For ten months out of every twelve, the bears abandon this piece of their territory and leave us to plant, weed, fertilize and nurture fruit bearing plants and trees. Having given us free range for most of the year, the bears think it is not unreasonable that we should extend a little hospitality in those months of the early autumn when they are feeding up in preparation for the winter. They meander back into the neighbourhood munching the masses of black berries and salal berries that grow wild in the fields and woods and in the ditches along our roads. They find little by way of garbage or human food to supplement their diets because we are wise to their ways and cautious.....no garbage cans on OUR back porches! Dog dishes are in the house!
Not withstanding these precautions, personal encounters are a pretty regular occurrence for those of us with dogs to walk three times a day. Fortunately neither a person/ dog combination nor a bear is especially quiet so generally each will see and recognize the other soon enough to arrange for a gracious retreat. When Kiwi and I encounter a bear on one of our usual trails, we generally make all due apologies and announce that we will give way and take the road route. Not to be outdone in good manners, the bear too will often abandon the trail that has been the subject of the dispute and the result has sometimes been that we have reached the road only to find the bear emerging onto it from a spot a few yards down the way. At that point, Kiwi and I usually decide to go home. The bear may make the same decision....our acquaintance is only a nodding one, we do not converse.
Our relationship with the local bears would all be very civil if it were not for the fact that Dan has this rather strong protective and proprietary interest in a number of apple trees he has cultivated in and around the back yard. When one morning last fall, I gazed out at the dawn and announced that we had a bear eating fallen apples under our little Gala apple tree, Dan’s response was less than hospitable. He flew out the door wildly waving his arms and yelling. Ours is a large yard and the bear was some distance away. Dan posed no immediate threat but I think that the bear probably concluded that this strange human behaviour might be a sign of an active case of rabies so he took no chances and “shuffled” over the eight foot cedar fence as if it were the curb on a city street. There were, after all, plums on the trees in the neighbour’s yard.
The victory was a temporary one. Dan’s strategy worked in the short term because it caught the bear by surprise but obviously a mere man was not much of a challenge for a 400 pound bear! Unfortunately, Kiwi, who is a very fierce and scary dog and would undoubtedly have struck terror into the heart of the bear, had not yet risen to face the day. She is not inclined to forsake the comfort of the master bed and emerge from among the pillows and from under the down filled duvet until she can smell the coffee and knows that the heat has been turned up and her warmed milk poured in a bowl. By then the bear was gone.
That evening we went out for dinner. Upon our return we were just rounding the corner to turn onto our street when I saw a familiar black bum disappearing into our driveway. “That bear has just headed back to the apple tree!” I announced. Dan leaned on the horn, revved the motor and took the corner with a squeal of rubber. He screeched to a halt just inside our gate, and exited the vehicle yelling and waving his arms about. Kiwi and I remained in our seats watching this spectacle through the door that he had left open behind him. The bear, once more decided that perhaps this strange man was one of those he should avoid and accordingly he again scuttled over the fence and into the woods across the road. Kiwi watched attentively. Dan came back and checked his trees. He got a basket and began picking apples. Kiwi finally decided to investigate. She jumped down from her seat in the car and took a fast sniff around the area within our fence. She then gave out a volley of deep, very formidable sounding barks. She ran up and down the property line twice barking like this. It was most impressive. Then she came into the house for a snack and a nap. The bear was probably a half mile away before Kiwi ever exited the car but he must have heard her because we did not see him in our yard again. Of course Dan had picked all the half ripe apples and stored them in the locked garage to be eaten by the squirrels so there was not much point in the bear coming back anyway, but it is just as well because he would not have risked confronting a dog like Kiwi now that he knew this was her yard. I guess the word has spread. It is the beginning of September. The apples are hanging almost ripe in the trees and to date not a single bear has dared to molest them, not in HER yard!
