Return Of The Todd

This is part three of the saga so it must be Return Of The Todd. Yep. We are talking about the neighborhood bear.

Last Saturday, August 8, 2015, Mama Nomad and I were walking around the neighborhood, as we do most evenings after dinner. Our whole neighborhood is mostly wooded with big trees, ferns and streams crisscrossing the area. We see a half-dozen deer each time we go walking. We have a doe and two fawns, which we call the twins, that routinely lay down, graze or walk through our yard.

We were actually talking about bears and what to do in case we encountered another one (we saw one on the Appalachian Trail). We had been recently reading about what to do if we encounter Black Bears, specifically. For those of you who do not know, the following are rules of thumb for black bears only. Please consult your own sources and try to use some common sense.

1. Never get between a mama bear and her cub.
2. Never try to pet or touch a cub.
3. Do not stand between a bear and its carcass.
4. If you see the bear in the distance and it does not see or hear you, try not to alert it.
5. If you see the bear in the distance and it sees you, calmly keep going without making any aggressive motions.
6. If you are in a group, stay together.
7. If the bear comes your way, move in another direction but do not turn your back on it.
8. Never run from a bear if it is not running at you. It can kick in a predator-prey response and it may chase after you. Remember, bears can run up to 40 mph.
9. Do not climb a tree. Black bears are adept climbers.

Mama Nomad and I were discussing this and we thought, what if you are in the woods/forest and a black bear begins to run towards you. You are not supposed to run nor climb a tree. What do you do? This is my own personal opinion. Black bears may be able to run 40 mph in a flat-out dead sprint. But those big ole beasts cannot corner. So, I would find the biggest tree I could and stand on the other side. Which ever side the bear came around, I would go the other way. Kind of like when you were a kid playing tag. Eventually, the bear will lose interest.

If there are two black bears, I would probably go against rule of thumb and climb as high as I possibly could in a tree. At some point the bear will be too big to climb any further, hopefully. Anyway, as we were in the middle of this conversation, a “crack” rang out right next to us. It startled her and she grabbed my arm. It was a small forest creature, not Todd, the neighborhood black bear.

We continued to walk further and there was a big shadowy figure that, from far away, looked like a bear. Mama Nomad stopped me again. After a few seconds, she realized it was just a big cantankerous woman who was bent over gardening wearing really dark clothing. In my opinion, she was as big as a large cub. Easy mistake to make when it is dusk.

We went on about our way seeing more deer, squirrels, neighborhood dogs and chipmunks. We were about 100 yards from our house and I stopped dead in my tracks and grabbed Mama Nomad. She knew to stop and asked me what was going on. I told her to look down the road. You guessed it. Frickin Todd!

He was about 4 foot tall at the shoulders and looked to me to be between 400 and 500 pounds. What do you think he was doing? Sniffing and checking out trash cans! Grrr! I was split between being angry when he destroyed our trash the first and second time and wanting to keep Mama Nomad safe. the latter won out and I didn’t go off like an idiot yelling at a black bear for making me pick up trash…twice!

He was about 40 to 50 feet away from us. We kept our eye on him. He went from one trash can to another. We advanced as he advanced. Then he turned a sharp 90 degrees and crossed the road. He entered the yard of a guy with a wooden bear carving wearing sunglasses and holding a fishing pole. Maybe Todd was dropping by to say hello.

The guy who owned the place was on his deck with his dog. He was fairly unphased by Todd. Maybe he and Todd had an understanding. Who knows. As Todd walked through the guy’s yard further Mama Nomad and I continued to advance towards our house. With each step Todd took away we made one step past where he made his 90 degree turn.

Eventually Todd was out of sight. Some other neighbors came out to talk to us about it. At this point I was no longer in a heighten state of caution. Why? I knew Mama Nomad and I could outrun them. Hahaha! Just kidding. Todd meandered on his way and was far enough away that we could all easily reach a home door. We had not seen one single bear on our journey thus far. Now we saw two in one week. Our quota for bear sightings is full now! So long Frickin Todd. Safe Travels.