It took me 44 years to see my first bear.
Oh, I’ve looked for bears many times. I’ve traveled to bear-rich places in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Virginia, but nah, just the one bear.
Today, I’m sitting in my house completely slack-jawed and stupid.
The Mrs. saunters in, as she is a saunterer, and casually says, “I’m on Next Door and people are reporting that there is a bear in this neighborhood.”
Really? There is a bear in the city of Pittsburgh?
Doubtful. After all of my efforts to see bears turning up only one, a bear was just going to materialize in my own neighborhood like a gift from the ursine gods? Yeah, doubtful.
But there was a bear!
Look at this handsome boi!!
Nestled up squarely on someone’s front lawn in the city of Pittsburgh, there was a sizable male bear. Hoards of police, a game warden, the city dog catcher, and a bunch of looky-lous like myself were all there gawking at the bear. And it could have cared less.
Needless to say, seeing this bear in my neighborhood had me in absolute heaven. I peeled off as many pictures as I could before the police gave me the heave-ho.
With the bear being in an urban area, the police eventually tranquilized it and took it out of town. My guess is that it was a juvenile male dispersing out into the world looking for territory. Alas, it could not call my neighborhood home permanently, but I shall certainly never forget this temporary neighbor!
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