Bear on the Porch
Early in the renovation of Nana’s – 1999? – the rooms were all being replastered and everything had been moved onto the screened porch, which was jammed with furniture, lamps, and knicknacks. Sally, Kelly, and dog Sasha arrived from Campana to work on the house, and noticed that the screen at the end of the porch was loose. On the porch, they found a gallon can of fish-oil fertilizer which Robin had brought for the geraniums had been ripped open and spilled on the flagstones. Oily beartracks headed for the kitchen. They quickly got Sasha back into the pickup, then went looking into the windows to see if the bear was still there. Finally reassured, they explored the house. The bear had picked its way through all the furniture and across the dining table between glass bowls and small ceramics; in the kitchen it had been unsuccessful at opening the refrigerator so climbed on top and had a bite of paper plates, and helped himself to some Folgers ground coffee. Then he wanted out, and broke a couple of glass panes in the dining room before finding his way back across the dining table and out the far end of the porch in time to vomit the fish oil and coffee grounds in the driveway outside the kitchen window.
Sally says that in that room crowded with bric-a-brac he broke only an ugly little Swiss-souvenir thermometer.
The plasterers saw the bear a couple of times before and after that episode, that year. Several years ago Sally learned to empty garbage bags into the dump, lest bears drag them out and spread stuff across the landscape; and we quit dumping scraps into a compost pit. During Work Week one morning we saw a bear strolling near the RV site heading for the dump.
We understand bears are pretty much vegetarians, given a choice. Except for fish.
Linda
July 2010