Bears

My friend was telling me at coffee that he and his family have a bear den behind their house.   They are watching it closely.  His story went on to tell me that they checked on him and found him gone.  He thought that it had awoke and moved to a new location.  I told him that I had heard that on warm winters that they do come out of their dens for what ever reason I don't know.  Anyway they kept checking and sure enough the bear is back sleeping away. 

This has been an above average warm winter.  I was surprised the other day when I saw one go across Stone Lake road on a warm afternoon.  I could not wait to tell my friend. 

As long as I am talking about Minnesota bears  I might as well tell one of my Dad's favorite stories.  I heard it a million times.    He was hunting black bear up by Kelliher and had got a bear.  He had just got it out to the road when a car pulled up.  It had one of those small dogs like a miniture poodle in it.  Dad always called them ankle biters.    The occupants of the car rolled down the window to talk to dad.  The dog ran over to the window barking like they do.  The owner didn't need to tell the dog to quiet down as when the dog saw the bear and caught its scent it fainted in mid bark.  It was out for about a minute and when it woke it curled up in the back seat and waited for owner to drive off.  Dad has laughed over that story all his life.  He was in his early twenties when that happened. I was just a twinkle in his eye then.