Kind of funny timing.

Earlier this week, the house was being shown by a realtor, Kristen, that lives just up the road from me. And the lookers were members of her family. They were asking me about wildlife and Bear (Bear the beardog). And did we often see bears? I said that I usually saw them or sign of them in the Spring and Fall but hadn’t seen any this year. Neither had Kristen.

So, this morning, Bear, Auggie and I had just gone out and we were all ambling about…7:15 ish a.m. The breeze was blowing toward us from the East and Bear started sniffing and doing the nose in the air thing that means “bear”! He started walking East and the nose went up again. I called him to “Stay” and he did and then I saw the bear (an actual bear). I told Bear (the beardog) “Inside” and he went. Auggie was hunting critters by the house and the bear had not even looked our way and was walking along the east property line which is what they always do – funny.

Got the camera and ran back out. You think the bears are just walking slowly but as they are big, they cover a lot of ground quickly.

So…

From about 100 yards away from the bear and 20 yards from the house which is as close as I care to go out of both safety and respect for the bear.

Same photo as above but cropped. Fuzzy. Rats.

Although the bear looks brown, no sign of a hump. The last several bears I’ve seen have been brown. I still think they are “black” or “cinnamon” bears vs grizzly, but I guess it could be a young grizzly. It was a bear, though!

If Auggie caught any bear scent, he did not show any indication or concern. The critters around the rock were pretty active – even I could hear their squeaks.

Bear was watching from the bedroom and not making a sound.

And the sun came up through a very smoky sky.

It is a privilege to see a bear moving through, being a bear and going about his or her bear business, but I sure would like to get a great photo of one of them!