The Bear and the Maiden Fair
So, it was a pretty good day for me in terms of animals. I saw some cows (more about that on Friday) and when I got home from work there was a family of bears in my neighbor's tree. Let me repeat that: right now, there is a mother bear and three cubs in my neighbor's tree. There was a bear next door.
A BEAR.
My reaction to this was somewhat like "afhreughevburtrtiirhi where's my camera?". It's not like black bears are rare or anything (I mean, I do live in central Pennsylvania). Actually, once, when I was a kid, there was a bear in our backyard, eating our trash. Because my neighborhood is pretty heavily wooded and borders on State Game Lands, we have quite a bit of wild life and, occasionally, deer and bears will wonder over. What's really cool is that A) this bear has cubs (they're sooo cute) and B) the bear is in a tree, so you can get pretty close and take lots of pictures.
I quite like bears. They have lovely ears and are thoroughly respectable
creatures and, apparently, really good climbers. I mean, I knew that
bears could climb really well, but just watching the cubs play around up in the tree, I realized that they're not just good climbers, they're really good climbers. I mean, they looked like little monkeys up there! Some things are too adorable for life.
Anyway, when we got home, the police were there and there were a ton of people standing around, taking pictures. That was a bit of a shock. It was like 'huh, I wonder what the police are doing parked outside our house...THERE'S A BEAR IN THAT TREE!" (by then, I was on the phone calling everyone I know). The police left pretty quickly because there was really nothing they could do. Usually, they would dart the bear and bring it back to the woods, but they didn't want to do that when she was in the tree, because she might get hurt. Fortunately, they just decided to let her be.
Normally, when there's a bear around, you can't get very close because A) you might be mauled (always a bad thing) and B) they usually run away. However, because she had her cubs with her, this bear wasn't going to come down until she was sure that everything was safe, so we were able to take some pictures. You can't see the bears very well in the pictures because of the lighting and the leaves, but that's okay.
In any case, it was a really cool experience and hopefully, the bears will get back to the State Game Lands safely. I named the mom Matilda and the cubs Clarence, Julio, and Margot.
Just sayin'
[Note: the title of this blog is a Game of Thrones reference, sorry if you didn't get it.]
[Update: the bear has now come down from the tree and is somewhere in the neighborhood; the police have blocked off the street and are working on getting her over to the woods.]
A BEAR.
My reaction to this was somewhat like "afhreughevburtrtiirhi where's my camera?". It's not like black bears are rare or anything (I mean, I do live in central Pennsylvania). Actually, once, when I was a kid, there was a bear in our backyard, eating our trash. Because my neighborhood is pretty heavily wooded and borders on State Game Lands, we have quite a bit of wild life and, occasionally, deer and bears will wonder over. What's really cool is that A) this bear has cubs (they're sooo cute) and B) the bear is in a tree, so you can get pretty close and take lots of pictures.
Anyway, when we got home, the police were there and there were a ton of people standing around, taking pictures. That was a bit of a shock. It was like 'huh, I wonder what the police are doing parked outside our house...THERE'S A BEAR IN THAT TREE!" (by then, I was on the phone calling everyone I know). The police left pretty quickly because there was really nothing they could do. Usually, they would dart the bear and bring it back to the woods, but they didn't want to do that when she was in the tree, because she might get hurt. Fortunately, they just decided to let her be.
Normally, when there's a bear around, you can't get very close because A) you might be mauled (always a bad thing) and B) they usually run away. However, because she had her cubs with her, this bear wasn't going to come down until she was sure that everything was safe, so we were able to take some pictures. You can't see the bears very well in the pictures because of the lighting and the leaves, but that's okay.
In any case, it was a really cool experience and hopefully, the bears will get back to the State Game Lands safely. I named the mom Matilda and the cubs Clarence, Julio, and Margot.
Just sayin'
[Note: the title of this blog is a Game of Thrones reference, sorry if you didn't get it.]
[Update: the bear has now come down from the tree and is somewhere in the neighborhood; the police have blocked off the street and are working on getting her over to the woods.]
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