I was taking Brooke for a walk, minding my own business and walking down the driveway. Brooke was off leash (actually, she's never on leash at the property) and trailing behind me sniffing things out. We were going for a leisurely walk. I didn't have a leash, I didn't have a stick, I didn't have anything but my voice.
I rounded the bend and was mostly off the gravel so it was relatively quiet. Out of the corner of my eye I see something large and black in a small clearing, with its back to me. I realized it was a bear did what any good city girl would do - yelled in the loudest, deepest voice you've ever heard - whollymother[insert bad word here].
Bear takes off and at the same time I book it up the driveway full speed. Softly say to Brooke "come one girl, lets go". I get her headed in the right direction and yell for Dan, who is sitting on the deck "there's a [insert bad word] bear". Once again softly say to the dog "come one girl, keep going". Dan stands up on the deck, Brooke sees him and she takes off for him. He says 'did you say something?' My response as I'm still running up the driveway is a repeated "there's a [bad word] bear, there's a [bad word] bear".
Dan mentioned the story to our friends the Wilkies at Pressy Lake. They had prepared their dogs for bears by putting bear bells on them. Sheena kindly donated Emma's bell to Brooke.
See the yellow bell on her collar? She gets that put on as soon as we turn off the highway. However, she's learned to stalk the chipmunks and can move without ringing that dam bell if she wants to. That defeats the purpose, I want noise when I'm out. So I went and bought my own:
This goes in my pocket and is with me every time I'm outside. It hangs off my watch (very noisy, which the dog hates) off my belt loop, or just off my finger.
So, by now you are wondering why this post is labelled "Carolers". Well, because when I am out with the dog we make a lot of noise with our little bells. We were coming up the driveway one day and Dan said 'you sound like Christmas carolers arriving'. He probably prefers to hear the 'carolers' than the cursing that was coming out of my mouth on bear day.
By the way, I went back the next day to the same spot I was in and walked to approximately where the bear was: 17 steps!
Scotty tells me I should consider myself lucky to have seen a bear and that I will probably never see another one. (Earlier that very day Scotty and I were walking in the bush and he was telling me what to do if I come across a cougar. - Didn't occur to me that those same instructions applied to a bear) Thanks Scotty. That comment about being lucky to see a bear got me thinking though. One year we were vacationing at Lac de Roche with a bunch of people and a few dogs. It was morning time and we were all sitting outside having coffee. Dan calmly stands up and says 'grab the dogs'. Us dog people just grab the collar of any dog nearby. 50 feet away is a bear. We moved up to the deck. Same thing happened later in the day. Next morning we watch the bear circle a tent with people sleeping in it. That was a bit awkward - do we yell and wake them so they come out face to face with the bear or just wait and watch. We waited and watched.
Then, another time, we were at Timothy Lake, morning time on the deck having coffee and Dan calmly says again 'grab the dogs'. Sure as heck there's a bear walking down the fence line. Dan certainly maintains his cool compared to my reaction!
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