Bear Visitors

This is what our driveway looks like where we keep the garbage cans...

This is what a momma black bear and her cub look like...

(not my picture)

Imagine these bears on our driveway right where Jack is standing in the above picture. 

Have I ever told you how scared I am of bears?  I'd never seen one (until tonight) except at the zoo.  When I was 13 or 14 at girl's camp, I had a traumatizing experience involving some leaders from another ward making a bear sound with a coffee can and a rope.  There are a lot of bears in New Mexico and are around Los Alamos this time of year.  I've seen their poop and heard bear stories, but hadn't seen one yet.  Our new house is on a perimeter lot with open space in our backyard, so I figured that sooner or later I'd meet my fear, the bear.

Here's my bear story.

Dave took the boys to Lowes tonight and they got home at 8:20ish.  I bathed them while Dave unloaded stuff from the van.  Dave had been in the sideyard (on the side of the garage) putting a pipe or something on the rain gutter.  He came inside and went into the boys room.  

Right after he came inside, I was brushing Jack's teeth and I heard a thump outside.  I didn't think anything about it.  And I went with Jack into his room to get him in bed.  I looked out the window and noticed that the garbage can was knocked over so there was trash on the driveway.  

Muddy paw prints on the can lid.

Then a bear cub came running out of the garage.  The garage door was open because Dave had been out there.  The back of the van was open too.  

I told Dave that there was a bear, so we went in Kate's room and looked out her window.  The momma bear was out there now too.  They were sorting through the garbage.

They grabbed some garbage and took it through the side yard into the backyard.  Then they came back and got some more.  

While I was looking out the window I saw the bears go back into the backyard again and then I saw Ty OUTSIDE!  The front door was open, but the screen was shut and he just opened the door and walked outside oblivious.

I ran as fast as I could down the hall, dropped the phone that I was holding, through the front door, screaming "Ty".  By the time I got outside he was in the garage.  I grabbed him with one arm, slammed the van door shut, and shut the garage door in record time.  Luckily, we beat the bears.  They came back a minute later.  I have a nice bump on my arm from something, maybe the wall that I ran into as I slid down the hall going outside.

I scared Ty pretty good.  I was pretty scared myself.  It's been my worst fear to be somewhere outside with the kids and run into a bear and not be able to get away.  

We locked the doors so the boys couldn't go outside.  Not that they would have wanted to, Ty held onto me really tight and Jack was scared sitting in his bed.  Dave held Jack up so he could see out the window, but he didn't want to look for very long.

I called the police department, since I couldn't find the wild animal control phone number.  They said they'd send someone out.  The bears weren't scared at all.  Just leisurely going through the garbage.  Grabbing a bag and taking it into the backyard.  Then going back for more.  They didn't care that we were making noise out the window.  

The momma bear was tagged, so I guess she'd been caught before.  The bear cub was pretty good size too, not little like you see in pictures.  I tried to take a picture through the window, but the camera wouldn't focus through the screen in the dark.  

Anyway...we finally scared the bears away, but now we're wishing we wouldn't have so the "bear police" could come take them away.  We will now be keeping our garbage cans in the garage.  

The end.  (hopefully)