When my daughter was about eight, she wanted a pet... preferably, a dog. But no way. Dogs can be a lot of work and I knew who would get stuck with it. I bought her a beta fish. Actually I recommend this as a starting point for any little kid, because you know what's going to happen to the fish, right? It's an easy first dealing with the concept of death. Much easier than a relative, for instance.
Thing is, with a fish, it's inevitably not long between first pet and first experience with death, then the kid wants another pet, only not a fish. And from my point of view, nope.. no snake; sorry, no monkey; nope, no lizard either. *sigh* (A dog is starting to look good.) But nope, no dog. A cat. Yep. Now, dog-lovers always complain that cats are independent as if this is a bad thing. But to me, not. You show a kitten where the litter box is and they're trained. You play with them to use up their kitten energy and they don't climb the curtains. And then they're cats. They can take care of themselves, thanks. They're affectionate, but they aren't really needy and don't overdo the lovey-dovey stuff. This works for me.
I have a brother who insists, "you can't trust a cat!" even though he's never really known one. But then, he fancies himself a big expert on a lot of things he knows nothing about. And he's something of a control freak who likes to be the "master" of his dog. I'm just not sure how this works when it isn't the dog who carries around plastic bags to pick up his poop.
Anyway, we wound up with two cats, but since the kid wouldn't let the dog thing go, we eventually wound up with one of those too. *sigh* Fast forward to yesterday. We saw a bear. Hubby and I were sitting at the table and suddenly he pointed out the window and said, "there's a bear." I thought he was kidding, but I looked. (I always look.) And sure enough, there was a big, black bear ambling up the road across from our house. We got up from the table, our daughter came out of her room and we all went to the door. Hubby went out onto the deck because the neighbours across the road were outside and he wasn't sure they'd seen the bear, but they had. Louise was already on the phone reporting the bear... to someone.
My cats were outside, so I called to them, quietly. The dog had started barking his ass off in the doorway though, so my volume was neither here nor there. The bear looked up. He started trotting, I called the cats again, the dog kept barking, the bear started running ~ across the next door neighbours' front yard and into the bush. One cat had seen the bear and came running in, her hackles raised and her tail three times its normal size. The other cat was still sitting at the end of the wood pile, looking at me as if to say, "what's all the fuss?" Silly cat. Hubby nabbed her a brought her in.
After a bit, Louise went walking up the road, phone in hand. The little blonde girl from up the road was with her. Louise was plainly walking the girl home to make sure she got there safely. We watched Louise walk back on her own. Hubby was impressed with her bravery, but if I had to bet on Louise or the bear, I'd put my money on Louise. Oh, she's a nice lady and a good neighbour, but you don't wanna mess with Louise. Not even if you're a bear.
Pictures: Barky dog. And silly cat, restful moment. Sorry, no pic of bear. Man and kid were reaching for cameras, but I was calling, dog was barking, bears move with deceptive speed.
