Wild tales of bears and boar

Marvin Katz has his own tales of bears and wild boar to follow up on BJ Alums articles on 6 raccoons under the Olesky roof and an alligator in retired printer Dick Latshaw's garage.

Let Marv tell it:

John,

You said you wanted to know about wild animals where us ex-BJers live. We had our own personal experience with bears (several) weeks ago:

Joyce and I spotted what appeared to be four bears, probably a mother
and three cubs, in trees adjacent to our front yard about 9:30 in the
evening. The bears had removed two bird feeders after bending the
shepherd's crooks holding the feeders. I'd forgotten to take in the
feeders before we left for dinner.

When I went into the yard to get the feeders, I heard hissing and
thrashing sounds from the trees on the right side of our lot near the
road. I immediately retreated to the garage and closed the door. There
was more hissing and thrashing when I walked out on the front porch.

As Joyce and I watched from our bedroom window, we were able to make out
three forms come down one tree trunk and a fourth come down a second
tree. All headed into the woods. Apparently the bears had been working
over the feeders and retreated to the trees when our car approached the
house.

I'm not putting out our bird feeders for a while. Some of us have seen bears around here in the daytime, too. They'll generally stay away from people, but don't get
between a mother and her cubs.

Here are some recent photos of (wild)life here in Western North Carolina that I thought y'all might enjoy. One is of a bear that Carol and Dan Mickewich, our across-the-street neighbors, observed bathing in the fountain behind their house while they were having lunch one day last week. Another is of a wild boar that was foraging last week in Hidden Hills, the development you drive through to get to ours. Finally, there's a shot from the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times of a bear exploring downtown Asheville (last week).

In addition, here's a link to the AC-T's story about the city black bear, which includes a link to a 3-minute video:

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100527/NEWS/305270029

Enjoy,
Marv

Maybe the black bear wandering in downtown Asheville with a gash in its leg was looking for a room at the 255-room Biltmore, the Vanderbilt mansion.

Marv retired in 1998 after 40 years of journalism, public relations, freelance writing and PR consulting. Three years later, Marv and wife Joyce moved from Rockville, Md., to a mountainside home five miles "due north" of downtown Hendersonville, N.C., which is 22 miles from Asheville.

Marv and Joyce have two daughters -- Kent State grad Lisa whose battle with cancer has been chronicled on the BJ Alums blog and who is married to Major Thomas Pagel; and Susie, a family-practice physician in Portland, Oregon, who is the mother of two Katz grandchildren.

Well, we've had bears, boar, alligator and raccoons. If you have a wild animal story, email it (with photos, if possible) to John Olesky at

jo4wvu@sbcglobal.net

Click on the headline to see Marv's bears and boar.