Here is my bear story from last Friday:

I was sitting outside on the back porch late Friday evening with 3 dogs when Roddy went crazy all of the sudden, barking up a storm and "expressing" his anal glands (lovely).

My other two dogs soon joined in with the barking.

I wasn't sitting more than 6 feet away, and as I got out of the chair to walk over, I saw a massive black shape at the other side of the deck railing snarling and hissing. It was big bear. I watched as it took a swipe or two at Roddy, but the side railing on the deck interfered and stopped its blows.

I started to yell at the bear while I got the dogs inside. I thought it strange that it was behaving so aggressively. That's when I heard something making a scratching sound. I looked towards the sound and saw two little bear cubs quickly climbing up a nearby tree while the mama bear stood her ground at the back porch.

It wasn't very long before the mama finally turned to walk slowly away; her two cubs came down the tree and followed her. They crossed the street and heard my dogs barking from inside the house. Again the two cubs scurried up into a different tree while the mama bear turned and stomped her feet back and forth in place; sort of like claiming her ground. Within a minute or two they were off again into the forest.

There are two large scratch marks in the side railing of the porch. Roddy is lucky since the railing kept him from getting injured, or possibly worse.

Justin