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Too Much to Bear (Grrrrr)
by M&E

This article is a lesson to all bears: Don’t go into town, or this might happen to you.

Our studies were finished at last, so we decided to take a walk. Maybe there would be a little adventure outside of the boring life at home. As we started out on our walk we noticed Mr. B watering his lawn and Mrs. B in her white Cherokee Sport driving towards home. We passed the cat house where all the cats, it seems, come together at one house. Once we even saw Ms. D’s cat, Moe, there.

After walking a few blocks we headed back towards home. Two girls came along on bikes. They excitedly told us not to go towards the school on 4th Ave., because there was a bear!

“Don’t go down there, there’s a bear,” said one of the girls. “I’m not kidding, the police are even over there.”

“M” was skeptical and thought that maybe they were joking.

But their statement was confirmed when a lady walking down the street asked, “Are you going to see the bear?”

Any doubt was blasted away! We ran the 2 blocks home and told Mom that there was a bear. Mom rushed to get ready. We put our kitten, Wessah, into his pet taxi, and closed the door. He stays in his carrier when we go places. We got the cameras, turned off the stove, leaving our pot roast to *rot, and sped out of the house. We drove to the scene, which was practically right around the block from us. A few days earlier, the newspaper had reported that a puma had been spotted on that same street. There were many people standing around looking up at a tree. As M began taking video, we heard that the bear had been seen by the elementary school, climbing on the fence.

A boy said, “Dude, post that on Youtube. Name it “Bear Stuck in Tree”, and I’ll watch it.” M assured him that she certainly would do just that. The boy then went around telling everyone that the video would be on Youtube.

The police warned us to stay back, because if the bear came down it might come towards us. The bear stayed in the tree for a while as kids, teenagers, and adults took pictures and observed the slightly large black bear. Several minutes later, the bear commenced to climb down the large tree. Everyone got tense as it slowly made its way down the tree trunk. E was kind of scared when the bear began to descend. As it reached the ground, nervous screams went up! The bear jumped a high fence and climbed another tree in someone else’s backyard. We drove around the block, then parked right across the street from the yard where the bear was. A bunch of people were standing around looking at the bear when a lady rode up on her bike and asked what was going on. She exclaimed that she had never seen a bear before and leaped off her bike. She ran right up to the fence and looked at the bear.

Police now asked people to clear back. They wanted to shoot the bear with a tranquilizer dart and didn’t want him to get nervous and run higher up the tree. If he did, he would have farther to fall and possibly hurt himself. Everyone got back and we sat in our vehicle and waited. In the meantime, Mom called Dad and told him about all of the excitement. A few minutes later, Mom saw the bear drop from the tree. Everyone went back over to the fence to see what would happen next. The sleeping bear was examined. Dad arrived right when the bear was being carried out and put into the bed of a Fish, Wildlife, and Parks pick-up truck. Before the truck departed, we all pet the brown, furry, black bear as he lie there sleeping.

So, it was just a normal day, and by the end of it we had petted a real live, wild black bear!

*The pot roast did not rot and we ate it for dinner.

©09/30/08