Yes, again. She came back! Only this time she didn’t come into our yard. I was out scooping the yard with most of the dogs. I heard a noise in the woods and looked up, and about that time Hailey heard it too. What I saw was a bear on the other side of the fence, about 30 feet away. Hailey ran over to the fence, barking. No, I told her, come here Hailey, come on, quick! Alex came over and started for the fence and somehow I managed to get him to listen to me too. I made a game out of running back to the house and put them all inside. I yelled for Rick—Rick! the bear is out there! We walked back over to the part of the fence where I had seen it but neither one of could see it. Okay, bear left. I went back to scooping and Rick went back inside. I stared into the woods. I swear that black over there has got to be a bear. I looked closer. Yup, definately a bear sitting there looking at me, only a bit further away this time. I go back inside to get Rick again and my trusty camera.

We watched for a few minutes. I think it’s not the momma bear since I don’t see any cubs around. Just a large black bear at the foot of a tree. The bear seems to very interested in the tree and keeps looking up. I move a little closer [after all the fence is between us and with no cubs I doubt it will bother me] to get a better shot. The bear looks at me and turns around and stands up to full height with its paws raking at the tree. Rick says, that’s a big bear! At the same time the bear is making rather ominous noises, like huffing in short breaths and little groaning noises. Hmm…this doesn’t sound good.

We retreat backwards and watch. Rick says, I wonder why it seems so interested in that tree? We look up. Rick thinks he sees a blackish blob in the tree but can’t tell what it is. I look further up the tree and see a bear cub just dangling in the notch of the tree! Yup, Rick’s blackish blob is a cub too! They look just like little monkeys hanging there.

OH NO! We’ve been messing with momma and the babies, not just some bear! Yikes! I think it’s time to head back inside and leave them alone. They look stuck up there to me, sure hope they can get down. The neighbors start out for a walk with their dogs and Rick goes up the drive to warn them. They aren’t too bothered and continue their walk but they can see the cubs in the tree from the road. Time passes. I keep walking out the front door and looking over at the tree to see if they are still there; they are. At this point I am wondering if we are going to have to call 911 and have a ladder truck come out to rescue the babies. Rick thinks I’m nuts. Lynne, they’re bears for god’s sake, not cats. They’ll get down when momma thinks it’s safe. Okay, sure hope so because I want to go for a swim.

So, I go out and take the solar blanket off the pool and do my skimming [not much of interest in my net today]. Just before changing into my suit I go out to check again and Rick comes with me. We don’t see the cubs in the tree anymore, so we start walking to the edge of the woods. OOPS, one of the cubs is just coming down and nearly at the bottom of the tree. We can’t see momma but we know she’s got to be there. We start walking backwards very s-l-o-w-l-y and go back inside. We didn’t have long to wait until she came out of the woods with all three cubs. Here she is forming her very own 4th of July Parade down our driveway with our neighbor’s flag in the background.

Happy 4th!