BEAR

Several summers ago, on a lovely night, we had a great campfire. Nearby a very large family with five cottages, there were so many of them, had a lousy fire. I was so proud, my camping skills were better than theirs!


A few days later, I didn’t want to do it again as I was a bit bitten up from the previous campfire by bugs. So, we stayed in and played canasta with the girls and I looked out of the window and the big family had a good fire, and they were sitting around in about 10 chairs having a great time.

A bit later, I looked out and there was a great fire, 10 chairs and no people. The next few things happened very quickly as it was being processed in my head:

1. The people were gone and the fire was burning

2. Someone brought their dog, which no one was allowed to do.

3. That’s the biggest dog I’ve ever seen!

4. Oh my God, that’s a bear!

The bear was running around the grounds, running up to the fire and around the whole area. I knew then and there that the Tarzan movies were wrong and that a fire does not scare away wild animals.

After the bear left we all went to sleep. At 5:30 a.m. the next morning we got up and my wife looked out the window and the bear was staring right back at her, about three feet away! It ran around for a while and left.

The owners of the cottages said they didn’t know what to do as they had called a animal control officer and he would come out the following Sunday. They didn’t want to shoot it and hoped it would leave.
The next night we were out with friends and arrived back at 9:30 p.m. We were met by a neighbor who told us to run inside as quickly as possible! We did!

The bear was loose.

The owners shot a rifle in the air and the bear ran a bit, ran around the cottages for a while and tried to get into one of them.

The police were called and they arrived but said they don’t shoot bears. They went after the bear in the rain with flashlights, and when they saw the bear they shot in the air.

The bear got angry and decided to eat policeman for dinner. The policemen shot the charging bear. It ran a bit and fell. They ran over and shot it four more times.

Within the hour, a local butcher came over and asked for the bear and it was given up for meat.

I’m sure the all the little children there were traumatized. My kids dealt with it but it was an experience not to be forgotten.