Monday, July 16, 2007

Just your Average Bear


Home after a most pleasant weekend chez Moo and back to normal around here. Lots of work, grocery shopping, laundry, Yogi rampaging through the neighbourhood with Ranger Smith in hot pursuit.

Oh, yes. Summertime in North Van. Well, springtime and falltime, too, really. Anytime but the few coldest weeks of winter, when they hibernate for awhile, the bears are apt to lumber through, looking for berries and birdseed and carelessly-stored garbage. They've been known to grab a cart and mosey through the local Safeway, selecting a few items. Always trying to go through the Express lane with more than eight items, claiming that when blueberry pies are on three for $10, that only counts as one item. As if.

So this morning, garbage day (and thank goodness it is still being collected and no one is on strike), a big ol' black bear came round our end of the cul-de-sac and commenced bashing over a few bins. I guess he'd already been reported because very shortly a District truck came barreling down the street and parked in my driveway. A conservation officer leapt smartly out and took off after the bear. I don't know if he was brandishing a weapon; they try not to shoot them unless absolutely necessary. But he chased the bear into my backyard, then it hightailed it across the creek, forcing the officer to scamper back to his truck and screech off to go around to the road on the other side.

Now, as it happens, I didn't see any of this personally. I had chosen that moment to have me a little lie-down in my room, just to shut my eyes for 15 or 20 minutes. If you'd asked me, I'd have sworn that I never actually fell asleep, and yet somehow I was completely oblivious to this entire bear scenario taking place. I heard no garbage bins crashing, no screeching cars, no galloping bears, no hollering officer. Guess I'm a much more efficient napper than I thought!

1 comment:

katie lore said...

Are we positive it wasn't a large dog???