Last night, Justin and I went to a neighborhood dinner. We shared our babysitter, Angela, with our friends a few doors down, who brought their 4-year old daughter over to our house so the girls could play together while the grownups had a night out and Jack went to bed early.
At about 8pm, while we were enjoying a glass of wine on our neighbors' patio, the cell phone rang. Apparently, our babysitter was on her way back into the house after emptying the recycling in our side yard and she saw a black bear! She says it was bigger than a large dog and as she walked back to the house, it started to chase her. Yes, you read that right. She said she ran and closed the sliding glass door just as the bear reached the edge of our patio. UNBELIEVABLE!! We live on a forested greenbelt that we know has a lot of wildlife - we've seen bobcats, raccoons, and deer in our yard and we hear coyotes at night... but this is something else entirely. Apparently the bear stayed in our yard for a while, eating weeds (thanks!) and being watched by Brooke and her friend through the window. (Brooke apparently pleaded to "go pet the bear.") The bear apparently had a yellow tag in its ear so I can only assume it is being tracked by the state wildlife department. Then, the bear left our backyard and walked into the front yard which really worried our babysitter - it had been near 90 degrees yesterday so last night there were lots of people taking walks in the neighborhood. Angela said she stuck her head out the front door to warn a couple that was walking by that there was a bear in the area. She called 911 and reported it as well.
WOW. Thank goodness no one was hurt, including Leo, who could easily have been out in the back yard when this bear came around. We are going to have to be very careful from now on.
Note: this isn't the actual coyote we saw. My camera was in the other room so I missed it. But it looked just like this only scruffier.
