Woof!

I was on the job 11 days in a row including two 12 hours days, 59 hours in the last week alone. When I was finally finished with my September workathon, I spent 5+ hours sprawled on a comfortable day bed watching past episodes of True Blood. Let’s just say that I have taken to this show like Jason Stackhouse to V. I realized while watching the end of season 1... I am magic! I am a shape shifter. I can, at will, morph into a bear. & that is a very special thing.

I have taken notice of several newspaper accounts & blog posts about bears being spotted in suburban Portland, Oregon.

Tammy Wagner, wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife: "We're talking bears getting into garbage; bears getting into apple trees, pet food. Some of them have attempted to get into houses. They've false-charged people, taken injured pets, things more substantial than what we normally see."


People always run the risk of bear encounters. But this year the bears are turning up in populated areas. Once they become a problem, it's generally not a good ending for the bear. That's because removed bears generally return to the place they were taken from. In Oregon they have taken bears that were causing problems in urban areas, trapped them, put ear tags on them & released them outside city limits, but they return to the place they were taken from. There are instances where they attacked people. In one of them, a Girl Scout was killed.


The blackberry crop is beginning to come in & wildlife experts hope that will ease the problem, but with winter approaching, it could get worse. Bears have an increasing need for nutrition because they are trying to put on weight for the winter months. If you don't have berries, bears are craving nutrition & they start getting desperate. We have a big spot of blackberries in the side yard. If my white trash-ish neighbor spies a bear in those blackberries, it won’t end happily for someone.

It is so difficult for me to write these words. I have found bears, as a sub-set, to be particularly sweet, sincere, silly, & sympathetic. Yet, when we have been in our neighborhood bear bar, the Husband (who is the very definition of a non-bear) claims that he invisible & ignored by staff & patrons. I feel right at home, & being somewhat beastly, I fit in. It’s nice to fit in every once in a while, even if you like to be stage center 75% of the time.


I don’t think anyone needs to worry about bears in their neighborhood, unless you actually don’t like Gypsy, good home cookin’, denim, flannel, gardens, hugging, BBQs, & of course, fur.