Life in the Woods

This might provide some helpful info for those of you who like to camp!!

For years my family and I lived in the woods outside of Moscow, Idaho in a sparsely populated area. Although we had neighbors, it felt as if we lived alone in the woods. All of the homes in the area were built in the thick of the trees. It was not uncommon to find deer on the front lawn, and at least once a year we would have moose cross our property.

On one occasion, we drove home to find a bear in the garden. I don’t think I was as startled at that as by my wife’s reaction. She is 5’3”, very slim, athletic and normally careful not to put herself in harm’s way. But not that day! She jumped out of the vehicle and started waving her arms back and forth, jumping and screaming the whole time. The bear not knowing what was going on decided to walk away. I was in shock!
 
While living in the woods we had a dog, a German shepherd named “Lady”. She was of good size and had a smart way about her. She was never tricked by the coyotes when they would try and lure her out to surround her. Lady only attacked two porcupines in 10 years in the woods and was fantastic as a guard dog.

I got quite an education about bears and my dog late one afternoon as the sun was going down.  We were sitting outside on our wooden swing enjoying the evening with the children and our dog when Lady took a stance, looking into the distance much as a Pointer would do. She would not always bark but we knew something wasn’t right when she would get this stance. Then we all heard a noise like a baby crying. It was a sound so out of place it made us a little nervous.

Since we did get all types of animals around our house, we decided not to take any chances and we told the children to get in the house. Just as I was getting to the front door and going to call Lady, she took off down into the draw.

This late in the day we couldn’t see very far through the timber and brush, so trying to find her without going down the draw myself was nearly impossible. I went to the edge of the deck to listen for any noise I could hear. I stood there for a few minutes just hearing some rustling of leaves and breaking of sticks, then I heard Lady begin to bark adamantly, quickly followed by her yelp!! I whistled immediately for Lady to return. I really didn’t expect her to return as I thought she would fight whatever it was that attacked her. To my amazement and delight she showed up a minute or so later. I looked her over and the only thing I saw were two holes on either side of her nose.

That evening I talked to an in-law who informed me that what we had heard was a bear in heat and that normally, on hearing and seeing the dog, she would have left, but not when looking for a mate. The two holes were caused by claws on one of the paws (lucky dog). So if you hear a baby crying in the woods, don’t grab the diapers and go running to help!

Matthew Yaezenko
NRS Customer Service