Bear Shit Happens

Here's a good example of "shit happens" causing financial outlay as described in the previous post.

Last night I took the dogs out for their late-night walk about 11:30. I also had a new bag of dog food to bring in from the truck. Well, I thought I did. As soon as we got outside, the dogs went fucking crazy. I noticed that a) my camper cap was open, and b) the bag of dog food was laying on the ground beside the truck. It had been torn open and partially consumed.

Only one thing could have done that: b'ar!

I didn't see the bear, but we must have surprised it or it would have have finished its meal. The tracks leading to dinner were sorta meandering-lookin', not too deep, but here's its tracks bookin' outta there. You can tell it was on the move!

Click photo to embiggen

So, besides about ten bucks worth of dog food, what's the financial outlay? The goddam bear didn't know how to open the cap is what!



The bear just fiddle-fucked with it 'til it sprang its latch bar and the hydraulic units opened it the rest of the war and voila! - buffet! Below the scratch you can see the three dents it left. Otherwise the cap still works fine, but I gotta get it fixed of course.

I'll go to the body shop and get an estimate later today. If they can fix a Corvette they oughta be able to fix the cap. I hope so. That one cost $800 (Ironic, eh? See previous post. Heh.) so I hope they can save it. The dents? Who knows? Then I guess I gotta deal with the insurance company if the repair costs more than my deductible and it might. I don't know if they cover bear damage, but I guess I'll find out.

Yes, this is my own damn fault. Isn't everything? I know I shouldn't have left anything remotely resembling food in the truck, but we haven't seen bear activity in my neighborhood in several years. The old motorcyclist's adage proves itself again - the time ya get in trouble is when ya think yer safe.

Sigh.

Update:

Since the b'ar tracks led next door, I went and visited with Clancy to see if he had seen or heard anything. Boy did he! The bear batted the handle on the man door to his garage and went in. He thought somebody was coming up the stairs to his man cave/tree fort and flipped on the light. The bear skedaddled back toward my house. He saw it, says it was about 3 1/2 feet tall.

I just got back from taking the dogs for their noonday walk and ran into a coupla my neighbors out walking their dogs. Naturally we discussed bear break-ins of various kinds. Apparently there's been considerably more bear activity around here in the last year than I had thought.