Bears, Oh My!

I know, I know. What happened to the lions and tigers? Well, we DO have mountain lions around here, but they're not the king-of-the-beast variety one normally associates with the expression, and the closest tiger is sequestered at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. So it's just bears. But isn't that enough?

We've had quite a few bear experiences at the ranch, but thankfully nothing life-threatening. That's because there aren't any grizzlies in this part of Colorado, and black bears usually don't like to tangle with humans, so it's not as dangerous as you'd think. You just don't want to take food away from them or get near their cubs.

Oh wait. I've already done the latter boneheaded maneuver, which I brilliantly documented in the following YouTube video: Baby Bear Video

We've noticed that younger bears are the bravest, as the aforementioned video demonstrates. In contrast, there's an older, absolutely huge black bear that visits from time to time, but all you have to do is whisper something like "hey honey, check out the bear", and he/she takes off like you actually announced your intentions to saturation bomb the property.

One day, we heard our dog barking like crazy behind the house, and when we went out to investigate we discovered she had chased a medium-sized cinnamon-colored bear up a ponderosa pine tree. He was hanging on for dear life, looking quite put out by the foul, raucous creature beneath him, and he looked toward us as if pleading for assistance.

It took some effort, but we managed to get our dog inside, and we continued to watch out the window as the bear climbed down the tree, walked about 20 feet, and climbed up another one. Great.

The problem with that is we don't want the guy to get comfortable hanging around here, so I went outside with our BB air rifle and just shot him in the butt to make him less comfortable with the idea (no physical harm done, I assure you). But to our surprise, he stood up on the branch of the tree, raised his paws in the air, and let out a huge, "I'm going to kill you with my bear paws" roar with his mouth gaped open and snarling, his impressive collection of teeth on display.

At that point, I announced to my wife that it was probably a good time to go inside for a little while. And when we returned an hour later, he was gone. But where?

Thankfully, we never found out.