The motion light outside the bedroom window came on at 5:00 this morning. It woke me and both the animals. My SO is out of town so the dog and the cat are sleeping with me. I listened hard but couldn’t hear anything outside. Still, I couldn’t go back to sleep either. I got up and came into the living room. I turned on the light outside on the deck. Saw nothing. I turned on the light over the driveway. Still nothing. I went into the laundry room and turned the light on outside the back door. Nothing there either. I suppose it could have just as easily been a skunk that made the motion light go off, but I am deathly scared of bears.
Night before last, a bear broke our cylindrical bird feeder off the metal bracket where it hung from one of the pine trees near the deck. The bracket was bent in half, the hook on top of the feeder was straightened, and the bale on the lid was misshapen. Of course, the feeder was completely empty. On the same night, my across-the-street neighbor had a visit from a bear that left tracks all over their concrete patio, including some that led right up to the window to their downstairs guest bedroom.
Saturday night, about dusk, I ran into a big cinnamon bear at the dumpster. I was headed there to drop off a bag of garbage. He was standing on the rim of the dumpster, looking at me. I had the dog in the car with me, so I rolled down the window for her to get a good look. I am trying to get her to bark at them, but she’s as scared of them as I am. The bear looked at us and dropped down behind the dumpster where I couldn’t see him. I took my bag of garbage back home with me. I’m sure the bear went back to the dumpster as soon as I left. Every time I go there lately, bear scat is on the ground. And we have had scat in our back yard as well.
I friend who lives in the next county has been plagued by bears this year. She has lived in this area for 16 years and says this is the worst bear-year she has seen yet. At her house, a bear mangled the screen over her kitchen window trying to get in. On a recent morning, her doorbell rang, and when she opened the door, there stood the bear. He had been leaning close to her door and his paw touched off the bell.
After that, she called the New Mexico Fish and Game department. They came out and set a trap. Within an hour, she heard the trap go off. There was a bear inside the trap but not her screen-mangling, doorbell-ringing bear. The wardens came to haul off the trapped bear. The next day, they brought back the emptied trap. Again, the trap went off, and again, it was not her bear. That bear is still on the loose.
Down in our valley, a woman with goats has had five of them killed by bears. In a small town 11 miles from here, a man had a llama killed. They are hungry and they are on the prod. It’s their gorging time, when they up their caloric intake to about 20,000 calories a day to prepare for hibernation. This year with the wildfires and the drought, they are having a difficult time finding their natural forage, so they're combing decks and garbage dumpsters. Meanwhile, I am having dreams about bears. It’s constantly on my mind. If I’m going to live here full-time, I’m going to have to get over this phobia, but how? Today I think I’ll drive into town and see if the local sporting goods stores has bear pepper spray in stock. Maybe with some of that in hand I’ll stop feeling so defenseless.
Onward ....
