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Living in a rural part of the Commonwealth of Virginia means I am bound to meet unexpected creatures. The last few weeks have featured a donkey and a Mama Bear and her twin cubs.
A LONESOME DONKEY
Country Living Tip: Even a donkey has to learn to love himself.
My neighbors have a cattle company. Sometimes we see big herds of cows roaming their pastures and sometimes not.
But there is a comical looking donkey who is almost always in evidence and is always totally alone in a big empty pasture. He paces up and down a long fence line hoping to join a herd of cows or a few cows, or even just one cow.
He seems desperately lonely.
When there happen to be cows in the pasture adjoining his, you can sense his happiness. If the cows lie down near his fence, he will lie down on his side too and he spends time “talking” to newcomers through the fence until they tire of him and go off to chew grass.
I want to stop and tell him it is o.k. to be alone and that he can learn to love himself and enjoy his own company.
I have even stopped to visit but he is elusive – too busy concentrating and wearing out a path along the fence line. Maybe he there to guard the herd. Or maybe he is too aggressive with the “girls” to share the same pasture but I wish he had some friends.
More on Guard Donkeys From Agri-Facts: Many donkeys dislike and are aggressive towards dogs, coyotes and foxes and provide indirect protection for domestic animals. Donkeys have exceptional hearing, keen noses and excellent vision. They use these senses to detect intruders and bray, bare their teeth, chase, and attempt to kick and bite dogs and coyotes. Some donkeys will also chase deer, bears, strange livestock, humans and other intruders in a similar fashion.
MAMA BEAR AND HER CUBS
“SOMEONE HAS BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED!”
Country Living Tip: Keep aromatic refuse under cover and inside your house!
The Three Bears Story
Illustration by Arthur Rackham
Wikipedia
The mother bear and her twin cubs who delighted us with their presence last week, have not visibly returned. But we noticed they broke down part of our pasture fence. I was surprised that bears can climb through a board fence just like humans do, but they evidently feel no pain as they encounter obstacles.
I hope Mama and her cubs don’t plan to check out the interior of our house though! If they do, Plan #1 is to barricade myself in the bathroom with the cell phone permanently set to dial 911. Can anyone help with ideas for Plan #2?
A True Local Bear Story and more advice: “If you think you have seen a bear, you have.”
Friends of ours had fish for dinner one night and made the mistake of leaving the remains outside in the garbage. A passing bear thought he smelled something nourishing. He tipped over the garbage can and hit the jackpot.
“Surely there is more fish where that came from!” he thought.
And our friends were stranded inside all night, with the bear banging on walls and trying to break in. Talk about sleep deprivation!
Daylight brought the animal control people out to their house to set up a bear sized “Have a Heart” trap with a whole canned ham for bait. But the bear had given up and left, so he missed all that yummy ham.
Maybe it was his wife and kids who passed by our place though. They reminded me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
From Wikipedia: The Story of the Three Bears is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language that was first recorded in narrative form by British author and poet Robert Southey and first published in a volume of his writings in 1827.
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