Something to Bear in Mind

After returning from a late hockey game in Summerland the other night, I pulled up my driveway looking to see if Skye would commence barking. I seem to have trained Skye to sit down in front of the sliding doors and wait for me to get out of the car whenever I return home after dark. This particular evening however, Skye did not come to the window. As it was 1:15 am, I thought this was a little odd.

Not giving it much thought, I got out of the car, only to hear what I thought was Tracey struggling to open our front window. Calling into the darkness, I waited to hear Tracey respond...she did not. Right about this time, I realised that the noise that I had identified as the window sliding open, was not emanating from the window at all. Rather, the sound was being created much closer to me. As pieces of bark fell to the ground, not more than a few strides from where I stood, I cold chill ran up my spine. As I looked up into the tree beside me, a large furry creature and I locked eyes. Hugging the trunk of the tree closest to our house was a bear. In what little time I had to look up at the large beast, I knew it was no more than 8 to 10 feet above the ground.

In World Record time I was back in the seat of my car with the door closed. I turned on the headlights and proceeded to watch the bear descend the tree, sniff the ground where I had stood and leisurely walk across the lawn and through the trees bordering our property. Once I was convinced that the bear was well out of range, I got out of the car. Despite being a little weak in the knees, I opened my hockey bag on the front step and laid my gear out to air out.

As I opened the door I noticed Skye sitting on the futon in front of the fire. 'Hopeless dog!' I thought to myself.

Skye and I did go outside with a powerful flashlight, but the bear had vacated the property. At this point Skye did have her hair standing on end and her tail fully erect. She sniffed the ground around the tree where the bear had stood, and growled softly.

The next morning I told Tracey of the bear incident and she began to laugh. Poor Skye. Not 15 minutes before I returned the previous night, Skye had been barking like crazy, wanting to come up to our bedroom. Having very little patience for a barking dog at 1:15 am, Skye had been forced to lay on the futon and 'SHUT UP'.

Therefore, so that all could sleep in peace, Skye had been denied the opportunity to save me from the rendevous with the bear.