Bear Necessities

It was two weeks ago today that I woke up at 4:15 am to the sounds of chewing and then Kita growling.  After a couple of soft "woofs", I told her to be quiet, everything was OK, and to go back to sleep.  Kita jumped up between us and sat there on full alert, something she has never done before.  So I got out of bed and turned on the floodlights over the deck just in case.  Nothing there, so I turned on the floodlights on the opposite side of the house near the garage, and again, nothing there.  After I climbed back into bed, Kita gave a few more soft low growls and then finally went back to sleep.  For some reason I thought the chewing sounds might have been from squirrels.

When I took Kita out at 5:45 am, she instantly went on full alert, sniffing the air cautiously.  Apparently deciding everything was OK, she pulled me to the back yard and excitedly sniffed around the kousa dogwood tree at the back corner of the house outside the guest room.  The nearby Siberian iris were flattened and something looked different about the usually upright habit of the dogwood. That's when I realized that its two lowest branches were bent and missing all of their berries!

I dragged Mark outside to survey the damage before he left for work.  Considering the 1 1/2" diameter branches are permanently bent, he suspects we were visited by one of the local black bears! 

Needless to say, ever since then I've been extra noisy when doing yard work and make sure I keep my cellphone handy!