Black bears & my best friend
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:45 am
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...
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...
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! 
