A number of years ago, My son was camping with his father at Pennask Lake in Beautiful British Columbia. My son was playing in the dirt, feeding and watching a nest of red ants that he had found. Suddenly he heard his father yell from the camper about 100 yards away, for him to "Get over here NOW!!!!!" My son, who does not like to be yelled at, reluctantly walked over to his father saying "I will tell mom that you yelled at me!". Well, his father, shot gun in hand, told him he had a reason for yelling as not ten yards from where Dan had been playing was a bear cub nosing around in the bushes on the edge of the path. There are no bear cubs without a bear mother unless a tragedy has befallen her! My son though, being smaller than the cub and playing quietly had probably not been considered a threat!
We once had a bear on our porch, while living in Castlegar, B.C. We had made the mistake of leaving the dog food out, and since the apple orchards were not bearing fruit yet, this large black bear thought that a midnight snack of dog food was a wonderful idea. I looked out of the window to see him lying casually, his arm around the bag of Alpo, dipping his head periodically into the bag and then munching blissfully. He weighed at least two hundred and fifty pounds! Our dog had been sleeping obliviously on my daughters bed and she got up to see what was going on. We let her out of the sliding door and she turned the corner, saw the bear in her food and chased him off the property. Needless to say, we learned our lesson!
I have seen many bears go through that Castlegar yard, and tried to prevent the dog from chasing them as they are so beautiful to watch. One cinnamon ( a variation in colouring of a Black bear) bear in particular I will never forget! He ambled casually across the yard while I was sitting on my porch step. His reddish gold coat glowed and shimmered in the morning sun. He passed through barely giving me more than a casual glance.
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