Our Neighbors
After our little snooze, we now have a little fuller feeling belly, after we devoured all the fish yesterday. Oliver and Sophia have been talking, prior to Lucy and myself waking up this morning. They want to go over to the closet bear den to us, to see if they are awake yet. Today seems a little warmer, we are walking through the snow, it doesn’t have as hard of a crust as it did yesterday. I’m breaking through the crust on most of my steps. All the trees are bare, in this white oak forest, you can see several hundred yards. The trees have a gentle sway to them, the sky is a pale blue. I’m watching all the wildlife as I walking there are many squirrels, which are hard for us to catch, they are so fast, they run up the trees, before we can get close. We also saw a red fox, along this mile and half trip. There are several deer, a couple very large bodied deer, but no antlers. Oliver says that this time of year, the bucks have lost their antlers, and those two large body deer were probably bucks. We then see a turkey only fifty feet from us. Sophia says y’all stay here, I’m going try to stalk over and harvest this turkey, to give to our neighbors. I remember Oliver and Sophia telling me, That George the dad of the family of bears we are visiting, was killed last bear season. So, Sophia really wants to take Angel the mother bear, Luna her daughter and James her son, a little meal to eat. Sopia sneaks right up on that 25-pound tom turkey, 1 smack of her paw to the head, the tom turkey was dead.
We are getting close to the other den and Sophia, was so happy to see that Angel, was awake from her hibernation. We all walked over to her and Sophia says I got y’all a fresh meal. She said they been awake for 2 days now, and havn’t been able to get any meals yet. She was so happy to get this turkey. Sophia says that Luna and James left early this Morning, looking for some food, they haven’t returned yet. Angel points at the track they left, Lucy and myself couldn’t wait to go to find them. Oliver and Sophia stayed with Angel. Oliver said he will dress the turkey [gut and remove all the feathers] for Angel. Sophia and Angel are talking and Angel is very sad. She says that she misses George now more than ever. She explained that it was hard for her to go out and hunt, due to being so sad and depressed. Sophia said that her family, will help her out for as long as she needed them.
Lucy and myself have caught up with James and Luna, they both are feeling very sad. They said they miss their dad [George] so much, they just wanted to get away from the den a little, to clear their minds. We decided to play some bear games. We played rough and tumble. This game is where they draw a large circle on the ground with a stick, and everyone starts inside the circle, where the wrestling match begins. The object is to try to get the others to the outside of the circle. The last one left inside the circle is the winner. We all are the same age and evenly matched. The 2 girls begin wrestling and us 2 boys are wrestling. Lucy is the first to be pushed out, then myself was next. So, James and Luna are now wrestling, James is pushing hard and Luna is almost out of the circle. Luna outsmarts her brother, she falls to the ground and the force, of James pushing so hard, when she fell to the ground, pushes James outside of the circle. Luna had a big smile, having won the game; James was also smiling by having the game, to help take his father off his mind.
James then said, you know we need some food, that turkey we do appreciate, but for the 3 of them is more like an appetizer. The next holler over from us is named possum holler, due to it always an abundance of possums. I get a big grin on my face, I’m so good at catching possums. It’s like shooting fish from a barrel. Just scare them a little, they roll over and play dead. All of us went to different areas in the holler, we all caught 2 apiece. We take the 8 possums back to Angel, and she gets a big smile on her face.
I ask Sophie where Oliver was at, she said he had gone out big game hunting, he hoping to come back with a deer. We were all sitting around and dressing the possums, getting them ready to cook. They are almost as good as a cup of porridge. As we are finishing up the dressing of the possums, her comes Oliver and he has a big body deer but no antlers. But you can see the circles, where it was a buck that had dropped his antlers. He says smiling to all us cubs that he also had gotten a doe, its over in the next holler. He told us all to follow his tracks, that we would find the doe. He said it was our job to get the doe back to the den. Last year Oliver didn’t give us responsibility like this. I guess we are growing up a little and have more responsibilities now.
As we headed down to get the doe, we all was rough housing with each other, and for at least a moment in time, James and Luna are happy and not feeling down, about the loss of their dad. We get down to where the doe is at, it a mid-sized doe and two of us at a time, grab the doe with our mouths and start dragging her back to the den. This is the first time any of us, had drug any type of large game. It was exhausting but was fun also. When we get back to the den Oliver says, ok boys and girls y’all did a great job, getting the doe back to the den. The work isn’t done yet, we will cook and have this doe for super. Sophia, Angel, Lucy, and Luna will cook the meal. Oliver says I’ll watch you Ben and James, dress the deer, to get it ready to be cooked. All us young cubs felt proud, that the adults were letting us have so much responsibility. After the meal Oliver said, I guess it’s time to head back to our den. Angel insisted that we stayed the night, she said they have a large den and plenty of room for all.
We stayed up late, all the young cubs sat around and played cards and board games. We all was laughing and having the best time. The adults set and talked, Angel said this has been the best day their family has had, since losing George. Angel shed some happy tears, as she was seeing all the cubs sit around the fireplace and laughing and just having the best of time. Sophia was wondering how long this happiness would last once they leave?
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Dale Thacker Aurthor 
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