I have mentioned before in previous columns that one of the great things about living in Prince George is the easy access to forest wildlife.
However, the line between the forest and my backyard is getting increasingly blurred and is starting to resemble a fairy tale.
I have a big black dog that sometimes, at night, looks like a black bear. Kylie is a Labrador-chow chow cross breed who, in previous years, would always let us know when there were bears in the backyard or in the carport by waking me up in the middle of the night by placing her cold nose on my nose while I sleeping.
She would then whine in a high pitched tone and pace around our bedroom like a lunatic until I got up and discovered our backyard visitors. Usually, once she notified me that we had visitors, she would then steal my spot on the bed.
My husband and I have discovered in the past year, that our dog is going deaf and blind and now sucks as a guard dog.
For instance, a few nights ago I opened my patio door to find a baby black bear using our household compost container as a pez dispenser.
For one brief moment, I had thought that the bear was our dog but then the bear huffed at me and crawled down the stairs much more vigour than I've seen Kylie use unless there is table scraps involved. Our sweet old dog was sleeping inside while a bear was on our deck.
My reaction on being no less than three feet away from a bear was to yell "*expletive* bear!" to which my husband replied, "Lock the door!"
After the shock wore off we snuck outside again on this pitch black night to discover no less than three baby bears in our backyard and with no momma bear in sight.
After cleaning up the mess left by the baby bear, we realized that bear very cleverly pressed the plunger on my composter which would flip the lid and then the bear would scoop out a handful of vegetable trimmings to enjoy at his leisure. I have now decided that composting is finished for the season until the snow falls and the bears are sleeping heavily like Kylie in my bed.
Someone's sleeping in my bed and I have three bears in my backyard; do I have to start cooking porridge?
