Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Not Sure I Can Grin and "Bear" This One...

I don't usually disclose where I live in the event that my 48 fans decide to stalk me and gas me out of my house.  However, I might have to share that information to illustrate my point.  Please don't gas me.  Or write things on my house.  Or the General.  And, for the love of God, don't picket on my lawn.

We live on a manmade island, but most of us think of it as a peninsula.  A canal was dug in the early 1900s so that boats could save time getting in to port, and 2 bridges were created to get across.  It's not a very wide canal, but it has crazy currents running through it.  It's maybe the width of 2 football fields?  I don't know, I'm not very good with measurements off hand, but it's not like 1/4 mile or anything.

We have all sorts of wildlife, as I've explained, but this weekend, we had our first ever "bear".  I can't write it without the " " because I don't believe this is a bear that has been spotted.  I believe it's a very big dog, like a Newfoundland, or a Bouvier de Flandres or a hairy Mastiff.  Or maybe it's a gorilla.  Because as far as I'm concerned, I'd be just as willing to believe a gorilla had jumped onto our "island" than I would be to believe it's a bear.

I know some of you live in bear country and that bears are not cute and are not a laughing matter when they are chasing you up trees and shaking your car and destroying your back yard oasis.

I simply cannot take part in the blind belief that local residents have that indeed, this is a bear. 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120530/NEWS11/120539985/-1/NEWS

Not only did this "bear" take a dip in very dangerous currents and make it across the canal, it then has made its way 25 miles or so in 3 days.  Again, I know bears can swim.  I know they travel.  I don't doubt that a bear would travel almost 10 miles a day looking for food.

However, I just don't believe that a solitary bear, one that looks rather young, has manage to leave its friends and neighbors behind, jumped in the water, and is making a beeline for the tip of the Cape by sundown. 

Also fascinating to me is that this "bear" is only staying along one roadway.  In what is ironically the most protected "historic" section of the Cape.  Proctected like you have to choose from a selection of paint colors for your house.  Like you have to get permission to change the style of your windows.  Like having bears in that neck of town would be most inappropriate.

So, until this creature lumbers by my own window, I just won't believe it.  And since I don't live in the historic section, I doubt I'll have a chance.  They don't like to share.

1 comment:

  1. I live in Michigan, but not in the "woodsy" part of the state. With that said, there have been two black bears spotted in relatively open areas the past couple of weeks. Like, only 10 minutes or so from parks and stores. What the heck? Like you, I won't believe it until I see it. But then if I saw it, I would completely flip the heck out.

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