Wilderness Wondering

We live in a small town, not tiny but small, specially compared to other places I lived before.

At first I was enchanted by the squirrels on our backyard, at least until Matisse went thru a window to try to catch one, I am still amazed he did not hurt himself, considering the window broke in a thousand pieces.

We are just one house removed from a very busy street but we often see skunks and raccoons, a few times we saw coyotes by the end of our street and once we were having dinner and I just saw a fox across the street out of the kitchen window, but mostly we keep a healthy distance and try to be careful while walking the dogs.

Since the big maple went down we have been walking the dogs a lot more, they miss having the open yard to spend some energy running around, Matisse rolls his rocks around (he is a true Mick Jagger) and Jack just keep bringing his ball to play catch, so we try to compensate and take them out for walks a bit more often then we like.

Last night while we took them out one of the neighbors drove by and warned us about a black bear she just saw on her backyard. We cut the walk short and did another  very short one before bedtime.

This morning I was careful while taking them out but at the same time wondering if maybe she was just kidding. By late afternoon I was surprised when He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed came home after a meeting and told me that the bear was seen by two other neighbors, one of them we know well and have no reasons to doubt.

I have very mixed feelings, at one hand I am afraid, especially because of my dogs, having no idea how they would react if we encounter the bear, but at the same time I really want to see it. I mean I have seen bears at the zoo, and close enough, I mean safe but not from a mile away, but to have a chance to see a real wild one, although one that fancies a visit to town seems to be a very special thrill.