June 27, 2011
by Joe De Santos
Publisher
By now, you all know my favorite subject is bears and how bears attack human beings that venture into their territory. Well, here are some breaking news. My daughter and her family who are Texans by birth and had lived in Texas flatland all their lives, moved to Colorado late last year. They situated themselves at the base of a mountain near Durango, out in the country, surrounded by pine trees. My wife and I visited them on Thanksgiving last year and really enjoyed the beautiful scenery, there is a beautiful sheer cliff right in their back yard. When we were visiting, we saw mule deer right outside their living room windows. One of the things I cautioned my daughter about, was bears. Since I am a lifelong flatland Texan myself, I have no personal experience, except what I’ve read and as a result, linked and wrote about on this website. When I frequently mentioned the subject to my daughter on the phone, I could imagine watching as she rolled her eyes as she was saying, “whatever, daddy. She’s got youngsters, my grandson is 13 and my granddaughter just turned 12. I kept telling her to keep an eye on the kids and for them to study their surroundings when they were outside. I kept saying “there’s bears around there, be careful”. “Whatever, daddy”. Well, guess what?… My daughter called me this morning and said, “It finally happened, a bear came into our yard last night and we watched it beat up our trash can. I said, with a strong inner feeling of “I told you so”, “didn’t I tell you to keep that can secured”? She said that a couple of days before, her husband barbecued some ribs outside on the pit. I told her that the bear more than likely smelled the cooking and was probably watching her husband while he was cooking. She said that she didn’t think so because he did the cooking two days before……But, he had forgot a full rack of ribs in the pit and left them. He found them yesterday and threw them in the trash can. Man, I can just imagine that cool bear walking up to fresh cooked ribs, putting on his bib, pulling up a chair and tearing into them. Of course, that didn’t happen, he (or she) tore into the garbage can and consumed everything edible while my daughter’s family watched through the window. She told me that all that was left of the ribs were the bones. My granddaughter was scared during the action, however, my grandson thought it was cool and so did his dad. My daughter? Kind of surprised. And me? My chest is still inflated with the “I told you so” syndrome, but now I’m really worried about the kids’ safety. We all know what a momma bear with cubs is capable of doing. I’m still waiting for my daughter to say, “you were right, dad”, she hasn’t said it yet. At least now she knows not to take that area for granted, because she now knows for certain……. they are in the middle of bear country.