Nose to Nose w/ 300 lb Black bear

• by donr
• 2013-06-14 08:06:42
• General Posting
• 1518 views
• 14 comments

We live in the foothills of the Appalachians near the southern end of the Trail - kinda out in the woods in North Georgia (Nawth Jawja phonetically to 'yankees).

Black bears are coming back & we have had a mature adult male trekking through out yard lately. Bent the wrought iron pole holding up our bird feeder. Carried away a bag of garbage into the woods & we have not seen it since. Hope he liked eating empty milk cartons!

This past Mon, I looked out the 2nd floor window & saw him nosing around the now nearly grounded bird feeder. Grabbed the camera & got several shots of him wandering around the front yard.

Noticed he was now wandering toward the front dor, so hustled my bod downstairs just in time to see our three Shih Tzu's sniffing at the door in the attack mode. The door has a lkeaded glass insert in it that distorts whatever is on the other side, so the bear could not see in. Since it was dark in the house & brilliant sunshine outside, he could not have seen much anyway. Next thing I noticed was that his nose was pressed up against the glass, being slightly crazy (As opposed to insane) I walske over & pressed my nose against the glass right where his was & there we stood for a few seconds till suddenly he stood up & his nose was about 5 ft above ground level. His right front paw was on the thumb lever that opens the door & his left front about 6 ft above the ground.. He4 wa shaving a field day sniffing around - when suddenly there was an audible "CLICK" from somewhere within the door & he took off like a shot for the woods.

It was then that I discovered that the deadbolt was NOT thrown & had he pushed down a bit harder on the thumb lever, the door would have opened & he'd have been in the kitchen w/ me.

There'd have been one *&^%$^%$^ of a fight right there inside the door had that happened. I don't know if it would have worked, but all I could think of was to land the first blow w/ my camera across his big ol' black nose & hope that it would hurt him enough to make him run. Maybe, OTOH, seeing three Shih Tzu's in attack mode would have made him ROFLOL till he died - in which case I'd have been charged w/ cruelty to animals.

I asked a neighbor what he'd do about a bear in the yard - Shoot him, dig a hole & bury the corpse was the answer. That option was out - can you imagine digging a hole large enough to hold a 300lb bear in Hard red clay w/ a D handled shovel? My neighbor is a farmer & owns a Ford tractor w/ a backhoe.

Don