Thunder trees a bear, gets us both nearly killed—here’s Thunder’s
version of the story:
I had killed critters of a range of size and species. I had killed big
marmots before, but this one stood tenfold bigger than the largest
among my kills—a challenge that I too readily accepted.
I smelled it before I saw it. The mules too became restless. I went
snooping along the edge of the campground and came upon a
lumbering mass of brown wiry fur, like an overgrown marmot with
claws like hay hooks, curiously picking its way along the perimeter of
the campground of which I stood guard. This infraction would not
stand, and as the perimeter was both my own creation and in my
charge (marked amply by my pee spots), it was up to me to see that
all things, man and beast alike, respect it and rst answer to me
before crossing. I took off after the mammoth hulk of hair, baying
skyward with all my might and indignation, headlong toward the
predator, a show of un inching courage that stopped the bear in its
tracks and sent it careening backward to the refuge of a tree.
I treed that bear but I needed to alarm the encampment further so I
continued to bark and bay until Dev came over. Emboldened further
by the presence of my friend, I moved closer, barking, as Dev yelled at
me to stop and get away. But I know better than him—after all, I have
seen a lot in my humble 70 dog years of life, and he, at a mere and
sophomoric 30, was surely just mistaken, for I had challenged and
killed large critters before, and I was certain this one would succumb
in much the same way.
fi
fi
fl
Suddenly the bear turned around in the tree and ran down straight at
me, reaching the ground and swiping within inches of me, lunging at
me with those giant vice-like jaws, its mouth a primordial machine
capable of such imponderable force as to know no clemency—a
weapon forged over millennia of evolution, so ef cient in its purpose of
killing and maiming and masticating as to predate even man and all
his ancestors. The bear charged but at the same time Dev came
sprinting forward at the bear shouting like some demonic lunatic drunk
on fear and wild with menace and madness. The bear turned toward
Dev as I loped around back of it, and for a moment it seemed the bear
might charge but Dev was so slathered in his unholy malice, so
reeking of adrenaline and fear and charging with unfathomable
disregard for his own safety as he had just nearly watched me killed,
that the bear must have sensed in him the tumultuous trappings of a
madman who sought but one end and that being his best friend’s
safety, and in these calculations the bear thought it better to ee again
up the tree. He returned to his tree and Dev came and grabbed me,
shaking in terror at the near loss of his best friend, and we left the
bear to his own devices.
So was yesterday, a common day among others, turned raucous and
eventful—Thunder trees a bear, the bear attacks, Dev charges a
grown-ass bear with reckless abandon in the hysteria of watching me
nearly killed, and luckily the bear retreats again up the tree. And that is
how a normal day like any other almost killed us both. All cuz I thought
a bear was just a giant marmot.
fl
fl
a show of un inching courage that stopped the bear in its tracks for
moment before it turned tail and ran careening to the hopeful refuge of
a tree. Tree within grasp, the bear leapt, curling its claws into the
cedar and attempting a retreat. But all is fair in love and war, and
mercy was not on my horizon. Full of sprint and fury, I leapt, extending
through the air with