We've had some bear stories over the years that we've lived on Springwood Court, but today's experience beats them all.
We had a close encounter of the black bear kind this morning at about 10:20 a.m. Chris was outside getting bags of garbage together and putting them down in the car, in readiness to be taken to the dump. I was blow-drying my hair in the bathroom, when a movement caught the corner of my eye – glancing to my right, into the kitchen (the bathroom door was open and looks into the kitchen) and saw a bear…I turned back to the mirror for a split second, quickly looked to my right again, and it began to sink in that there was a bear cub in the house!
I quickly shut the bathroom door as the bear cub and I locked eyes…then I realized that I was trapped inside the bathroom, so I cracked the door open to peek out and saw that the bear cub was now in the living room looking at Mardi (our cat) who had begun yowling and wailing…the cub seemed curious and was slowly looking around the room. I decided that I should get to the back door and flee…and that’s when I saw how the cub had entered…he had climbed up to the open window at the back of the kitchen, tore off the screen and frame, and knocked down the plants from the windowsill when he climbed through the window and into the kitchen. When I left via the back door, I left it open in hopes that the cub would notice and leave through it. I was also hoping that mama bear wasn’t too close by, but I had to get out of the house and tell Chris.
When I got outside and around to the side of the house I called for Chris, telling him that there was a bear cub inside the house, and that I had left the back door open. Chris looked incredulous, and then he went upstairs and opened the front door and looked in, yelling and growling at the top of his lungs, trying to scare the cub out toward the back of the house. As he looked in he saw the cub was taking a look at the dishes of cat food in the kitchen. Chris threw a couple of my sandals at the bear, yelling continuously, and the cub finally decided to leave via the back door. Chris’s voice was hoarse afterwards. My hands and arms were shaking so badly - it was as if they were fluttering in the wind. I had a hard time climbing up over the railing to get onto the deck because of how much I was shaking.
We never saw the mother bear, but we were really worried as to where she might be or end up, so it was a huge relief when the cub was finally out of the house. The bear cub was probably in the house a good five minutes or so before it left. The plants that were knocked off the windowsill caused a big mess but except for the ripped window screen and broken frame, nothing else was broken – amazing! We are very thankful that nothing worse happened. Chris said that the cub didn’t seem very afraid at all – not a good thing. And talk about adrenaline rush…
We figured that the bear cub was following Farley (our other cat). Just a couple of minutes before Chris had seen Farley rush past him in fear with his tail all bushed out. Because I was using the blow-dryer in the bathroom, any thumps/bumps I heard didn't seem important enough to catch my attention, and I just thought it was Chris working around the outside of the house making noise. He had been working on some "things that need fixing" projects this past week.
Just another day in the life of an Alaskan, I guess! Whew! Did we take photos of the bear cub?NO! But Chris did take couple of pictures of the mess left behind. I hope this sort of thing NEVER happens again!
"Mission Street Sunset"
"Mission Street Sunset" (detail)