Grandson Gregg and an Angry Bear
My grandson is a police officer in Aspen Colorado. He's been relating stories to me about the bears breaking into people's houses and getting into their refrigerators. Their preference seems to be ice cream.
I've been enjoying reading his escapades, as he and his fellow officers chase the bears out of houses. Unfortunately, too many residents have left doors unlocked and the bears have become quite adept at opening doors. Of course if the door isn't locked, they don't have any problem climbing through windoes.
A few years ago, many of my family members were at a camp in the Angelus National Forest. We'd been told to put any snacks we'd brought into the old lodge for safe keeping. My mom and aunt and another lady, all in their late 80s at the time, slept in the lodge.
Sometime in the night my mom got up to go to the bathroom which was down the hall a ways from where she was sleeping. She stepped out without her glasses on and saw what she thought was a very large dog. She woke my aunt and told her, my aunt looked and said, "My dear, that's a bear. You can't go to the bathroom now."
The bear ate all the snacks including a huge jar of black licorice, he tasted the red licorice but left it--the only treat that wasn't eaten. He finally left and mom got to go to the bathroom.
After that we kept our snacks in the individual cabins even thought we were told not to. We figured we could yell loud enough to scare a bear away. Never had a problem after that.
Hope my grandson keeps me posted, I'm beginning to get an idea for another Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.
Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com
Comments
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://www.morganmandel.com
If I came upon a bear on my way to the bathroom, I could probably scream loud enough and go into spastic convulsions to scare him off.
Helen
Straight From Hel
"I am nervous, The closer I got, the more the bear growled, huffed, and moved in the tree. It's quite interesting, especially when you aren't looking at the bear."
My husband is a police officer, and I'm sure he'd much rather deal with bear break-ins than a robbery, gang incident, or domestic violence any day! Humans tend to be more dangerous and unpredictable than bears. :-)
My dad was a volunteer in the national forest near my home. They occasionally had to trap bears in cages and transport them elsewhere (if they get too used to humans, things can get messy -- as your grandson's story proves :-) ) Apparently, they had a problem with people OPENING the cages and letting the bears out before they had a chance to move them. Anyone who'd do that is either much braver or much stupider than I. *LOL*
Madeline
Oh, I can't wait to see what you come up with for a the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree book. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman did an episode on the Great White Buffalo that was very well done. Here I am in TV land again.
Cheryl