A Visit from a Black Bear

It wasn't too long ago that we saw him--the first black bear to ever pay us a visit. That's right, a black bear. We'd heard rumors that they were in the area. In fact, our uncle saw one down by his garbage can late one night. But we never dreamed one would stop by our place. It happened on Memorial Day, late in the evening. Several of us were sitting around the kitchen table talking with Dad. Suddenly I heard a noise at the glass doors and looked up to see a large black shape leaning on the door with its' paws on the glass. "Oh, I guess we have another stray dog coming around," I thought to myself. For us, that's not an uncommon occurrence around here. In another split second I realized that the eyes staring mournfully at me were not those of a stray dog, but the eyes of a bear! "That's a bear!" I exclaimed to the others at the table. At which point the bear promptly took off around the front of the cabin. Dad ran to the three glass doors in our Great Room and opened one, just as the bear raced by. "Get the camera!" was the general cry coming from all around. By the time we got to the back door, the bear was nowhere in sight. But the wet footprints we found gave us all a little chill. Apparently the bear had walked completely around the house on our deck. Of course, leaving the windows up at night with a jar of honey on the table probably wasn't the best thing to do. I think the bear was trying to ask to be invited in...at least his face sure looked pitiful. We won't mention anything about the black snake we saw the next day in our woodpile, but if you ever want some excitement in the holler, just come on over and see us sometime!