Bear Visitors

We've had several bear experiences in the past several weeks. We went to Anchorage a few weeks ago and went to Costco, fixed our truck, sold my Yukon (finally) and when we came home, we got off the ferry around 1:00 a.m., so we didn't unload the truck. We hadn't seen any bears at all this summer, so didn't even think about leaving our stuff in the back of the truck. But, in the morning, I heard a dog bark outside and realized that ours was still in the house, so I looked out the window to see what it was and a black bear was sittting infront of our truck. It then moved over to the side of our truck where it had pulled some groceries out and was helping himself. He ate our Lucky Charms, took a bite out of our tortillas and opened a Gatorade to wash it down with. Of course, I didn't have my camera handy. Bruce ran out there in his underwear and his rifle (should have had a picture of that). It didn't seem too threatened by us and ran off after he shot a round near it.

The next night I heard our dog growling at the door and I went down to check it out and flipped on the porch light and saw bear prints on my porch (it was raining). So, I called Bruce down again and he grabbed his gun (in his underewear again, I believe). The bear had run from my side door around the porch and off the front. So, here's a few pictures of that. Bruce saw this one, but it was smaller than the first one. I had forgotten to bring the dog's dish inside and he was helping himself.

Then, a couple of days ago. I heard the dog barking right in front of my house like she saw/found something. She is usually down at the end of the cove, so I went out to investigate and found that she had treed a baby black bear right next to my porch at about 6:00 pm. So, I got my camera and let the kids each have a look at it. We kept a close eye out for the mother, but never saw her. Ever since then, Deshka asks quite often if the bear is in the tree and she goes and looks. So, I'm sure that we will have more experiences. But, for now, I am taking precautions and not "inviting" them over. I put in the dog food, I don't leave food in my truck, and I don't take the garbage out until about a 1/2 hour before the trash guy comes and after my kids are gone for the day. I always send Cheyenne out before I send the kids to the bus, to chase away any unwanted visitors.