is nothing sacred to these critters? They act like they own the place! Side note my daughter & son-in-law were in Gatlinburg a couple of months ago and took a picture of a young bear when they were hiking. But the big question is....does this bear do kid's parties and Bar Mitzvahs? https://www.wfla.com/news/viral-news/bear-photobombs-wedding-photos-in-tennessee/
Bear Mitzvahs? My neighbor told us she was out walking her dog last week and saw a bear standing up looking in someone's picture window.
I live around this area and bear sightings like this are not uncommon. In fact, when I as a teenager, my dad and stepmother would take us to a cabin for about a week or two over several summers. EVERY time, we always ended up with a bear hanging out on the patio for at least a portion of our time lodging.
Years ago my family owned a house with a driveway that went down a rather steep hill to the garage and back door. The hill was always ice, and I always parked at the top once the snow season started because it was annoying to get the car out. I come home one night and it is snowing so I walk down the driveway and lose my footing and end up sliding down the driveway. Then the motion censor lights kicked on, and there was a bear raiding the bird feeder in the middle of the night. The birdfeeder was at the end of the driveway and I had no traction and was sliding towards the bear. The bottom of the driveway was a sheet of ice and to get to the back door I would actually have to get within 10 feet of the bear. There was no way back up the driveway or off to the sides because of the massive snowbanks that were built up. I did not have a garage door opener to get in that way. I am looking at the garage trying to will it to open when my cat pops it's head out of the cat door, sees the bear, and goes back in the garage. A dog might have actually risked itself for me, but not a cat. In the end after a few seconds the bear wandered off. I guess is wasn't that hungry to bother with me. It was a brown bear, and we were not in grizzly country so they normally avoid humans unless they are protecting something like young. At the time I have to admit to being a bit more curious than terrified. It never did come towards me which would have been a lot worse. We stood there looking at each other in the snow. It was the closest I had ever been to a bear outside of a zoo.
We used to have to warn my grandmother about feeding the wild animals. She had this thing for feeding every dog in the neighborhood. My grandfather had to make sure to take the food in when people started talking about bear sightings because the more some of them get used to humans the closer they come until they get too close and then the wildlife people have to put them down because you cannot relocate them as they will find houses at that point. Most of the people in the neighborhood knew about my grandmother because that is where their dog's went, or they saw my grandparents walking with about ten dogs around them. So one day one of the neighbors heard coyotes yapping in the woods. So she sees my grandfather and warns him to watch out for my grandmother. He tells her he knows what a coyote is and has chased them off before. The woman tells him that is not what she is worried about. She is worried my grandmother might start leaving food out for them. It turned out to be a good warning because she was putting food out on the edge of the property for wild animals. It probably would have attracted bears too.
I like bears! I've been extremely "up close and personal" with them a couple of times in Alaska miles from town or even the nearest human armed with nothing but a .357 revolver. Coulda done without that but what really upsets me to this day - one of the bears was a cinnamon colored black bear shaking itself dry like a dog does when it wants to dry off, but I couldn't get my camera ready in time. I mean this would have been a National Geographic level perfect picture - a beautiful elegant looking cinnamon bear within spitting distance shaking water off itself on the shore. It never knew I was there because it was an oxbow stream with head high reeds everywhere, and I was by myself in a rubber raft, gently and quietly rowing along. You couldn't see more than 15 meters or so ahead of you because the stream was so tightly twisted. I rounded a corner and BAM! There it was, swimming at an angle catty-corner away from the raft quartering away from me. It was getting out of the water about the time I could dig out my camera without making noise and startling it, and startled is never how you want bears to be! Just as I got my camera ready it did the shaking itself off, spraying water everywhere then disappeared into the head-high reeds, slipping away like a ghost, quiet as a mouse. It would have been one awesome picture!
