Posted on 12/07/2008 5:31:15 PM PST by MtnClimber
We had quite the interesting night last night! At about 1AM I was awakened by the sound of a car horn but thought I was imagining things. I checked on the girls and all was well with them so I went back to bed. At 4:30 the girls woke me up with the news that the car flashers/hazards were on. Mark is out of town so I was a bit nervous about leaving the girls alone while I checked it out but I went anyway.
Still in my jammies, I went to the driver’s side door and tried to open it but it was jammed. I could only get the door open part way but enough to see that the inside of the car was absolutely trashed. I thought we’d been robbed and vandalized… until I saw the snout of a black bear.
I slammed the door shut, ran into the house and called 911. A half hour later the sheriff’s deputies arrived and between us we talked with the Dept of Wildlife folks to determine what to do. Generally they want to make sure an animal won’t ever return so they sometimes tranquilize the bear and relocate him/her. But because they were confident that the bear had a reasonably bad experience at our house they suggested we simply let him out. The deputies devised a plan to drive their SUV up to my car door and open it (with a Taser gun drawn just in case), but the winds were so strong that the door kept blowing closed. After the third attempt the door stayed open and the bear lumbered out and ran away. He was a well-fed, rotund fattie!! The girls watched the scene from inside the house.
After we surveyed the damage I dug through the bear slop and debris and got my purse and phone out of the car. This morning the local Bear Watch people came to have a look and offered me the use of their car if I needed it. Apparently a realtor in the area also had her car destroyed by a bear but her bear crashed out the back window. Mine was captive in my car for about 3 hours! We think he was attracted by a vanilla scent that was sprayed in the car yesterday at a local car wash. Other than that, there was no food in the car.
Imagine a pajama-clad mom coming nearly nose-to-nose with a bear at 4:30 AM! I’m not sure which of us was more freaked out at the sight of the other! Thankfully my insurance company (so far) is being great. They’re paying for a rental car for me for 30 days while they have the car repaired. They suspect the entire interior of the car will need to be replaced but even that is less than the car is worth so for now the car is not totaled.
This has been enough excitement for one day! I’m looking forward to a quiet and peaceful weekend. When I called the girls’ school to inform them that the girls wouldn’t be in attendance today I said, “You might hear some excuses like, ‘My dog ate my homework’ but my excuse is that a bear ate my car!”
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The bear in front of the door I think was was in early November. I hear that the males hibernate later, sometimes into December. We have about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground on average. There was alot of wind, up to 60mph, after the last snow so it goes from bare ground to 3-foot drifts. The previous bear incident was where I had been wearing leather work gloves while stacking firewood under a open sided wood shed. I put my gloves way up between the wood and the roof of the wood shed at the end of the day. The next day a bunch of the wood was pulled down and my gloves were gone. I found one slightly chewed glove right next to a huge pile of bear scat that contained some undigested whole kernel corn, probably from someone’s bird feeder. The other glove was never found.
Well, you do have a point.
Of course you have to wonder if the cure isn’t worse than the disease with a bear destroying your car... while protecting it!
Apparently they thought the bear had a bad time and would not likely be back. They decided to let the bear out and not to relocate/coller it.
I have always knew that those car wash scents would come to no good. Now I know why.
The bear will be back.
soon.
Dang rookies, all she needed is some full bud longnecks to put the fear of God in that bruin! LOL!
LOL!
I knew you wouls say that!
The deer have been attacking moving cars around Durango lately.
Wouls - would
Dang typo!
She could have spanked it with a piece of pvc pipe like I do!
LOL!
You be careful, ya hear?
uh umm too much info
I guess any time you are “close to nature” you are going to have unpleasant encounters with wildlife.
About two years ago a woman was working in her garden, about 3 miles from me, and had to fight off a bobcat (rabid) with her hoe. Several days later, about one half mile from me, a woman called the police because a bobcat (also rabid) was trying to get to her dogs. The officer walked around her house with his flashlight (didn’t see any evidence of the animal) and told the woman to call again if the bobcat came back. He got about halfway to his cruiser when the critter attacked him (he shot the bobcat and then got to take the shots).
We have black bear in the swamps and bays, seldom have any problems with them, but wild hogs are more plentiful, and more of a problem (I’d rather encounter a black bear than a wild boar).
I live in Durango and the bears are still very active around here. I sure prefer the bears to all the libs here.
We have a panther living across the street from us. Used to have a bunch of hogs.
Who had the hogs...you or the panther?
My brain bad.....:o) Say Coal wrote cold.....LOL !
Thanks for the correction !
You are probably right. But, I would rather deal with the wildlife than move to Denver and deal with the gangs and Chickenlooper’s cops that prey on the law abiding while ignoring the crimminals for the most part. I guess what pays is what gets done in Denver and most crooks are not rich.
I had to put my lead bear chaser down two weeks ago, Edie had a uterine infection that would have cost me about 3 grand without guarentees.
She’s buried in the backyard under the 80ft Cedar tree.
I cried like a baby...
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