I awoke at 5am to this mama black bear and her two cubs IN MY KITCHEN.
It is almost 10pm. In that time, these bears scrambled to nearby trees, swam in my pond, then shortly thereafter broke into another home (that one unoccupied) and trashed the kitchen. They spent the day wandering in the vicinity. Fish and Game officials tried using a paintball gun to move them toward the forest. They collected bear DNA from my house. They will build a case on this mama, should she continue to destroy or worse, attack someone. Otherwise, she will be left to raise her cubs.
We live in the forest. In California, Black Bears (which come in black, brown, and cinnamon) are protected. Which means, you cannot shoot them unless they are in your home or outside your home and attacking you or a pet. I don’t own guns. Thankfully my shriek this morning scared them into fleeing the back door through which they had come in.
Tonight as I try to go to sleep, I have installed temporary electric fencing across my back deck, door and windows. I am told there is an 80-90-% chance she will make another attempt. My brother-in-law is sleeping on the couch with bear spray and an air horn next to him. We have motion detectors and outdoor lights on and music blasting to try to discourage another try. And even if they are unsuccessful, they will likely spend the next six months in a quiet spot just 100 yards off my deck, in the forest.
This is their home.
Our Home
you sit
stare steel eyes
mama nose lifts sniff danger
signaling
teddy-round ears
so cute
enormous head I regain
my senses –
fear
respect
gorgeous
your cinnamon-spring coat
I have babies here
their tree
quiet forest spot
we will stay
Go! Scram!
plead scream
ladle-to-pot- CLANGGG! CLANGGG!
you
barely blink
we will stay
you lumber toward me slow
sprawl across broken log
swarm of flies, mosquitos
circle
one swipe
four-inch claw shreds dead
how many grubs abate hunger?
Please! Go!
This is our home!
toss, turn
bearly dawn rising
sweatshirt chill
I pad to hall
black fur blur brown mound rush
SHRIEK! SCRAMBLE! SLAM!
blaringairhornTHIS IS MY HOME!
scurry scramble scratch
like cats
cling to tree
you turn
glare stare
stand off
THIS IS OUR HOME
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
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Patricia Franz is a kidlit writer and published poet. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Your spacing is magnificent!
Thank you, Joyce. I wrote this 24 hours ago and am just now coming off the adrenaline rush. I was trying to capture the moments that led up to the accidental confrontation. The spacing felt necessary – like invisible words.
Oh my, Patricia! How scary! I feel the fear and desperation in your poem. Stay safe, my friend.
Safety is the priority. As much as I love these creatures, I am definitely stripped to the barest instincts to stay out of their way.
Oh my goodness! What a moment! As much as I love nature and wildlife, there are time when I too have felt unsafe. I’m glad your shriek sent them packing…did they eat anything in your kitchen? Just wondering if they found a pack of oreos or something that would surely become lodged in the pleasure center of the brain and send them back for more…. thank you for sharing, and I’m glad you and the bears are all okay. xo
Peanut butter. White chocolate chips. Trail mix.
I think I caught them early! We had a bear break-in 15 years ago and it was our kitchen that was destroyed. And they ate everything, including coffee grounds!
What a story,Pat. Such drama you captured in your poem, conflicting desires. So evocative. I was in Tahoe Last year and heard tales of break-ins. It is challenging I’m sure, living with these large furry creatures.
I truly try to remember: they were here before me.
WOW! What an experience! I do love bears (both teddies and the real kind), but would NOT want one in my kitchen. What a delicate balance to learn to live in harmony with wildlife. Your poem is dramatic and compelling, conveying so well your emotions of this encounter. Hope there are no more break-ins.
Crossing fingers this evening. My turn on the couch tonight!
Oh, my WORD, Patricia! This is freaky. While I understand these bears must be protected, they cannot be breaking, entering and trashing. Tsk, not acceptable, mama bear. May I ask how she breaks in?
Stay safe!
Most break ins occur through sliding glass doors. Mine was an unlocked patio door with an easy “universal handle.” I’ve had break ins when the doors and windows were locked and they break the glass. Sadly the bears in this area have learned that food is found in these silver boxes inside homes.
Oh, my, I am first glad you are okay. While we had a cabin in the mountains, we were most on the alert for mountain lions, never saw a bear near. (They probably saw us!) In town, we had raccoons chase our cat a few times but he managed to get back inside. Your poem certainly shows the fits and starts that happened, sometimes calm, admiring even, then the shriek. I hope they find another place in the forest just for them!
I doubt I would live through a mountain lion encounter. I’m certain my heart would just stop.
Oh, my! Patricia this is a scary post! You did a fabulous job conveying your appreciation of the bear’s beauty and her motherly stance in contrast with your palpable fear of finding them in your home. I hope they return to the forest and remain there – in their home. Take care.
Scary post, scary experience.
She is still hanging out in the yard.
Hoping as the weather warms soon, she will choose to move to higher, cooler ground.
Your poem makes an unimaginable event so heart-poundingly real, and gives us so much to think about with the back and forth of this is my home… this is their home… this is our home.
I hope you will be safe.
Thank you, Diane. I hope so, too!
You have crafted a wonderful poem out of this crazy and literally wild situation. Oh, my. Goldilocks in real time!
Gosh – hadn’t even thought of Goldilocks! You’re right!
Oh my goodness!!! This is so wild! Collecting her DNA to make a case! Wowzers! Your poem is amazing and full of the frenzy I imagine you must have felt. I love the “cinnamon-spring coat.”
Frenzy and fear
Yes, this is how they think! “you / barely blink / we will stay” Well said!
Yes, up close these are not cute, only wild
Amazing story poem with such drama! I think your two-voice poem is wonderful. There is alliteration and spacing that move readers cautiously through the poem. There is even drama. Thanks for sharing your experience poetically..
It felt like stop-action. This, of course, is retrospective.
Oh dear, Patricia, how frightening and exciting at the same time. I’m so glad you are okay. You were courageous! Since Mama broke into another house and your house, I wonder if she tries all the houses to see which ones she can easily get into or have the best smells. I love the alternating voices, the spacing for dramatic effect, the alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, and repetition; I love the whole poem! You also do a great job of conveying your respect for the bears, too. You hooked me in your first sentence, and you kept up the suspense. I especially like how in the beginning Mama, or you sat and stared, and how you circled back to the ending “you turn
glare stare
standoff (and how you use upper case letters in your repetition of…)
THIS IS OUR HOME” I also love your active verbs “scurry, scratch (at the beginning of the stanza) and your simile “like cats.
I think you could turn your adventure into a picture book, a memoir book, or send your poem to a journal as it is. Perhaps, there is an outdoor magazine in your area in CA that like NF outdoor adventures. It is so captivating.
I wondered how Mama came in. I have read before that bears can open certain doors. Mama probably woke up to hungry cries, and realized she had to find food for three. Luckly, all the times I have hiked in the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains in NY, and the Green Mountains in VT, I haven’t seen a black bear, but I have seen signs. I know they’re there. It seems like in NY, campers have more issues with bears. I have also read before that western black bears are more aggressive than the eastern bears. Either way, I would not want to meet up with a Mama bear and two hungry cubs. I hope the officials decide she’s done enough damage to be relocated with her cubs. They call a wild animal getting used to humans’ food and living areas habitation, which makes the animal even more dangerous. Stay safe and thank you for sharing.
Sadly, the bears in the Tahoe basin have become desensitized to humans. They’ve learned that houses hold food. So even though this mama is still nursing her cubs, she is also teaching them where to find food and how to do it. They watch for quiet, accessible houses. They know how to open doors; they know to look thru windows; they know “stainless steel boxes” (aka refrigerators) are prime targets; they will break glass or push doors off door jambs. All of these have happened to me (though prior to this incidence, it had been close to 15 years since the last break in– and I was never in the house). Couple this with CA’s irrational animal protection laws — citizens have faced fines, prison sentences for shooting bears — black bears have no predator here. So we are left with rather limited options to do what we can to protect ourselves and our property in order to stay safe. There are so many of these types of bear occurrences that it is rare for a bear (especially a nursing mama) to be trapped and relocated. Yosemite moves their bears to Tahoe; Tahoe moves their bears to Yosemite. Nothing changes. I do have a deep appreciation for the reality that we live in their forest. My fence is not a boundary in their mind; more a rock they must navigate in their search for food and shelter. Still, I hope NEVER AGAIN to come that close to a 350lb wild animal – inside or outside my house.
Oh dear, Patricia. I hope you are never that close to a bear again, either. I hope she doesn’t come back in.
What a terrifying experience! Finding a bear in my kitchen would send me over the edge, I think! I love how you’ve captured the delicate balance of sharing the world with bears and other creatures. And your final line is exactly right: “THIS IS OUR HOME!”
What’s funny is, in a condo I lived in for four years in AZ, a neighbor had an influx of cockroaches one year. I told my husband then: the first cockroach I see, the for sale sign goes up. And here I am, navigating how to avoid a 350lb wild animal… Go figure!
Oh, Pat, what a collage of emotions from terror to admiration! I love the question “how many grubs abate hunger?” such an interesting thought. I hope that you and the bears find a peaceful coexistence.
So glad you connected here, Tracey! Thanks for the comments. We are still working things out –mama and cubs have not yet found another spot they like better than our property 🙁
Oh. My. Gosh. Patricia! Wow. My heart was pounding as I read this — I can only imagine how you felt and still feel. The resulting poem is amazing. The spacing is powerful, a way to capture all the breathless emotion and urgency. Stay safe, friend!
thank you, Karen…Yes, still sort of existing on a hyper-adrenaline mode. Mama and cubs showed up today, after giving us a bit of a reprieve over the weekend.