beary good

     In my thirteen (!) years in Colorado, I had seen a real-live bear only twice. Once from afar in a car (me, not the bear), and once last year, when one practically joined us around the campfire - it walked into our campsite as we watched awestruck, ripped the top off of the beer cooler, and then left. But really, twice in thirteen years - it's a rare event.
     Until this year. The drought, the recession, blah blah, and there have been bears, at least three, hanging out in our neighborhood all summer. We have pictures of the bears in our neighbors' driveways, moseying down Eagle St, chillin' in yards. One enterprising one smashed down our chain-link fence and dragged the trash dumpster all around our yard. Every so often some municipal folks run one up a tree, shoot it with darts, tag its ear, and haul it off. (Side note - now whenever anything at our house breaks, Isaac tells me it was the bear)
     The other day our neighbor alerted us that there was a bear sleeping up the tree of the people across the alley, so walked over to see it.  My mom is reading this and taking a deep breath about now. I get that it wasn't the smartest choice of evening recreation, but really, there's a bear snoozing in your neighbor's tree - what are you going to do? Especially if you have Blaser genes in there anywhere, you are going to go see the bear, and you are going to take your kids so they don't miss out  (Afterward, you might spin donuts in your pickup on a frozen pond, but that's a post for another day).
     It was a little bear, and it was huddled about as far up the tree as it could get, curled around the trunk, trying to look like it wasn't there. We were all very quiet, and we kept our distance, and we got a look at the bear, and we went home to dinner. But I'm still thinking about this bear. It was maybe a year old. It had been tagged twice already, which meant the next time it got picked up would be the last time. Obviously I know that bears can't be hanging around neighborhoods. My kids live here, and plenty of other people's kids, and that is that. But part of me is still hoping, even though I know it doesn't work this way, that maybe the bear has a chance, that maybe there is room in the world for my kids and the bears too.