a young male hanging around the place last winter and all summer. He seems to have taken off now. We're pretty certain that before he left he got the cat. Nome, the cat, was hard to convince to come in the house at night and he had started skipping supper so he wouldn't get locked in. I saw him at dusk but never again after that. We were pretty upset. We've never had problems with aggression against us or the dogs though.

Sorry to hear about Nome. Perhaps Nome got chased away be the coyote? Nicer way to think about it...

True, but Nome always made it back for bedtime. He liked the warm! It was awful spending the days waiting for him to show up again. Thanks much. It helps to hear people empathize.

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