Bears in the Early Morning

Frankly, the first worry was bears. Humans have an uneasy relationship with the Ursa species on the north shore of Vancouver. They like us. They really like us. We thought we were immune because of our proximity to a major thoroughfare until a year ago when S heard a snuffling sound on the back lawn and we watched as a lone, large dark figure rolled on the lawn in ecstasy with our large, squirrel-proof bird feeder. The signs all over the neighborhood this summer didn't help, not just printed signs either. That pile they call scat (sp?) with all those berry seeds mixed in for texture. The broken fences. Then there was the friend we met on the way out of Safeway one morning on our second 5:45 walk who remarked that a bear had visited in the night and had made a sorry mess of the neighbors garbage all over his lawn. Generally, the kindest, gentlest man we know, he was beside himself with fear and rage. Oh, and he lives just beside the most isolated spot on our walk – just by the Hydro wires. Bears have that effect on us. Even having grown up in Alberta, I have never feared bears until I came here. Now they are our terrorists. They saunter down streets and strike fear in the hearts of the most sanguine. So as the darkness gets longer and the sunrise later, we wonder if we will come nose to nose.