A Virginia family found themselves the unwitting host of a mama bear who burst into their home while defending her cub:
"Karla Irving was walking her dog, Rosie, around 9:45 p.m., and she apparently got between a mother bear and her cub, which was in her backyard.
"’The dog alerted me,’ Irving tells The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. ‘She began barking at something that was near a tree in my backyard. I looked up, and something was going up the tree. I thought it was a raccoon but it was way too black and way too large to be a raccoon.’
"Irving believes Rosie noticed the other bear on the opposite side of the fence before she did, because Rosie quickly started running toward the house and went in.
"’When she ran, I ran, too,’ she says. ‘About that time, the mother bear came over the fence, took about three steps and was pushing on the door, as I was trying to shut the door.’
"The bear brought the door down and followed Rosie all the way to the basement, while Karla Irving managed to sneak out to the back yard, shutting the door behind her and alerting the family."
Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but the bear will not be invited back for tea and crumpets anytime soon.
If she had been dutifully and left out the porridge, the situation who have been a lot less stressful once the bear entered the house.
What species of bear was this? Black bear, I assume? The photo looks like a grizzly, but they aren’t Virginia bears.
“What species of bear was this? Black bear, I assume? The photo looks like a grizzly, but they aren’t Virginia bears.”
All I know is that it wasn’t a grizzly because the story said that the bear weighed about two hundred pounds. A full-grown grizzly can weigh over a thousand pounds. I just used the word “grizzly” in the title because it worked with the allusion.
Our entire house was thrown into shrieking chaos by the presence of a rat. I can only imagine the effect of a bear.
I hope they had bear insurance. The damage looked pretty bad. What a great story for the grandkids, though!
It’s got to be a black bear. We do not have the grizzly in Virginia.
Big Bear Photos Circulating
My dad forwarded me the following pictures and story:
These pictures are of a guy who works for the US Forest Service in Alaska and his trophy bear. He was out deer hunting last week when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. Th…