Our first Black Bear EVER!!

In 2006, Buster, my Airedale at the time (RIP), & I were taking our midnight walk and ran across a bear - oh my god - I heard about it, read about it, but didn't think we would walk right up on one. Buster had his nose to the ground and was tracking something; but, for all I knew it was one of the many bunnies that live up here. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the big black bear moseying around the front of one of the empty cabins. He was only 30ft away - my adrenaline kicked in and just like a car accident, everything went into slow mo and just like the zoom feature on a camera, there was the bear clear as day. (My mind was going BIG BLACK BEAR - oh sh*t, oh sh*t - BIG BLACK BEAR.)

Luckily, Buster was still tracking with his nose and didn't see the big guy. I immediately started talking really loud, but w/a calm tone (altho my heart was a fluttering), crumpling the empty poop bag, anything to let the bear know we were there (that's what the books say to do - well not to crumple the poop bag, but you get the drift) and backed into another empty cabin that has a very strong locking gate onto the deck.

I could see the bear acknowledge that we were in the area, he stopped, smelled the air, looked our way - but just stood there. (The bear is probably going oh sh*t, oh sh*t, big fat human with Airedale, don't they hunt bears - what's the crumpling noise - a MacD's bag.) Thank doG, everything I heard about black bears are they aren't too aggressive unless cubs are involved.

So there I stood behind the gate for a good 15 minutes, and unfortunately the porch light, so I wasn't able to see anything beyond the light. Buster was sniffing the 'aire' and getting as excited as an old dog can - promptly dropped 5yrs off his age. But not a peep, woof or growl out of him, just a lot of nose action and a few snorts. (Oh why, oh why do I have 'dales that hunt in stealth mode.) His nose is going a mile a minute and I'm chattering away like a crazy women.

Finally I got up the nerve to venture back out and except for Buster trying to adamantly track something into the woods, you would never known the bear was there. Never heard him leave, nothing. Geez, the bunnies make more noise than he did.



Buster (RIP his Mischievous Soul)