fan_eunice | (no subject)

So that just happened. No, I swear the tale I am about to tell is true.

There I am, up at my house site admiring my WALLS (well, supports for walls, but they are distinctly wall shaped). And I'm thinking, this is my bedroom and that is my bathroom and generally wandering about feeling very pleased.

Still feeling quite pleased I glance out into the meadow and see a small herd of deer. Awwww. Country life is actually very nice, I think to myself. Which is when I see the GIANT FUCKING BEAR staring down the deer (do bears eat deer? or was he just saying hi, I do not know). I do know that seconds later the dogs go streaking by in a blur and before I know it....the dogs are chasing the bear. The dogs. ARE CHASING THE BEAR. Who lopes back into the woods.

And I'm like, 'DOGGIES, DO NOT CHASE THE BEAR!' This is when my sister-in-law comes out and I'm all, 'Dude, your dogs were chasing a bear, wtf?' The dogs, quite pleased with themselves are headed back to the house at this point. When the bear was like, cool, the coast is clear and comes ambling back out into the meadow.

Sis-in-law: Holy shit, there is a GIANT FUCKING BEAR
Me: I told you. Also, OH SHIT BEAR
Deer: Fuck this noise, we'll just be leaving now. Very quickly.
Dogs: BEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!! Lets go GET THE BEAR AGAIN!!!
Me & SIL: Are you fucking crazy, doggies? THAT IS A BEAR!
Dogs: We KNOW, now shush and let us go go get it! BEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!

After much whistling, calling, and coaxing the dogs were persuaded to come back to the house. Where they sat at the window and barked and barked and barked and otherwise registered their disappointment that there was a bear. And they were not chasing it.

We were then told by a friend through an emergency call, that no, we should let the dogs back out because they would keep it from the house and wouldn't get eaten by said bear. Probably. I would like to believe this is true. And they are certainly happy out there, CHASING A BEAR. Still, I am having visions of eviscerated doggie right now.

That earlier bit where I was like, awwww living in the country is nice? I take it back. BEAR.

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WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I KNOW, RIGHT? And you have seen the meadow...you know how close that is to the house. WTF BEAR?

"You made a bear! Undo it, undo it!"

Also, crazy doggies! I hope everyone is safe from the OMGWTFBEAR.

All safe and accounted for! Doggies did their job. :)

EEEK! That's it, I'm never, ever leaving the city.

I don't blame you! Shoot, I have that thought when I'm trying to get home and herds of elk decide to camp out on the dirt road on the property. Much less a BEAR.

I swear, I am never leaving Australia. *weeps*

Isn't Australia the place where the trees that sting men in the junk and leave them hurting for two years live?

At least a BEAR you can usually spot coming.

Well, yes, and also the spiders and snakes and dingoes and blue ringed octopi and my cat. BUT AT LEAST I'M FAMILIAR WITH ALL OF THAT! Bears are ... strange and foreign.

... blue ringed octopi? Ok, scary, but not on land... one assumes.

If it makes you feel better, there are lots of places in the U.S. without BEARS, which also happen to have hazardous snakes, plants, and arachnids. You might enjoy the desert Southwest. *g*

Not fair. Your dangerous wildlife is so much cooler than our dangerous wildlife.

Oh, the joys of country life. :-P

Seriously. You'd think wild animals thought they had a right to hang out in the wild or something.

What amazingly cool back-meadow critters you have there!

Yes, I actually do realize I'm a freak. *g*

They are much cooler when they are off in the woods where I can't SEE THEM. :D

omgwtfBEARS!

WTFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

If a cat can do it . . .

*blink*

This is making my dogs heroics look less...heroic. Maybe bears just want to find a snack in peace, and have no patience for annoyance so they leave for quieter grounds?

What kind of bear was it? Most of them are pretty wimpy unless they're defending cubs or you do something really stupid or they're starving to death. They eat a lot of grubs and plants. I wouldn't worry too much if the dogs are just chasing it away from the house and then coming back (and not cornering it somewhere).

Both of my offspring are currently camping with Offspring v1.0's friends, and early on the first evening that they were gone I realized there was the potential for OMGWTFBEARS, because there are deer in my yard on a regular basis, and coyotes and things all over in our neck of the woods, so I texted Offspring v1.0 (who gets cell signal in the camping area, for which I am very thankful): I can has daily updates so I know you weren't eaten by a bear?

Her return text that night: Not eaten!

I <3 my kids.

My biggest worry about bears, though, is that we don't know the ones here—how acclimated to humans they are, etc. When we used to live in Colorado and camp regularly at Wellington Lake, we knew the bears there were very comfortable with humans and also very good at manipulating mechanical things, so food had to be kept in coolers, which were then put into locked cars, because the bears were pretty good at opening car doors if they could smell food around the car. No, really. There's a visual joke about bears and grand theft auto in there somewhere, I just know it.

Anyway, the tl;dr = ZOMGBEARS!

Yeah. I think the bears around these neck of the woods are at least semi acclimated to humans. The meadow is not at all far from the house and it was just chilling like, HAAAAAY, 'SUP before the dogs went after it.

Plans are already in place to start making sure nothing that would make a good bear snack is left outside.

Er, how big are these dogs? Not that they need to be bear-sized to annoy the bear enough to make it leave, but at least a larger dog has a slightly better chance against a bear.

We used to see black bears every now and then at my parents' place in the Blue Ridge. They were happy to ignore you as long as you left them alone ~~and gave them free and easy access to the dumpster~~.

They are not particularly large. Mediumish, but they always run together. Do two medium dogs = one big dog? The bear did look like it was mostly minding it's own business and probably looking for something to eat.

As long as the bear was mostly interested in being left alone, two medium dogs sounds like more than enough to chase it away.

There was a bear in my parents' yard in central/western Mass. the other day! It wanted to eat the seeds fallen from the birdfeeder.

Also, my typing of this comment was interrupted by my sighting a groundhog in our yard, chowing down on greenery! Not a bear, but still cool.

Here's hoping the dogs have fun, and no unpleasantness!

The more I learn, the more I am thinking OMGWTF bear is not as big a deal as it feels like when you see a GIANT FUCKING BEAR. I still don't want it anywhere near the house, especially with the kids. But it seemed pretty chill and it did retreat in the face of two not very ferocious looking dogs.

Was it a black bear or a brown bear? Black bears are usually scared away pretty easily. I'm assuming your doggies can probably tell the difference. Another reason dogs totally rule.

I'm kind of the opposite of you in that I grew up in the country but now I'm all citified. I still consider bears to be an OMGWTFBBQ moment regardless of where I am. I'm more blasé about moose but at a respectful distance. I'm so thrilled when I go to Oregon and see deer because I'm all, "Yay, larger wildlife that won't kill me!"