The Bear

Old Tim was rabbit hunting. He had never got a rabbit; he had never seen a rabbit. He mostly went because he liked the forest. Most people thought it was silent. Tim knew it wasn’t. There were all kinds of sounds. He didn’t hear any rabbit sounds though. He wasn’t sure they made a sound. If they did he couldn’t hear it. What he could hear was the whining of a bear cub.

Tim went totally silent. The old saying “don’t ever get between a mama bear and her cub” was nonsense. You shouldn’t be in the same woods as a mama bear and her cub. Bears are sensitive about their cubs. They didn’t scare easily, or at all. Old Tim slowly and carefully looked around just moving his eyes. He hoped his eyes didn’t click when he did. Old Tim was afraid to turn his head to see if he was safe. He knew he couldn’t just stand there. The mama would be back soon enough. Old Tim slowly walked away. He wanted to run but that might draw the Mama bear’s attention. That was the last thing he wanted.

When he got back to his cabin alive he breathed a sigh of relief. He thanked God, fate and his lucky stars. He didn’t think the Mama Bear would actually track him down. She’d be on the lookout though. She’d smell a human and had bad things to do. Old Tim knew he’d best stay out of the forest for a while, a long while. Then disaster struck.

He woke up to the sound of whining. He opened the door to see the cub siting there. Maybe Mama did track him down. He didn’t think his cabin was going to stop her. He ran to his truck. He didn’t actually think the truck would stop her either. He did think the truck would outrun a bear. Maybe. He drove off to town. He thought he’s stay a few days until the Mama and her cub moved on.

As time wore on the cub stayed with him. The Mama never took it back. Now Old Tim faced a predicament. What to do about the cub? He knew the cub couldn’t live in the forest as a cub. Old Tim had to feed it. He didn’t know what so he gave it milk until it grew to whining about that. Then he fed him canned salmon. The cub seemed satisfied.

Old Tim started taking him to town as a pet. There was a lot about pet cubs that he didn’t think of. He didn’t think of the fact the cub was going to become a bear. At first, the town folks were unhappy with a bear cub running around. After a while, they were even more unhappy. The owner of the meat market had to start making free deliveries after the cub smelled meat and ate the store out. The grocery wasn’t able to sell their meat or their cereal. The cub found he liked cereal, especially the sweet ones.

As the cub grew into a bear, he seemed okay. He didn’t do anything different but he was a lot bigger. Old Tim had to bring him into town in the bed of his truck.

Then the bear found Lucy’s Lunch diner. He went in, scaring the customers. Thy all backed into the corner. For some reason they thought they were safer there. The bear cleared all the tables. He was satisfied until he smelled more food through another door. He went a smelled a lot of food. He saw Lucy but paid no more attention to her than he did anyone else. He went into Lucy’s Luncheonette. It was the best restaurant in town. It was the only too. The Bear took all their plates and threw them on the floor and ate their food. He was fond French fries. He went into the back to see if there was more. Lucy, not one to take foolishness, hit the Bear on the snout with a spatula. Lucy took a look at the bear and smacked it on the muzzle. She told the bear to get out of her luncheonette. Restaurants were not allowed to have animals. She wasn’t going to have this bear to put her out of business. The bear knew it wasn’t possible for her to do anything but it wasn’t positively sure. She didn’t always obey health rules but she wasn’t allowing a bear in.

Sheriff’s Deputy Fred stopped by Old Tim’s cabin to tell him he couldn’t keep a bear without a license which Old Tim didn’t have. The bear had to leave. It was the law. Old Tim told the Deputy to go tell the bear he had to leave. The Deputy wasn’t about to do that. He was two years from retirement and was going to do as little as possible. The Deputy said Old Tim would have to call the Wildlife Commission to come get the bear. Old Tim said he wasn’t calling anyone. He also told the Deputy that if the Commission came for the bear he should remember that he knew where the bear would be and where the Deputy lived. He said to do the math.

Two Rangers showed up the next day. Old Tim went through the same routine as before. He was getting really irritable. He thought of siccing the bear on them but the Commission knew where they were and might call in the National Guard.. He asked the Rangers how they were going to get the bear into their truck. They told him they would use a sedative. It would be just enough to make the bear drowsy. Then they would guide him to the truck. Old Tim asked how far the dart would go. It had to be far away or they’d be dead. He also told them the bear would find its way back home.

They told him he would be held accountable if that happened and would pay a hefty fine. Old Time had no money so he couldn’t figure how that would happen. If it did he’d tell the bear to run off whoever tried to collect. The bear would love that. Old Tim wondered who would try to next get the bear from him. Old Tim has gotten found of him. He figured the Mama bear wasn’t going to come looking after all this time. He decided to start sleeping in the cabin again instead of the truck. He didn’t sleep comfortably but woke up in the morning.

Old Tim taught the bear to fetch sticks; taught him to roll over; taught him as if he were a dog. It made Old Tim feel better about having a bear around if he was acting like a dog and not a bear.. Old Tim figured the bear would keep critters away, especially the human ones. Skulking around at night was a bad bet when a bear sleeps there. In the winter the bear would sleep but who was going to bet on that? What if the bear woke up to get a snack?

The town council called a public meeting g to discuss the bear problem. The first speaker asked why? They weren’t actually going do anything. They couldn’t actually do anything. The suggestion was made for everyone to put out some food when the bear came into town. The town should adopt him or her. No one knew if the bear was a male or a female and no one was going to look except for Old Tim. He knew a female was more bad-tempered than a male.

One man yelled out that he wasn’t putting out food for the bear. The bear didn’t come to his neighborhood. It was mentioned to him that the bear would eventually expand his horizons. If he didn’t find food he was likely to start looking for it. The whole town voted to put out food for the bear. They decided that the food didn’t have to be fresh. Bears will eat anything. They proffered the bear would eat outside instead of inside.

Then the dogs and cats started disappearing. Now even Old Tim was upset. He didn’t want the bear to eat pets. He wasn’t sure keeping the bear if he was doing that. He didn’t know what he could do to stop him. Maybe moving him to a bear sanctuary far away might work. Did zoos have bears? He wasn’t going to put the bear down. He didn’t know if he could; he didn’t know if anyone could. He thought of chaining him but no chain around was going to stop him. It might piss him off. Since Old Tim was the closest he would be the first target.

He broke down and called a zoo to come and get him. When they got there Old Tim said he’d have to give the bear the shot. The bear trusted him. He petted the bear for a while before injecting him. He cried a little as the bear got up. Then, Old Tim knew, the bear would fall asleep and it would be the last time he’d see him.

The bears stood up and roared! She then looked at Old Tim and ran off into the forest. A bear will always be a bear.