Here is a story to make
you laugh or shudder, although
it was very scary for our 8 year old boxer
dog Lilah at the moment.
My hubby Joe, gets ready for work in the
morning about 4:30 A M,
and leaves at 6 A M, which at
this time of year, not only is
the sky black, but it is very
dark in our mountain.
  He went out to his truck
several times, and of course the
motion lights come on,
which helps to see any
four-legged critters.
He didn't see anything creeping around, or hear anything. 

Well our boxer wanted out so he left her out.
No sooner did he do
that then he heard her
barking like mad.
He went outside and as she
was coming around the side
of the house.
He opened the door and left her in, then tried calming her down.
She was extremely agitated, shivering and wild.
We turned on some other
spotlights and lo and behold,
on the lower side of the house, the bird feeders on our ten foot
high pole were swaying
back and forth. A small white feeder
was on ground and the long green
one was missing.
  The others were still hanging on
the house platform.

In the picture at top, you can see how
we hang extra feeders
on the platform feeder.
That is Shortie, our young bear at the
pole. And the water cooler jug is a deterent for squirrels.

We knew immediately
there was a bear here,
and it wasn't Shortie. It had to be
one of the big bears, who
would have the strength to
shake the heavy steel pole and/or the height and arm reach,
to reach up and lift or shake the feeders off.  

We checked Lilah over and she had black dirt on her
face, chest, and shoulders, but we are not
sure if the bear rolled her
or she ran into the burning barrel or brushed
against it, getting sooty dirt
on her white fur, while chasing it.
  There were no injuries or bear bites, thank God.

After the night sky turned to daylight
I hung up the bird feeders, filled the bird bath with water,
and went in search of the missing feeder.
I put on Joe's old shoes, and went tramping through
mushy areas wet from underground springs, and dew covered grass, that is
now partially hidden by beautiful red
and gold leaves.

  Finally I found the missing feeder, down in lower woods
underneath some mountain laurel. It was not destroyed but it was empty.
The screw-on lid laid near it.
So now it is filled with sunflower seed
again, and hanging on the side
of the platform house, on top of ten foot high pole.
Which by the way, since I noticed the whole
one side was pulled loose
on the platform house, it was,
in my opinion, our BIG bear Shamus.
When Joe came home from
work, and saw the damage, he agreed.

Shamus is the only
one we have seen who
would be tall enough to reach the
longer feeder and pull it off.
And also have the strength to
shake the heavy steel pole.

  GGEEsssshhh!
What a way to start the day.
So how did your morning go?