Chaotic Nights Lilah Versus Wildlife Written by ©Barbara L. Chambers Carter If you have read any of my other black bear stories, you know by now that the black bears have grown in population and activity since 2001. When Joe and I were married in October of 2002, Joe and his young white boxer Delilah (Lilah) moved here to Penns Creek mountain. They were not used to mountain life, especially Lilah. Joe lived in town on busy Route 45 in Lewisburg, Pa. He had a fence around his yard, so that was all the space Lilah was allowed to roam. Here in the mountain it is a different story. The nights are very dark, no street lights, no traffic, and for Lilah all the freedom to run and investigate her new surroundings. One evening Joe left her out, and suddenly she darted around the back of the house. He knew something got her attention big time. He went to the side window to see what was going on. Lilah was chasing a bear down through the swampy area. But that was not the only surprise he saw. Standing right outside the window, was another bear, busily trying to get bird feeders down. He yelled at it to go away, while I ran outside and called Lilah back. The bear did not run, but fortunately Lilah did come back, the shackles up on her back, and black mud splashed all over her body. This was our first lesson, to check outside before we let Lilah out. Of course we don't always think about wild animals being around. And we never know what kind of wild animal will be around. Or if they will visit during the day or night. Which makes living in a mountain rather "hair" or "fur" raising. ~ Porcupine ~ One evening, about a month or so after Lilah's "fur" raising experience with the bear, Joe and I were in the garage working on his truck. Lilah was checking out the territory as usual. The silence of the outside world was shattered when we heard Lilah's fierce barking, and went to see what was going on. She was circling a big oak tree, jumping and barking, while looking skyward. Joe called her over to us which took a good amount of coaxing, and whoa ..... when we looked at her, her face was full of porcupine quills. We looked up in the tree, and there was the porcupine. Being a Saturday evening, we called our local vet. They were closing up and suggested we take her to the vet hospital, which was a 30 mile trip. We loaded her in the car, and got her to the hospital. They had to put her to sleep and removed nine quills from her face. She was fine after that, and so far there has been no more events like this. However she hasn't learned not to go after critters. The Opossum One night I looked out the window and Lilah met up with another kind of a critter. She was circling an opossum, who in turn was going around in cirlces. At least there was no physical contact. I yelled to Joe to call her in. Fortunately she does come when we call her. If you would like to read about the unique porcupines ~ click here Isn't he so innocent looking? Click here for More Real Bear Stories Page designed by Bluejay & Diamondavid 6/04/07 ~ Website maintained by Diamondavid ~ Song title: Hazy Shade Of Winter Click Icon ~ My page listings. <bgsound src="http://www.diamondavid.com/autumn_leaves/bearMusic/winter67.mid" loop="infinite">