Late Fall
Training season is now over, we feel comfortable crossing the roads again. After leaving Tom’s, I wanted to go and visit everyone. James and Lucy are the closest. So, I head on through the woods towards their den. The white oak acorns are so thick that I gorged myself as I go. It’s very important this time of year to put on at least 4 inches or more of fat, to get us through hibernation this winter. Under some trees the acorns are literally on top of each other, so it doesn’t take long to get a full belly. I then continue towards Lucy’s and James.
At lucy’s the den it is empty, I was just thinking of laying down, when what a surprise I had, Tom and Sue showed up. I said “thought y’all love birds would be shacked up for a while.” Tom said, “I wanted Sue to meet everyone so, we decided to come to visit everyone with you, shortly after you left.” I tell them Lucy and James are not here. I figured they were out gorging on acorns also. We decided to just hang out until they show up. I tell Sue that my other blood brother James and my sister Lucy live here. She said, “this was a nice den, its larger than the one Tom and myself have. It wasn’t long until James and lucy shows up, with 2 baskets full of fish. I introduced Sue to James and Lucy. James said they had gone out and gorged on acorns this morning, and then decided to start filling freezer, with high protein fish. Sue was surprised to see so many fish. I tell her that when we just want to fun fishing, we use a fishing rod and reel like humans do. Sue said yeah, I’ve seen this before but never from a bear. I wanted to spend a little time with Lucy, since it’s been almost a month since we saw each other. Tom and Sue go down to the stream with a couple of poles to relax, Tom is going to teach her how to fish with a fishing pole. James, Lucy, and myself set around and talked about this past year, and how different everything was. We talked about all the new couples and dens. Lucy asked if I had any luck finding a sow. I tell them of how Sue was being chased by the hounds and we saved her from that. I then tell of how I was happy I was, just having Tom in my life, and giving me a purpose so, I tell how I tried several ways to get them hook up together, before I was able to trick them into bed together. Lucy just laughed and then it turned to concern. I know how much you losing Luna has hurt you, are you sure you are ok with this. I assured them it’s what I wanted. Tom was just sitting there and wanting to die. I couldn’t let this happen. He is very happy now and I’m happy also. I now have a huge support system and I’m happy. I’ll spend my winter with Oliver and Sophia. They will have more cubs come late winter and I can be among the first to see our brothers and sisters.
It wasn’t long until Tom and sue came back up to the den, and Sue had caught a nice 18-inch native trout and they had several smaller ones. She said “this was so much fun” Sue said. I tell them we will try to sneak into farmer Brown’s pond, and she could catch some big rainbow trout. She said that would be so much fun, then I tell her we must keep a close eye out, for farmer Brown, he would shoot us with bird shot, or if close enough he would kill us. He has threatened to kill me, if I made one more step towards him. She then begins to say well I thought that would be fun.
We were all exhausted and had a full belly, so we turned in for the night. The next morning, I was awoken to a smell I wasn’t familiar with, I could also smell bacon and eggs. I get up and ask what I’m smelling, Lucy says you know what that is its bacon and eggs. I said Well damn I know that, what’s that other delicious smell that I smell. She said welcome to some deliciousness’s, I’ve learned a human food, we will find scrap bread laying around but nothing like this. I learned how to make sourdough bread, its sooooo gooood. I like to drizzle a little honey on it at times, and its even better. I couldn’t wait to dig in. Lucy said mind your manners not until our company joins us.
Sue is now awake and smells the sourdough bread, and it brings back distant memories of her mom, she would make some mouthwatering sourdough bread. Anxious to get some sourdough bread, she awakens Tom. Tom states what is that, I have never smelled such a wonderful smell. Sue says it must be sourdough bread, my mom used to make the best. As Tom and Sue goes in, Sue tells Lucy it smells wonderful and asks, is she smelling sourdough bread. Lucy looked very surprised and said yes, how do you know this smell. Sue said her mom used to make it all the time, and it was delicious. Lucy says if you like what I made, I’ll give you a sourdough starter and the recipe I use. Sue was very happy with this; it’s been a while since she had any.
Everyone digs in on the bacon and eggs, and of course the sourdough bread. Sophia knew it would probably be a big hit; she made everyone their own loaf of bread. She had a small bowl of honey for each to drizzle on their bread. Everyone was stuffed after breakfast. They especially loved the sourdough bread. Everyone tried the bread plain and with the honey. Noone knew which they liked the best. They said it’s equally good both have their very own taste. Lucy said here’s your starter and recipe. Sue was so excited and tells Tom, she was going to fatting him up before hibernation time. Tom said if you don’t work all that fat off me, like you tried to do that 1st night. Sue then said are you complaining. He Smiled no Ma’am no complaints here.
Our next stop was to stop by Sophia and Olivers den. Tom said they would go with us. They wanted for Sue meet my mom and dad. They are amazing bears and Oliver is over 500 pounds. He makes everyone feel secure. When we get there Oliver was out hunting, Sophia said he said he probably be gone all day. Sue really liked Sophia, but we decided that we head on over to visit Samuel and Angel since Oliver was hunting. We tell Sophia they will be back when Oliver is home.
When we arrived, Angel was cleaning out the den, and said Samuel was down by the pond catching some rainbow trout. She said there were several poles there, and y’all could go on down and enjoy some fishing him. Sue said, she would love to, but I am scared that farmer Brown, would show up and kill us. I said, “Well we will have 4 pairs of eyes watching, and it will be so much fun.” She agreed and we all grab a pole a piece and off to the pond we go. Samuel was happy to see us and asked who we have here. I tell him it Sue that her and Tom were mates now, and have their own den across Stone Coal Gap Road. Samuel shows Sue all the fish he has caught he had 12 of them from 14 to 20 inches. She said wow that’s some big fish. Samuel said Well y’all get your poles and get some lines in the water. Sue was the first to catch a rainbow trout, it was the biggest of the day 22 inches. She said that was so much fun. We all catch several more fish and then Sue pole bends like a horseshoe. Wow I’m thinking that must be a huge trout. I’ve never seen a pole with that much bend. Then it jumps out of the water and the acrobatics begin. Its huge, I hope the line doesn’t break. She gets it in, and we are measuring it a whopping 33 and a half inches long and weighed over 15 pounds. About then we hear a loud boom, and Tom screams in pain. With all the excitement we had forgotten, to be watching out for farmer Brown. Tom had been shot in his ass with bird shot, we grab the poles and fish and ran back to Angel’s den.
Tom, when he was back at the den said that hurt badly, but not as bad as the slug he had taken earlier in his Life. Angel gets the tweezer and starts plucking out all the bird shot. Sue is there holding paws with Tom to comfort him. Once the picking of the bird shot out of Tom, she then places some Yarrow on it to stop all bleeding. Angel says she has lunch fixed and they had a feast.
Next stop is at Luna’s and Maverick, Luna was so happy seeing me, and ask who the girl was. I tell her this is Sue; she is now Toms mate. Maverick says how my blood brothers; I tell him I was doing great. Tom said he was great before getting shot at the pond. We all begin to tell Maverick and Luna, how Sue had come into our lives. How she was chased by the hounds and we saved her from being chased anymore. Luna then says Ben, you have always been such a good bear. I miss back when we hung out all the time, as best friends. I said yes, we were and still are great friends. Luna got out some herbs, to help with Tom being shot in the ass. She had learned how to stop bleeding, and infection from her Angel.
Luna said she will fix supper, and for them to spend the night. Sue tells Luna she would help, then said she had the sourdough starter and recipe that Lucy had given her. She said she would fix a loaf of sourdough bread for everyone then would divide the sourdough starter up, and they both have the recipe. Luna said what’s sourdough bread, she has never had any. I spoke up and said it’s a piece of heaven, it’s so good. Luna fixes some deer ribs and greens. The den is smelling so delicious now. After supper we were so full it didn’t take long until we were sound asleep.
The next morning, we had only one more stop to make before we headed back to Tom’s den. I wanted Sue to meet Ceasar, she knew of the marijuana we had gotten for Tom, when he was so depressed and she wants to thank him for saving the love of her life. Ceasar was happy meeting Sue and tells Tom how proud he was, that he was able to recover from the trauma in his life. Tom says he owes that all to him, without his marijuana he wouldn’t even be alive today. He then tells Ceasar, he was out of marijuana, and how much pain he was in from that damn farmer Brown. He asks for a possum bag and paid Ceasar for it. Ceasar said that farmer Brown wasn’t all that bad. Myself and Tom said, Well their ass says different. We thanked Ceasar for everything and then proceeded to head back to Tom’s den.
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Dale Thacker Aurthor 
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