Son of Boo Boo and Other Close Encounters

Sequoia leaves for work at about 5:20, well before dawn. Last Thursday he got up, made his coffee, let the dog out to pee and then left for work. Within a minutes. he remembered that he had left the stove on under the coffee pot, so he turned around and drove back toward the house. As he was coming down the driveway in the pre-dawn twilight, he noticed a lot of road dust in the air, more than should have been lingering after his original trip up the road. No-one had come out the road behind him. As he pondered this mystery, he rounded a corner and came upon a full grown bear running down the hill right in front of him. It had to be a 300 pounder, maybe more.  The bear ran up the tree where our "2390" sign is posted, bent the metal sign sideways, and released a mighty shit that fell to the base of the tree.

Y'all may remember Boo Boo, the bear cub we found in sleeping in our trash can about 10 years ago.  I doubt that this is the same bear, but perhaps they are distant cousins.

On Sunday, Dazy the Dog and I went to bathe at Queen's Bath.  She took off after something in the bushes and started barking like mad.  I figured it was a squirrel, and paid her no mind.  Just as I was lowering my naked ass into the frigid creek, a hideous red-eyed possum came waddling out of the underbrush with Dazy close on her heels.  Dazy chased the nasty critter right toward me.  I shot out the the water and started screaming bloody murder  The possum dived under a boulder on the bank and Dazy tried to wriggle in after her but was too big to fit into the crevice. I scrambled for my clothes and hollered at Dazy to leave it alone, but she would have none of it, she wanted a piece of that possum.  I finally got her to follow me up the hill towards the house.

Wildlife. It's not just a name, it's an apt description.