I was putting some transplants in my garden this week and it triggered my memories of coming face to face with a bear this time of year.
I’d just picked up some pumpkin transplants and was putting them in a patch beside the four foot tall black plastic composter and when I finished I stood up and came face to face with a large adolescent bear on the other side of the thing.
I’d been kneeling down on one side and he was intent on checking out the delicious aroma from the composter and didn’t see me.
We both surprised each other and stepped back. I backed away across the yard until I hit the safety of the back deck of the house, and since he didn’t move or take his eyes off me I started hollering at him. Nothing. He was going to get what was inside that composter.
So I ran in the house and grabbed a big pot and a metal spoon and came back out and started clanging on it. Eventually he ambled away.
But for the next few days he terrorized the neighbours. One neighbour was yelling at him and he charged the neighbour. Eventually the provincial government folks showed up with a big cage on wheels and caught him.
Now every morning when I leave the house in the dark at this time of year, I check the backyard for any of his cousins.
Have you ever run across a bear in the wild?
