The other afternoon I was walking to the field with Sophie when we stumbled on this little family. Sophie was quite intrigued.

‘That’s the biggest dog I have ever seen,” she exclaimed. I had to explain to her that this was a family of black bears or Ursus Americanus. Since momma was between her cubs and us, she did not seem unduly alarmed by our presence. This old momma bear has been around the neighborhood for many years and is very used to humans and their pets.

You can see her tracking collar. A neighbor who is really keen about bears told us that this old girl has been tracked traveling between Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina. That is a territory covering about 100 miles in length.

The two cubs pretty much ignored us as well, seeming content to just play in the grass at the base of this tree on Pine Croft Road. They glanced over at Sophie a time or two but seemed unconcerned.

Sophie and I stayed quiet, although Sophie’s ears were on high alert. Eventually momma bear ambled off down the road toward the creek. Her two cubs followed quickly along and did not even look back at us once.

Sophie and I continued down to the field where we had a rousing game of catch with her favorite ball. It was quite an adventure-filled day.

I hope you will take some time to check out some of my other “blog posts by clicking here!

And, if you do enjoy reading stories about bears, please consider checking out my short book of true bear encounters, Adirondack Bear Tales, on Amazon.com! It’s also getting really great reviews.