Please don't feed the bears

This weekend my husband and I were sitting on our screened porch enjoying the cool mountain breeze when I heard something outside. 

“What’s that noise?” I said. 

“Oh, probably just a curly tail lizard,” he replied.

Curious, I got up and looked out. I could hardly believe my eyes - there was a big black bear walking through our yard only five feet away from where I was standing on the porch. It was huge and far from adorable and cuddly as the teddies above.

I said to my husband as quietly as I possibly could so as not to scare the bear, “You aren’t going to believe this, but there’s a bear walking through our yard.”

He hopped up to take a look. “Quick, get the camera,” he told me.

“You go get it. I’m watching the bear.” Finally I relented and ran inside to get the camera, but of course the bear was gone by the time I got back. It was too late to snap his picture. Where is that camera when you need it?

Black Bear Photo courtesy of PD Photos

There are bears all over the mountains of western North Carolina where we live, but we’d never personally seen one, especially not in our own front yard. The bear we saw probably weighed 150 pounds and, if he had stood up, he would have been as tall as my husband, who’s 6’2.  We’ve seen all sorts of critters on our property since moving here – a bobcat, a red fox, a mountain lion, a wolf, but this was our first bear. We’d heard from neighbors that the lady who owned our house before we bought it had left birdseed outside on the back porch and a bear broke in the porch to get the food. I’ve always wondered why that wasn’t a disclosure on her listing agreement? Oh well, at least there’s some excitement in our little part of the world. 

So - what did you do for excitement this Memorial Day?