My dog is one of kind. Truly unique and I love him.
He has a pretty impressive knack of finding various creatures and making friends with them.
One afternoon, about a year ago, I was driving home to my apartment (I say apartment, it was actually dubbed the "uni-bomb shack" by several friends, so saying apartment may be embellishing a bit). It had been raining all day. But rain is no biggie so I figured I'd stop at a trail on my way home, do a quick loop, and let my dog burn off some energy.
The trail I stopped at is a pretty popular trail, I actually tend to avoid it in nice weather because there are so many people out there. This day, because of all the rain, there was not one person out there. It was also later in the evening, so I'm sure everyone had called it quits for the night.
Anyways, my dog and I set off, did the loop I wanted to do, and started heading back the main section of trail. I don't leash him, he doesn't need it as he stays right with me and responds very well to cues.
As we're heading up the main section I look up ahead and think to myself, well shit, that is the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life! I figured, gotta be a Newfie (seriously this thing HOUSED my dog, who isn't little), and I actually looked up to the woods to connect with the owner. While I was doing all this, I never gave any verbal command to my dog.
Well, my dog went running up ahead to meet this "Newfie." As he got closer to it, it dawned on me. FUCKING HELL, that's a BEAR!
Well, my dog didn't seem to think this was an issue, as he and this bear headed into the woods together.
I start hysterically screaming, shouting, and blowing my safety whistle (randomly my Mother bought me this one day, and I happened to put it in my rain jacket pocket previously)....just an fyi, safety whistles are useless. First no one responds when you are out in the middle of no-where and secondly WTF are they actually going to do?
While I'm nearing a panic stricken state and picturing myself hoisting my 90lb dog over my shoulders to carry him out of the woods and get him medical attention, he's hanging out in the woods with this bear.
Moments later he poked his head of the woods and looked at me like "what the bloody hell is all this racket about."
I ran to him with complete relief that he was moving. Mind you he was still standing right where the bear went into the woods, but yes I ran to him. I checked him over, found that there was not one scratch on him, took a deep breathe, and told him we were heading out.
We started walking. After a few steps I decided to turn and take a peek, make sure all was good in the hood.
Oh, hello MOTHER bear.
I have never in my entire life had my whole body just drain of emotion that quickly.
As I stood there in front of this enormous black bear, with my dog next to me, I realized: I've got nothing. So as she turned to stare at us, I thought "here I am. I'm yours for the taking."
She locked eyes with me, and then continued across after her cub.
As quickly as I was prepared to offer this bear my life, now I was filled with an overwhelming sense of relief. My body was vibrating with adrenaline, WHO THE HELL DOES THIS SHIT HAPPEN TO?
Not only was my dog effing hanging out and playing with a bear cub, but I stood in-between the Mother bear and her cub (AKA ONE OF THE WORST DECISIONS YOU CAN MAKE).
How was I not attacked? How was my dog not attacked? What, for goodness sake, was my dog doing with this bear cub, playing? Does shit like this actually happen?
Friends who are avid outdoors-people are a bit baffled by this story. My friends' Father said that for some reason the Mother bear must not have seen me as a threat (must have been that gosh darn safety whistle!).
I'm considering this my one scrape by with unbelievable luck.
So the fact that there is a 700lb black bear currently roaming through my yard each night, eeks me out a bit. I can't possibly be that lucky twice.
