Have you ever encountered a bear?

A number of years ago, my daughter’s partner Lynn was visiting here at Squam Lake. I believe it was her first visit. She was working at a desk in the back bedroom – called the forest room, one that faced the open window looking out on the woods (Hunter was out teaching at the time). Suddenly, I heard a loud squeal from her end of the house and then saw Lynn come running, breathless: “There’s a bear right outside my bedroom window!”

A bear. I looked out and saw, yes, the young bruin had sauntered across the driveway in wide open sight and was now headed up the driveway. I grabbed my camera to follow: where was that bear going? Lynn followed saying I can’t believe we’re chasing a bear!

We saw the bear head down David (my neighbor)’s driveway and onto his porch. There was the lure: a garbage can, likely with meat in it. We headed back to my house to let the police know there’s a bear nearby, especially since it would have crossed the highway to get here, and that might be an issue on return. But the bear was nowhere in sight when the cop arrived. He told me, bears are fast. Rarely does anyone witness them when crossing roads.

Bears. I do see them up here. They’re part of the landscape.

Last night I dreamed that a bear ate Peaches. I ran over and grabbed the bear and he spit her out. And then he ate her again! I was incensed. I grabbed that bear by the ears and shook him til he spit her out again. But then I kept pulling and pulling his ears until he ran away into the woods.

Go away, bear! I love Peaches. And I love my art. And I don’t actually hate bears. Just g-r-r-r-r-r.

Do you feel that determined at times? You know you’ll get what you want even if you have to do it twice. And growl a bit along the way.

(Peaches: I chased a bear up a tree once. Ho-hum. It was just a darn bear.)