Bear Meets Bear

I took the little wieners for a pre-breakfast walk to the end of the road, this morning. We turned to head home and I saw a large, black outline crossing the road ahead. At first, I thought dog, however this figure did not exhibit the movements of a large, annoying black dog left to roam freely sans owner. No, its back was rounded and its legs slowly swung forward as it made its way to my adjacent neighbor's property.

I stopped.

"That's a bear!" I thought to myself. "No, it can't be. Yet, I surely know perfectly well that it could be a bear." I decided it was a bear. It was a bear. It was a bear.

Ok, now that that was established, I turned to call my dogs toward home, but stopped as I saw Marji taking a poo and decided to simply stop and think for a moment. "Do I really want to head in that direction without a bike and with two obstinate wieners following? Not really." Then, I thought I really had no choice unless I wanted to walk for two or three more hours around my large, country block. I could've cut across the back of my property, but that was clearly where the bear was heading, and even worse, that is where millions of ticks could reside. I headed straight for home. I also stopped to look for bear tracks, but I really didn't know where the bear crossed and it was difficult to find footprints on my gravel road.

The wieners and I made it safely home and curled up on the couch together to read the other half a novel we started the night before. Actually, I read the novel. Cori and Marji just slept, barked to go outside, stared at me, and ran toward the walls whenever the vicious squirrels ran across my wood siding.