You ought to live in the Kentucky mountains. If you leave garbage or dog food outside you’re gonna have a big visitor if they are in the neighborhood. My wife’s grandfather had monocular degeneration and couldn’t see well at the end of his life. He heard a noise on his back porch one morning and opened the door and standing on the other side of the screen door was a 300 lbs black bear. He couldn’t make out who it was and was trying to talk to them. Her aunt yelled its a bear shut the door! It was eating dog food left on the porch.
If I’m out about my property I carry a S/A .44 magnum revolver with hard hitting hunting rounds for big game at all times.
Here in Florida it is illegal to kill a bear...................
Speaking of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, this happened on I-65 just north of Bowling Green:
“Shake that light again,” I said. It was about gone. I spun the lugs off into the hubcap and pulled the wheel. The tire had blown out along the sidewall. “Won’t be fixing this one,” I said. Not that I cared. I have a pile as tall as a man out by the barn.The light went out again, then came back better than ever as I was fitting the spare over the lugs. “Much better,” I said. There was a flood of dim orange flickery light. But when I turned to find the lug nuts, I was surprised to see that the flashlight the boy was holding was dead. The light was coming from two bears at the edge of the trees, holding torches. They were big, three hundred pounders, standing about five feet tall. Wallace Jr. and his father had seen them and were standing perfectly still. It’s best not to alarm bears.