Day 1180: Bear!
Jun. 13th, 2023 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeThis evening, while J was off at sword class, once I’d finished going through some more stacks of books I found myself interested in a walk. I hadn’t been in the neighborhood of W. 37th for quite some time, so that sounded fun. I walked up to Willamette, crossed it, and then went three or four more blocks until I came to the little path between houses that leads to Dellwood, so I did that, then came down to 38th, walked to the end of 38th (which is rather pretty), then came back down the hill a bit, met a very friendly black cat with long legs, walked past S’s house, and returned home. (There’s a reason I’m giving some details of my walk…)
Once I got home, I read the headlines from today’s newspaper. At least two people had seen a bear on Sunday, near 31st and Willamette, and had called 9-1-1, annoying the police, who wanted to make sure that we all knew not to do that. A bear! There had been one near 38th and Willamette, up in a tree, many years ago, but I hadn’t heard of one in town since then (20 years? more?), and 31st is only two blocks from a major shopping area! So I came inside and read the article online. Then I noticed in my email inbox that someone had posted to Nextdoor about something they’d been surprised to see, so I logged into Nextdoor and read it. Sure enough, it was a bear, probably the same one. They’d photographed it in broad daylight on Sunday, on 37th! I looked online to find the address of the person posting, and it had been right where I’d gone on my walk today, next to where that little path starts! His post:
Our bears are just black bears – not aggressive except for mothers with cubs (or sick or injured bears, I suppose). We had them in our neighborhood when I was growing up in Florence – I never saw one, but the neighbor just down the hill from us had her garbage cans raided regularly.
Anyway, then I went to J’s house and noticed that the big bag of cat food that I’d propped up outside his front door had been dragged at least 10 feet away. Oberon was chewing on a corner trying to get some, and J. later found that another corner had been chewed more thoroughly. A bear? We concluded that even though 18 lbs is pretty heavy, the odds are more likely that it was a raccoon. There are certainly more raccoons around than bears. At any rate, that was enough to prompt J to bring the cat food bag inside!
In unrelated news: D’s Grandma Mary turned 100 today. We sent flowers. She has dementia and doesn’t know what’s up, but some of her family visited her anyway, of course.
In other unrelated news: J got contact lenses today, to help with sword class, but is far from comfortable at putting them on and taking them off. It’s a skill I’ve had since age 15 so I feel badly that it’s so hard for him.
Once I got home, I read the headlines from today’s newspaper. At least two people had seen a bear on Sunday, near 31st and Willamette, and had called 9-1-1, annoying the police, who wanted to make sure that we all knew not to do that. A bear! There had been one near 38th and Willamette, up in a tree, many years ago, but I hadn’t heard of one in town since then (20 years? more?), and 31st is only two blocks from a major shopping area! So I came inside and read the article online. Then I noticed in my email inbox that someone had posted to Nextdoor about something they’d been surprised to see, so I logged into Nextdoor and read it. Sure enough, it was a bear, probably the same one. They’d photographed it in broad daylight on Sunday, on 37th! I looked online to find the address of the person posting, and it had been right where I’d gone on my walk today, next to where that little path starts! His post:
Our bears are just black bears – not aggressive except for mothers with cubs (or sick or injured bears, I suppose). We had them in our neighborhood when I was growing up in Florence – I never saw one, but the neighbor just down the hill from us had her garbage cans raided regularly.
Anyway, then I went to J’s house and noticed that the big bag of cat food that I’d propped up outside his front door had been dragged at least 10 feet away. Oberon was chewing on a corner trying to get some, and J. later found that another corner had been chewed more thoroughly. A bear? We concluded that even though 18 lbs is pretty heavy, the odds are more likely that it was a raccoon. There are certainly more raccoons around than bears. At any rate, that was enough to prompt J to bring the cat food bag inside!
In unrelated news: D’s Grandma Mary turned 100 today. We sent flowers. She has dementia and doesn’t know what’s up, but some of her family visited her anyway, of course.
In other unrelated news: J got contact lenses today, to help with sword class, but is far from comfortable at putting them on and taking them off. It’s a skill I’ve had since age 15 so I feel badly that it’s so hard for him.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-19 01:09 pm (UTC)That is surprising though. A few come into neighborhoods in the county here, but never close to us.
I was just thinking, your cats! I hope they can stay safe from them.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-19 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-22 12:48 pm (UTC)