Big Bear!

Angela took this pic of this bear cruising in front of her house.

The other day Les and the girls and I were driving up to our property.  We came around a corner in time to see a baby bear running from one side of the road to the other.  He had dark brown, silky looking fur that glistened in the sun.  It also flopped as he ran so he had pretty long fur... odd for this time of the year.  We didn't see Momma, but we're pretty sure that she was close.

Then last night, at home, at about 2:30 in the morning, Brutus started barking like crazy.  The Rottweiler across the street was barking.  All the dogs in the neighborhood were barking.  The girls went to our wide-open windows and woofed ever so slightly -- still quiet but very alert.  Then all hell broke loose.

The girls started going crazy.  I jumped out of bed and threw open the blinds.  There, standing just 8 feet away was a huge bear.  I mean HUGE!  Really BIG bear!  And I felt pretty vulnerable with just a screen in between us.  His shoulder was easily up to the windshield of my car.  I saw him sniff the garbage can and then he turned and went into the back yard.

From there, he could either deal with Brutus, or he could go down the driveway and deal with the Rottie, or he chose to turn around and go down the walkway from the back to the front of our house.  This of course brought him to within 5 feet of my screen shield and he looked at me as he walked past.  Oddly enough, for such a massive creature, once he passed me and the girls he started walking really fast as though he was afraid we'd bite him in the butt.

The girls tore down the hallway and into the living room.  I heard crashing and barking as I got dressed enough to appear before Andy.  The bear had passed the house and gone down the front stairs, but the crashing had to do with Andy hurriedly closing all of the windows and doors to the house... knocking over some CDs on his way.  He didn't want to have anything to do with the notion that that bear could have easily come into the house.

I think I'll close the windows a little bit more tonight.  If the bear wanted to come in, he certainly could.  But I'll try to make it just a little harder for him.  He's not really interested in any confrontation... he's just scrounging for food.

With the horrible heat we've had all summer, we pretty much have the house wide open at night.  Today it got up to the mid-90's.  We've certainly had worse, but that's still way too hot for me.  And there's not even the slightest hint of a breeze.  That's really unusual for Trinidad.  I'm hoping it will rain tonight.  That will get the air moving.