Eeeeeeeeek, Not a Mouse

fureverywhere

fureverywhere

beloved friend who will always be with us in spiri
Location
Northern NJ, USA
images.jpgActually this is me...I was driving my daughter home with one of her classmates. He lives maybe five blocks from our house. While they both were chattering away he said " We had bear in our yard". I'm a bit hard of hearing so he repeated that " We had a bear in our yard and it went out and the police caught it in a tree by the library". Now my daughter has a very active imagination so I thought he was just telling stories. But when I got to the library and Googled it...Gah I've been paranoid since "Grizzly Man". We don't live rural, Newark is in walking distance.

But you know what it is. The over-building they've been doing for years. There are two nearby nature reserves that get smaller and smaller every decade. They've been up there making the highway along the woods wider and putting in a bridge and support walls. Maybe if the used that money to put in new trees? Maybe they don't need yet another condominium up there? Deer are a big issue. They wander into every major road. The highway is littered with remains. My best buddy has a doe in his neighborhood who is so tame she can be hand fed.

She's one of the lucky ones. She's lived in the back of a church for eight years and even had babies there. The neighbors all leave food and water out for her. I watched her one day wandering down the sidewalk and stopping in different driveways to eat. She's fond of potato rolls, it was like feeding one of my pups. But really it shouldn't be...
http://villagegreennj.com/police-and-fire/photos-bear-captured-outside-hilton-library-maplewood/
 

I had some amusing afterthoughts about this story...

Like the reaction of the police to the first phone call they got about the situation " Yah gotta bear, yeah and I'm The Pope, whya making crank calls this early?

Or if I was walking Callie, Heaven forbid...Callie, right now, we are going to go down this alley...Then he turns and does his famous "BROWWWWGRRGRRGGRRRRRRRR"...and I have heart failure on the spot.

Or a bunch of neighbors and bangers charge it guns blasting...suddenly they realize that was a really bad idea and have a mass exodus running for their lives.
 
One time, we went up north in our VW Rabbit, taking our labrador with us, as always. Thought we'd take a nice hike up the dirt road, when, what do we see but Baby Bear standing upright, sniffing the air. You never saw two people turn around and walk so fast in your life. The dog didn't get a chance to smell the bear, thank goodness. He never had a shorter walk in his life.
 

We have city ravines in our area where there have been coyotes sighted. I was out very late one winter evening, and spotted a male and female who I swear were wolves (from their size). They were crossing the road .. I slowed down to take a good look at them, since there were no other cars around. My nephew and wife live in a rural area where you can hear the coyotes baying in the distance.
 
Pinky said:
We have city ravines in our area where there have been coyotes sighted. I was out very late one winter evening, and spotted a male and female who I swear were wolves (from their size). They were crossing the road .. I slowed down to take a good look at them, since there were no other cars around. My nephew and wife live in a rural area where you can hear the coyotes baying in the distance.
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Sounds like maybe you were seeing those coyote/wolf hybrids that have developed here on the east end of the country. Remember when that young woman was killed by them in Cape Breton a few years ago? You look rather petite Pinky, don't want to be an hors d'oevres eh? Glad you stayed in your car so that we didn't get to see another Youtube video about crazy people getting involved with wildlife to their detriment!
 
Debby, I would never get out of the car to get a closer look. I slowed down because the female was in the middle of the road. The male had crossed and was waiting for her. He was very big, and I was glad to see they appeared well-fed and not scraggly.
 
I was glad to see they appeared well-fed and not scraggly.

<<<gulp>>> An article I read said when they choose city living, one of their favorite foods and something quite plentiful...cat.
 
That's disturbing, fur. The ravines are filled with squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, raccoons, skunks .. and vermin.
 
I lived in St. Ignace in the UP of Michigan in the mid 70's. Our house was on the edge of town and across the road was a forest. We once had a bear come across and get into our garbage cans. I don't know what ever happened to it but I had a toddler that played outside in our yard. Yikes.
 
Ah, heck, I have tried (but cannot resist) telling a couple of bear stories. When my kids were little (6 and 7), we started going to the Berkshires (western MA) every summer. Right before we left for our first vacation, I read about Gene Shalit's experience with a bear cub in house, and how prevalent black bears were in the Berkshires. A similar article is here: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/headlines/ci_9071127

So, with much trepidation I rented a cabin in the woods, and took our chances. From the first day, a bear cub frequently sits under a tree next to the cabin ... thinking food will be forthcoming, I think.

Then, my best friend, who is with us (hubby doesn't like the wilds), goes food shopping. When she comes back, she steps onto the porch, which runs the length of the cabin. As she reaches the front door, an adult bear steps onto the porch from the other side. She starts yelling "Bear! Let me in!" My kids get scared and *lock the door*! I rush to unlock it and let her in, of course.

On the way home, we stop at a breeder's place to talk to her about getting Rough Collie puppy. I figure it will grow up and deter the bears. Well, that didn't happen because I was stupid. I'd load everybody into my SUV and we'd ride around in the mountains at midnight, going "bear hunting". We saw a lot of bears. It was fascinating. The dog, of course, became habituated to bears ... they were just part of the scenery to him.

So one day, a few years into these summertime adventures, the kids and my best friend were sitting around the picnic table, talking and roasting marshmallows after lunch. I was in the cabin washing dishes. Suddenly one of my sons comes dashing in, red-faced, and unable to speak, waving a stick crammed with marshmallows. I thought he'd grabbed someone's marshmallows and they were after him. But no!

My 4 kids and my friend sat at the picnic table. My red-faced boy had just proclaimed himself King of the Marshmallows. He saw something out of the corner of his eye. A bear had bellied up to the bar -- literally, it was standing, pressed up against the table.

In short order, nearly everyone came into the house at top speed. Except for one of my sons ... he sauntered in like it was nothing. My friend had screamed and scared the bear off, was why. The dog was still out there. No one thought to bring him in, and he never made a peep.

When people feed bears, it makes them habituated to people. That is a potentially dangerous situation! A couple of times when we were there, rangers had to kill bears who were habituated and determined to get to the food. There were frequently bear pawprints on my SUV. We used to watch out the cabin windows in the middle of the night ... awakened by noise on the porch ... and there would be bears out there. The screens on the windows and doors were extra heavy "bear screens".

One thing is for sure, I would never go tent camping in bear country.
 
WheatenLover, your kids were lucky that bear was frightened off by the kid's scream, and lucky the dog wasn't targeted by the bear!

A friend's mother lives outside Toronto a couple of hours away, in farm country. One time, a bear had entered her house and gone through the rooms while she slept .. now, that's scary!
 
You know, Pinky, bears get habituated to people, and people get habituated to bears. I had to be careful not to become cavalier about bears, realizing this.

I would be terrified if a bear came into my house. Heck, I'm terrified if a mouse or a bird comes inside. With a bear, it would be exponentially worse because they are bigger than I am.
 

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