The Bear

Stitchin ByThe Lake wrote an interesting bear story earlier in the week.  She was lucky since it was not a face to face encounter.

That bear story reminded me of one from many years ago.

A couple lived in a house visible from the highway.  Not really isolated but still considered rural.  It was apple season and they had many fruit trees.  Every day that would peel and core their apples in preparation to preserve them for winter food.  Each day they would take their peels and cores outside to the back of their property so the wild animals could feast on the remains of the process.

The couple noticed the peels and cores would disappear over night and ASSUMED it was rabbits and deer enjoying their own personal Farmer's Market.

Since the couple had many different kinds of apples the harvest was spread over about a month.  The apples at last were through.  It had been a bumper crop.  Only a  few remained in the house for them to snack on and the rest had been processed.

One night very soon after the apple harvest, there was a knocking on their back porch.  Since it was unusual for someone to come to the back door they looked out.  There stood a big black bear (black bears are not REALLY big but they are when they're knocking on your door)  The family banged some pans together and ran him away.

The next night same time, more knocking.  It was the bear again.  He was angry there were no apple treats for him and he could smell the few remaining in the house.

The third night the bear was beating on the whole back wall of the porch shaking the house as if he thought apples would fall out. 

Needless to say these people and the bear did not develop a friendship.  They called Arkansas Game and Fish who used a huge cage trap to catch the bear for relocation. 

The bait they used...apples, of course!!!