A Bear Story

I decided to walk Molly right before dark last night. I usually walk her a lot earlier than that because the woods around my house are full of all sorts of creatures. The only thing we usually run into is the friendly groundhog who believes in running and hiding. I always walk Molly to the end of the driveway and back which is about 150 yards. It is a nice walk, it gives Molly the chance to commune with nature, and me a chance to take a deep breath. We made it to the end of the driveway and was on our way back down when I saw movement in the bushes to my left.

I thought it was one of the stray dogs that has been getting into my garbage. It was jet black and was really big. I yelled "Get out of here!" About the time I got that out of my mouth I realized how big this "dog" really was. When I yelled, he stopped, turned around, we looked at each other, and I thought, "Damn! That is an ugly dog!" He stood up on his hind legs. He was about six feet tall when he stood straight up. My brain finally made the connection that I was staring eye-to-eye with a bear. I was so surprised to see a bear looking me in the eye all I could do was yell, "Shit! That's a bear!" He was still standing up on his hind legs looking at me and gave his best Robert DeNiro impression in Taxi Driver and seemed to be saying, "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?" He showed no fear of me and Molly whatsoever but looked at us more out of a sense of curiosity.

The so called wildlife experts all will tell you not to run from a bear but I believe strongly in self preservation so I ran. Molly was right by my side every step of the way and we ran like our hair was on fire. I haven't ran one hundred yards that fast since I was in high school. Fear is a great motivator. I looked behind me one time and baseball legend Satchel Paige once said "Don't look behind you. Something might be gaining on you." I looked behind me because I wanted to know if I needed to run faster.

I got back in the house and immediately researched Black Bears just to see what we were dealing with. Luckily for me and Molly, they are not an aggressive breed of bear. There have been only 61 Black Bear attacks that have resulted in death since 1900. I wasn't so much worried about death as I was an ass whoopin'. I really did not want to be number 62 or to find out of this article was right about the Black Bear not being aggressive. Molly was so rattled. she immediately came in and went to sleep while I turned to the social media to tell my story.

When I think about it, the bear was such a beautiful animal. It had jet black fur that had a shiny sheen to it and it was big and tall. I love seeing nature and wildlife and this is his habitat as much as it is mine. I had no intention of hurting him and I think he realized that, especially when I took off on a dead run. When I yelled at him, he turned around out of a sense of curiosity more so than one of aggression. I would have loved to have gotten some pictures of him but I didn't believe he was going to wait around because I sure didn't.