Black bears & my best friend

[Will]

So, some of you've seen my thread about me totaling out the Challenger avoiding a black bear that turned into more than one (some were off of the side of the road). That was a week ago, now, this weekend, here's what happens....

My mom spent the night with us and we are all sitting in the living room around 9am drinking some coffee. About 10 minutes before now, I let our dog (BB) outside to do his morning usual. I look up and there's a momma bear and two cubs in the back yard about 35 yards from the back door. The back door is open and I get up and go to the door. Look mom, look at the bears... BB is standing beside me just looking, he has never chased anything. All of a sudden, he bolts while barking like hell. I tuck right behind him yelling, BB come, BB no, everything I could say to get him to stop. (He's a great dog, 7 years old and obeys religiously) Just something about this time, he was determined to chase.

I'm barefooted, in shorts and a t-shirt running down the hill chasing BB who is chasing the freaking bears. BB finally decides to turn back but he is about 10 yards behind momma bear, she sees him retreat and turns back and runs him down. (He went into passive mode when she got close and basically stopped, I feel if he would have stayed in gear, he could have gotten away) I'm running as fast a s I can to them yelling, she swats him and then gets on top of him and starts biting. (BB is like my son) I get about 12 yards from them and she spits him out, charges me and is at my feet in 2 seconds.

I stood my ground with my hands above my head, pocket knife in hand, yelling and waving my arms. She stopped within 3 feet of me. I keep my ground and keep yelling, being as tall, loud and intimidating as I can be. This is when I glance and see that BB has made it back to the back porch. The bear backs up slowly, huffing, turns slightly to her left, swats the ground with her right paw and suddenly charges me again. This time I had to step to my left and back, basically pivoted on my left foot and turned back. She stopped again, right where my right foot was, looks me in the eyes and I'm still standing tall and yelling. She starts to turn slowly and then bolts like you shot her in the ass.

I go back to the house to find my little BB bleeding and cut on his right shoulder. We take him to the vet, I'm thinking broken bones in his shoulder and something wrong with is neck since she had his neck and shoulder in her mouth. Doc put him under and all punctures were cleaned, took and xray, no broken bones, stitched up a 6" cut down his shoulder and leg. Now, he is still under and doc said it would be about an hour. We go to get breakfast (I'm about to crash from 2 cups of coffee, no food and massive adrenaline rush)

We come back about 20 minutes later and the entire vets office is saying they are glad we're back. BB woke up and it was awful, he was howling/yelling like he was getting attacked again. They gave him another shot because they couldn't get him to calm down. Now, I'm there and not leaving, waiting on him to come to again. 35 minutes later, like you turned on a switch, he's laying on his side and twists to where the top of his head is on the floor. He's howling/yelling/crying like nothing I've ever seen. I got down with my head on the floor upside down so he could see me, eye to eye and starts saying, it's me buddy, it's me, calm down, I'm here... He started getting more quiet with each breathe and finally got calmed down, then he rolls up, I sit up and in a half of a second he crawls into my lap. He was whimpering and I could tell he was in pain. I had tears rolling down my face, my little buddy was hurt and I didn't know how bad nor could I do anything for him.

Per the doctors instruction, we take him to the emergency clinic where they could monitor him over night and inject pain meds, we didn't see him taking any orally. My wife drove while I held him, I couldn't move, every time I did he would whimper. When we got to the emergency clinic, he was shaking so bad I thought he was going into shock, turns out, his temperature was really low. We placed him on a heating pad, gave him some more meds and let him stay the night. I didn't sleep at all Saturday night worried about him and thinking about the bear (which I know was just protecting her own)

We go to pick him up Sunday morning around 8am. After about 25 minutes of waiting and signing papers and settling on the vet bill, the nurse brings out BB. He sees me and his stubby tail starts wagging so fast that it's a blurr. She can't hold him, she lets him down and he runs to me and I almost lost it. I couldn't believe and was so relieved our little guy had high spirits. We take him home and I didn't leave his side until I came to work this morning. Monday morning he was really stiff and slowly walked around, by 2pm yesterday afternoon, he had gotten a few of his toys out and had them scattered around the house. He's not up to "BB speed" just yet but he's had a remarkable turn around from Saturday afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon, he's sitting in my lap and looks out the windows to the back yard and growls. I look, and there's nothing there. I think he was just saying, that bitch... I had to think he's pissed off and I got a laugh out of it. So glad my pup is ok. As for the bears, there's a trap back there now and hopefully they'll be caught and relocated. There's also a loaded 44 magnum lever action in case they're not...

[Will]

[Cactus Red]

Damn...

Both of you are lucky to be alive.

Socialism: A stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

[Will]

If I would have hesitated or went for a gun before heading down there, BB wouldn't be alive. Me on the other hand, well...I don't think it matters what you're doing, when it's your time, it's your time. I had to get my little buddy out there. I've caught or faced just about every animal there is in the Southeast, I wasn't worried. You're much more capable than you think when the times comes to stand your ground. However, there's no doubt that I'm grateful we didn't tangle, that's a fact! She was toting many more blades than I was.

[w2dodge]

Wow...counting your blessing this month...this bear has it in for you...glad to see all went well..i was reading and i was thinking the worst...your mom must of been freaking out........breakfast..did you cook bacon that day? They love that.......your both alive ..thank god
..

[cruz]

Wow...

X2
Where do you live Will?

Camping all over the Sierras and at least well over 70 nights in Yosemite, I've seen lots of bears, but no encounters like that.

[Will]

No breakfast yet. I live Southeast of Tallahassee Florida. About 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. She was just protecting her cubs but we dont want her bringing them that close to the house to begin with. I was just about the start clapping and yelling at her so she would move along. I've seen 7 in the last 10 days.

[Mr.Smith]

Better play the lottery before your mojo wears thin, lol! Take care of that tough pup, that's a hard learned lesson for him. I'm thankful everyone is as well as they can be as a result of these past situations. Man...it's time for an action series, or pov vlog, weekly event blog, something! Shit's been crazy for you lately.

[Will]

Yeah, it's been rather eventful two weeks for sure. BB tried to be super pup and has recovered like he is one. I had the urge to go do a walk about through the woods with the thermal clipped on a smoke pool and look for bears, but the way things have been going, I stayed inside with BB for the past two days taking care of him and did as little as possible. I need to either slow down and let this pass or speed up and out run it, haven't figured that part out yet. My wife told me there has been enough excitement for her.

[w2dodge]

Thats alot of bears to see in 10 days in the month of August....do you have neighbors? Are they feeding them?...use some fireworks to scare them off.
.save the ammo......i wont be using the bbq either
.

[Will]

That's been within a 10 mile radius of home, 4 in the property. My closest neighbor is a half mile away. Only thing that's outside is a deer corn feeder which is back in the woods, same as the neighbor. I keep the grill in the garage and have been cautious on smells outside. Momma bear and the cubs appeared to be just passing through, she checked out the burn barrel which only gets wood, paper, cardboard, etc... burned, nothing with food, grease or anything like that goes in there. There is an abundance of crabapples and persimmons this year, many of which border the yard line. I have some 12 gauge bean bags also but then you look outside everytime for months and see nothing, get relaxed on the situation and then boom, there they are, the one time the only thing you have in your hand is a coffee cup...Sods Law...

[Colibri]

Sweet lord Will, I'm glad you and your buddy are okay! That's some crazy shit right there. Just wow

[RustyPW]

Poor little guy. He'll bounce back. But, if he smells a black bear again. He'll be all nose and ears. Keep an eye on him. You....you're lucky. You did what to are suspost to do. Make you're self big and loud as possible. How big of a black bear was it?

[Will]

She was somewhere between 220lb and 250lb.

[Will]

This is her back in June, way back in the woods, the feeder didn't get put back up. Stopped feeding after she tore it down then. She has a tag so if we catch her, they'll know her history.

[Will]

[Will]

I wear and XL glove.

[TwinStick]

Glad you 2 are OK !!! Yeah, dude, you better buy a lottery ticket before your mojo does wear off. And, not for nothing, but I think it is high time you exercise your "I'm the one at the top of the fucking food chain here bitch, & I ain't giving that up anytime soon" ...card. Make her turn in her card, permanently. I know she was doing what they are supposed to do, but you gotta ask yourself: would you be ok if your dog was DOA, or worse yet, a person ? What if it killed you both at one time ? Set an example, see if you can take it legally. Do you have a season for them ?

I sure hope the relocation works, but what about all the others you have seen ? Are they gonna relocate them all ?

[cruz]

... As for the bears, there's a trap back there now and hopefully they'll be caught and relocated. There's also a loaded 44 magnum lever action in case they're not...

...use some fireworks to scare them off.
.save the ammo......i wont be using the bbq either
.

In Yosemite Valley bears cruise the campgrounds every night looking for anything left out by campers, food, garbage, grilles and even toothpaste. There are lockers to store your food, etc. in, and even in the daytime if you leave anything out you'll get at the minimum a warning, and possibly a citation from the Rangers.
After midnight they have a couple of two man Ranger bear patrols that walk thru every campsite looking for bears and violations. They carry a 12ga. with bean bags and M-80s to scare them away. I was there once for 8 nights straight and during that time they trapped 5 bears during that period.

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bears.htm

[blindsquirrel33]

Wow! Good job getting BB out of there, I'm glad to hear you're both ok. I'm out every morning with my dog at 03:30 for a walk before I leave for work (100 mile commute). Bears are a concern in my area as well. Our nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away and they haven't learned to keep their trash in the barn yet, their trash gets raided by bear regularly. When we walk, I carry a .45 on my side, just in case. Hearing your story validates my reason for the sidearm.

[Will]

That's right, I've carried ever since but in the morning before you have a chance to anything else will catch you off guard. I can tell you when you can see the iris of the eyes of a black bear in the wild, it's getting a little too close for most folks comfort...

[Will]

Update on BB, yesterday was a long day for me because I had to leave him and go to work. When I got home, he was so happy I was home and was running around like nothing ever happened. I was laughing and trying to calm him down, so he would pull a stitch, but the more I laughed, the more he'd go crazy. He must've slept all day, which is a good thing, he was very playful all the way to bedtime. I couldn't be happier my little super pup is doing awesome!

I'm not on any social media things and this forum and one other forum are the only ones I get on. I've tried some others but they end up being a bunch of internet douche bags, you guys are the kind of folks I would hang out with anytime and thanks for the conversation and the good hopes for my pup.

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I'm a little behind on this story and the one about your adventure in the Challenger, but I'm glad to hear that you and you're dog are still alive and with us. Both of those stories are spooky as hell!

[blindsquirrel33]

Update on BB, yesterday was a long day for me because I had to leave him and go to work. When I got home, he was so happy I was home and was running around like nothing ever happened. I was laughing and trying to calm him down, so he would pull a stitch, but the more I laughed, the more he'd go crazy. He must've slept all day, which is a good thing, he was very playful all the way to bedtime. I couldn't be happier my little super pup is doing awesome!

I'm not on any social media things and this forum and one other forum are the only ones I get on. I've tried some others but they end up being a bunch of internet douche bags, you guys are the kind of folks I would hang out with anytime and thanks for the conversation and the good hopes for my pup.

That's a great thing to return from work to! Glad the pup is back to being playful!

[azracer]

You are one lucky guy to still be alive after two near misses! I wouldn't count on a third successful close brush with deadly incident.