Well, we've just returned from a week in Northern Wisconsin that was quite an experience. Our intentions were to spend 4 days at the "old cottage" in Land O Lakes and after just one night, we were packed up and headed to the "cottage" in Eagle River. Let me tell you why................
We (Deb, myself, Guthrie, Lucy and our friend Mo) arrived around 2pm at the old cottage, unpacked everything, let the pups swim in the lake, and hopped into the row boat for a little afternoon fishing. We had a lovely grill out, threw the kong a gazillion more times for Lucy in the lake and settled in for the night. Everything was going along swimmingly and we had all been asleep for a few hours when Deb awoke to an odd noise. She had a few thoughts:
1) the dogs were running in their sleep and therefore their nails were scratching against the carpet.
2) our friend Mo was snoring up a storm, which she has been known to do
3) the screen was being torn off my some sort of nuisance animal
Can you guess which one it was????? If you chose #3, you were right!
Deb went to investigate the sound with our trusty labrador, Lucy. Standing in the cottage and looking out onto the porch she found that one side of the screened in porch was missing the screen on a large panel and the other side was missing the screen and trim on the door. Most important to mention is that the side with the door damage also had a large black bear still sitting next to it. Deb quickly closed the door and went back into the cottage. She thought briefly about her options:
1) Shoot the black bear with a 22 (I assume that is a gun of some sort), narrowly missing it to "frighten" it
2) Go back out onto the porch and calmly ask the bear to leave
She chose #2 to avoid scaring the bejeepers out of Mo and I by shooting the gun.
She went back out onto the porch and calmly asked the bear to "shoo bear, shoo shoo bear, go away". The bear slowly obliged and took a few steps away from the porch and then stood its ground. Have I mentioned that when Deb went out onto the porch the bear was approximately 4 feet from her???? Yes, this bear was all about the up close and personal experience.
Deb quickly realized he would need more of a deterrent for this bear so she picked up a metal dog bowl and threw it at the bear. She was successful and the sound of the bowl hitting the bear was much like that of someone hitting another person on the head with a pan. (I had been awake this entire time thinking that Lucy must have had to go potty and Deb couldn't get her to come back in because she loves the lake so much. Upon hearing this noise though I decided to find out what was going on and got up). After being hit with the bowl, the bear ran off only to return to lick the dog bowl and Deb returned inside. I met her in the kitchen where she informed me that we had an uninvited guest. I immediately responded with "shut the $#!*&! windows" and ran about the cottage closing windows. I had no idea that bears don't climb in through windows. Or do they????
We woke Mo up to inform her of our guest and we all stood in the kitchen wondering what to do next. Have I mentioned that our trusty, protective labradors have done nothing at this point??? Guthrie, being 9 has somewhat of an excuse as he was terribly pooped from all of the swimming and slept throug this. Lucy, however, standing next to Deb the entire time, remained silent. This is a dog that barks at her own shadow. Clearly she realized the bear was no match for her.
Deb decided it was best that we all try to get some sleep, SHHHHAAAA RIGHT, and we returned to our beds. I decided that it was best to set the car alarm off to warn the bear that we meant business and he/she wasn't meant to return. Deb then fell back asleep and I laid in bed for about 3 hours waiting for the sun to come up. All the while holding the key fab to the car with my thumb on the emergency button. I slept for about 45 minutes and dreamt about bears and wolves coming into the cottage. All the while, the Shorty, kicked, punched, rolled and tried to tuck a limb or two under my ribs. As you can imagine, my anxiety had definitely given the baby a little does of adrenalin and neither of us slept that night.
We were up and out of bed at 7am, Deb offering to make us pancakes and Mo and I refusing as we packed up our belongings. Even a walk up the hill to the outhouse, was too scarey, remember how unafraid of us the bear was. I used a small pail in the cottage to pee and being pregnant this happens A LOT. We left the old cottage around 10:00am and were in Eagle River, WI at the cottage by 11am.
Feeling much safer in our new location, we settled into 5 days of swimming in the lake, playing with the pups, reading books and cleaning a gazillion pails of strawberries that Deb and her parents had picked.
In the future, I would prefer that the Shorty's meets bears and other wildlife from the other side of the glass wall at the Zoo. :-)
We (Deb, myself, Guthrie, Lucy and our friend Mo) arrived around 2pm at the old cottage, unpacked everything, let the pups swim in the lake, and hopped into the row boat for a little afternoon fishing. We had a lovely grill out, threw the kong a gazillion more times for Lucy in the lake and settled in for the night. Everything was going along swimmingly and we had all been asleep for a few hours when Deb awoke to an odd noise. She had a few thoughts:
1) the dogs were running in their sleep and therefore their nails were scratching against the carpet.
2) our friend Mo was snoring up a storm, which she has been known to do
3) the screen was being torn off my some sort of nuisance animal
Can you guess which one it was????? If you chose #3, you were right!
Deb went to investigate the sound with our trusty labrador, Lucy. Standing in the cottage and looking out onto the porch she found that one side of the screened in porch was missing the screen on a large panel and the other side was missing the screen and trim on the door. Most important to mention is that the side with the door damage also had a large black bear still sitting next to it. Deb quickly closed the door and went back into the cottage. She thought briefly about her options:
1) Shoot the black bear with a 22 (I assume that is a gun of some sort), narrowly missing it to "frighten" it
2) Go back out onto the porch and calmly ask the bear to leave
She chose #2 to avoid scaring the bejeepers out of Mo and I by shooting the gun.
She went back out onto the porch and calmly asked the bear to "shoo bear, shoo shoo bear, go away". The bear slowly obliged and took a few steps away from the porch and then stood its ground. Have I mentioned that when Deb went out onto the porch the bear was approximately 4 feet from her???? Yes, this bear was all about the up close and personal experience.
Deb quickly realized he would need more of a deterrent for this bear so she picked up a metal dog bowl and threw it at the bear. She was successful and the sound of the bowl hitting the bear was much like that of someone hitting another person on the head with a pan. (I had been awake this entire time thinking that Lucy must have had to go potty and Deb couldn't get her to come back in because she loves the lake so much. Upon hearing this noise though I decided to find out what was going on and got up). After being hit with the bowl, the bear ran off only to return to lick the dog bowl and Deb returned inside. I met her in the kitchen where she informed me that we had an uninvited guest. I immediately responded with "shut the $#!*&! windows" and ran about the cottage closing windows. I had no idea that bears don't climb in through windows. Or do they????
We woke Mo up to inform her of our guest and we all stood in the kitchen wondering what to do next. Have I mentioned that our trusty, protective labradors have done nothing at this point??? Guthrie, being 9 has somewhat of an excuse as he was terribly pooped from all of the swimming and slept throug this. Lucy, however, standing next to Deb the entire time, remained silent. This is a dog that barks at her own shadow. Clearly she realized the bear was no match for her.
Deb decided it was best that we all try to get some sleep, SHHHHAAAA RIGHT, and we returned to our beds. I decided that it was best to set the car alarm off to warn the bear that we meant business and he/she wasn't meant to return. Deb then fell back asleep and I laid in bed for about 3 hours waiting for the sun to come up. All the while holding the key fab to the car with my thumb on the emergency button. I slept for about 45 minutes and dreamt about bears and wolves coming into the cottage. All the while, the Shorty, kicked, punched, rolled and tried to tuck a limb or two under my ribs. As you can imagine, my anxiety had definitely given the baby a little does of adrenalin and neither of us slept that night.
We were up and out of bed at 7am, Deb offering to make us pancakes and Mo and I refusing as we packed up our belongings. Even a walk up the hill to the outhouse, was too scarey, remember how unafraid of us the bear was. I used a small pail in the cottage to pee and being pregnant this happens A LOT. We left the old cottage around 10:00am and were in Eagle River, WI at the cottage by 11am.
Feeling much safer in our new location, we settled into 5 days of swimming in the lake, playing with the pups, reading books and cleaning a gazillion pails of strawberries that Deb and her parents had picked.
In the future, I would prefer that the Shorty's meets bears and other wildlife from the other side of the glass wall at the Zoo. :-)
Pictures above:
The screen door
Guthrie and Lucy resting after a swim in the lake
Lucy in the lake
Our friend Mo after the restless night
The distance of the dog bowl from the cottage after Deb threw it and hit the bear
The side screen panel
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