Smart Dog and Big Bears

This is a classic family story at this point, about 25 years after the fact...I should probably edit this a bit, but c'est la vie.

When I was about 12, my family drove from our Pennsylvania home to the Blue Ridge Mountains in VA for a vacation. We pulled our pop-up camper and brought our faithful collie.

At the National Park (I think it's a Nat'l Park...) we were warned many times about the big black bears, how to keep them away, how to get them away if they did show up, and how else to act.

One night my dad and I wanted to go on a ranger-run night hike to see glowing lichen and stargaze. My mom and little sister stayed with the collie in the canvas-walled camper. After dinner we all carefully cleaned up all things food-related, putting our cooler in the car and so on. Then dad and I went off to hike.

We had a good time on the hike, and got back around 10. We approached quietly, thinking everyone would be asleep. When we opened the door we were shocked to see my mother standing there with the biggest kitchen knife she could find, her eyes wide. Apparently she had heard "something big" moving around outside, and like a prairie homestead mother, was determined to defend herself and child. The dog was on her own. It seems that the collie had slept through the whole thing. Dad whispered to me, "Smart dog."

Dad and I prowled around outside with flashlights. When we found raccoon footprints, we assured mom that there were no bears around. Everything settled down and we all went to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, my father was already up, which was unusual. It seemed he had been awakened rather early... slightly before six, he heard some curious noises outside. So he unzipped the canvas from the window by his bed and peered groggily out. About 25' from our camper was a little trailer with an awning on the side of it. The awning was nearly 7 feet off the ground, and sagged in the middle, where the rainwater had formed a little pool. Standing on its rear legs, with its paws on the top of the awning was a big black bear. It had been drinking from this pool of water, but turned its head to look at the zipping noise it heard behind it... My dad froze, trying not to breath. They locked eyes...time stood still...then the bear turned back and continued drinking! What did my father do? A big believer in the motto "what you can't see can't hurt you," he zipped the window up and rolled over - quietly.

Later, when we were all up and talking about it, out measuring the height of the awning, I said to my dad, "I guess the dog isn't as smart as we thought." He replied without missing a beat, "Ohhh, yes she is! I'm sure she was lying there with one eye open, pretending to be asleep!" We never took the dog's intelligence for granted after that.

Tripp

 

 

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