Sorry, Yogi. No Picnic Basket For You.

We had some excitement here tonight. It wasn’t exactly a good excitement, but more of a “jump-start the heart” type of excitement.

My husband and I were sitting outside earlier this evening. It had been a scorching hot day and the temperature was finally starting to drop. A lovely breeze was rustling the leaves on the tree branches above our heads and we were trying to finally get cool. Our puppy, Rogue, was out with us and she was attached to her tie-down that gives her 25 feet to roam in a circle. The three of us were playing fetch and having a nice relaxing evening.

Out of seemingly nowhere, Rogue dropped the Frisbee she was carrying back to us and she started barking her cute little head off. This was not a bark for attention. It was a deep, warning bark. She was growling too. She’s never been like that before. In fact people and other dogs often walk by and she never utters a “woof”. She’ll watch them and wag her tail manically, but she won’t bark. Usually the only time she does bark is to get our attention if we‘ve ignored her for too long. This was definitely a different situation all together.

Rogue was staring off toward the side of the yard that was blocked from our view by our enclosed porch. Ron and I both assumed that the neighbor was doing something outside to annoy the pup and so Ron jumped up and walked around the side of the porch to see what was going on. I was only a step behind because I was curious too. Ron suddenly turned around and said “Get inside the house!” As he said this, he was reaching to grab Rogue and I looked up and there before me was a black bear! It wasn’t a huge bear and was probably only a yearling, but it was a bear all the same. My mind froze for a moment as I realized that I wasn’t looking at someone’s loose dog. For a split second I thought, “Oh how cute!”

Rogue continued to bark and I think the bear was more shocked to see us than we were to see him. He started to continue the direction he was going, which would have taken him straight across our backyard, but then he seemed to think better of it. He turned around to go back the way he‘d come. At that moment my brain started back up again and I ran into the house… not to get away from the bear, but to find my camera! Yeah, my priorities were a little funny.

I ran back with my camera and unfortunately missed seeing the bear try to climb the neighbor’s fence. I saw him dash around the side of the house toward the front and so I scooted my way to our front porch. I glanced out and then stepped onto the front stoop only in time to see his hind end disappear in the bushes across the street. So alas, no photos were captured.

Once he was gone, my body realized what my mind had ignored and I have to admit that I started shaking. I know it wasn’t a big bear in the scheme of things, but his claws and teeth can do mighty damage even so. He’d been only 10 feet away from us when we first noticed him. That is closer than I’d like without thick glass separating me from the beast.

I have to also add that this is rather ironic in a way. Today at work my coworker, Kim, told me that she had a bear behind her house this weekend and I was amused by her tale because she said she freaked out and ran screaming through her house. She doesn’t even live out in the boonies like I do. We joked about it and had some fun and I figured that was that… until Mr. Bear paid me a visit tonight. I guess I had it coming by making fun of her reaction.

All things considered… I’m just really disappointed that this happened on the one day that I didn’t have my camera with me outside. I always bring it outside to take shots of Rogue or trees or what have you. This one night, I left it inside and lost the chance of getting a bear shot. Ah well. You can bet that camera will be permanently attached to my hand from here on out!