Three Foot is the name we have given the big black papa bear who visits the pear tree outside our bedroom window nightly. Last night, we gave up all attempts at being discreet and shown a flashlight on him as he clambered about in the pear tree, eating and knocking down pears and breaking branches. When he came down to feast on the pears he had knocked into the driveway, Johnny noticed that he was missing his right front paw, probably to a bear trap.
We now know he is a papa bear because Johnny saw him urinate. I was spared these details because my face was glued to the camera where I was snapping pictures as fast as I could. Above is Three Foot in the driveway, outside our bedroom window. He is one honkin big bear. Johnny's flashlight had dimmed by this time, unfortunately.
It was tough to get pictures of Three Foot in the tree. He just looks like a large black lump, even when Johnny managed to train the flashlight on him and not some other blackness in the tree. Here is one head shot, zoomed up.
I'm glad I could not see this face the night we met in the orchard in the dark (earlier post on Scary Creatures) . I think I might have found it a bit difficult to calmly ask him to leave so I could go past.
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This makes me think of this fantastic story in Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House in the Big Woods". Her mom goes out to the barn in the dark and tries to shove a cow aside. She swings her hand back to give it a slap and ends up hitting the rump of a bear.
ReplyDeleteGreat story! That picture is freaky.