An unexpected evening

Well it looks like I'm going to have to get a cricket gun. they are about $130. It's a 22 long bullet very small rifle  that only shoots about 50 yards. I had one in AR to shoot raccoons  and possums when I  trapped them in a trap getting after our chickens. I cried at first when I did kill them, because I didn't want to have to do it. But, the raccoons and possums killed the chickens and ate the eggs which I ate myself. I guess you could say it was survival and that is how I had to look at it. I wanted to live off the land and be self sufficient. And sharing space and food with nature's inhabitants was new to me having lived a city life until I was 50.

I wouldn't use it to shoot anything now unless it attacked me or Bernie. I would just shoot into the ground to scare it away.

Now, back to the beginning of my story.

Yesterday evening before the sun went down, while Bernie and I were sitting out on the porch as we do quite often, Bernie starts to growl all of a sudden and goes down the steps. As he reaches the sidewalk, he looks straight across the road and starts heading for it (the road). Of course I'm right behind him about 50', at 68 I'm a little slower reacting to things, hollering to him to "stop and not go across the road!!!" At this point I didn't see what he was barking at and running towards. He must have smelled something in the air or saw something moving through the bushes.

As he gets to the road, a juvenille size black bear comes out of the woods, it stops, turns it's head and looks straight at Bernie. The bear glances at Bernie, he then casually turns his head back away and circles around some trees and goes back into the woods right by a big tree.

Bernie stops for a second at the edge of the road, then continues across going right after that black bear. And I'm running down the driveway yelling after Bernie about not crossing the road and not going after that bear because he could get hurt. All the while a guy in a camaflouge painted truck is slowly braking as Bernie gets across the road and the black bear has disappeared. I stood there a minute trying to figure whether the guy in the truck had been chasing the bear, following the bear to kill it or just happened to go by at that moment.

I was beside myself. Juvenille black bears can be mean and aggressive like adult bears, if they are aggrivated about something or really hungry. I got to the edge of the road and Bernie was across the road heading for that big tree he saw the bear go behind.

Well, the bear either must have gone deeper into the woods or up a tree.  By the time Bernie got to the tree he lost the scent. I finally got Bernie to come back across the road into the yard. Boy, was I was relieved. There have been a lot of black bear sighting lately in a lot of areas and states and some have been agressive.

From now on I'm going to have to keep a tighter leash on Bernie by not letting him sit out on the porch by himself at night anymore, making sure I'm out there with him especially in the evening and making sure he doesn't just disappear into any of the woods surrounding the yard more during the day. I did that for awhile after the skunk incidents. I just hope I don't have to do a repeat scare adventure with anything bigger and/or dangerous. But I'm not holding my breath because with having Bernie and living in mountain country, I never know what just might show up at my door or what adventure Bernie might decide to go on next.

I'm just glad all is well for the moment.