Once when I was camping I saw a bear. It was twilight and I was outside my tent and when I turned around, he was standing
right there. From nose to tail he was about eight feet long. For some reason I wasn't scared although it was kind of humbling
to be standing that close to something that could kill you. I don't believe, like some do, in all that wild animals are spirits
kind of stuff but, standing that close to a bear in the woods and looking right in his eyes (even though technically I couldn't
really see his eyes), I could tell why someone might believe it.
Anyway, the bear just kind of looked at me and lumbered off, which was good because from what I knew at the time, that's
what you're supposed to do with black bears, but my kids were asleep in the tent behind him and having them wake up would
have given this story a whole different ending.
I don't know why but the prospect of actually being mauled by a bear never entered my mind; for some reason it never
occurred to me to be afraid of an animal that under different circumstances could potentially be trained to ride a unicycle
and dress up like a circus clown. Plus, from everything I knew at the time, I don't believe that bears want to attack people
if they don't have to.
For some reason even now, I'm thinking that it would be better to be attacked by a bear than a wolf. I'm not sure why
that is, especially when bears could probably do a lot more damage with their claws and their teeth, while wolves just have
teeth. Maybe it's because it seems like a wolf would enjoy it more. I don't know why that matters.
Once I read a story about a mother wolf who was injured and started coming around this dude's house. And then once they
both got used to each other, the dude started taking care of her and eventually she led him to a hollow stump where her puppies
were, and then she died. It was supposed to be one of those Touched By An Angel inspirational stories, and was presented as
actually having happened even though I don't believe that that's true. I can still like the story and still be inspired by
it, but I just believe that, while wolves probably have a very strong maternal instinct to care for their young, and even
go to extraordinary lengths to do so, I also believe that they have a much stronger instinct to attack and kill people. I
know very little about wolves and how they behave and so I have nothing on which to base this opinion, other than cartoons
and vague impressions I may have gotten from Nature specials I may have watched one time while I was doing something else.
I think bears are kind of genetically like dogs, and I wonder if anyone has ever tried to create a bear-wolf. That would
be awesome, and even more badass than the liger. If science couldn't make the bear-wolf (which they probably would have done
by now, if they could), then someone should make a movie where a bear gets bitten by a werewolf and then becomes werebearwolf.
