Dale Thacker Aurthor

Tag: fiction

  • Kill Season Ends

    Kill Season Ends

                After hearing the hounds running on top of the mountains, we have tried to be careful. We know that we down to less than 2 weeks, until the end of kill season. The weather has been warm and pretty. We can hear large equipment that’s been working on the road below us. I decided to walk toward that equipment, to see the progress. It’s a 2-mile hike, the road below the heavy equipment looks good. But from the where the equipment is, up to where our den is, is destroyed. I feel that unless a hunting group comes in from other side of the mountain, we are safe for the rest of the season.

                We all decided we were going to be hunting and fishing some since the cupboard is running low. We had such a good supply of food, prior to Sophia’s den being destroyed. We decide not to go higher than half way up the mountain, incase the hunters and hounds come in from the other side of the mountain.

                Lucy and Sophia are fishing in the deep holes and has much luck fishing. James said he will be hunting the mountain towards Sophia’s old den. Myself, I’m seeing deer as I chase the deer, but I am having to stop the chase, at half way up the mountain, I am having no luck at all. I’m just burning fat, rather than layering more fat on. I decided it was worth the chance, to continue the chase high on the mountain, and into the steep rocks. We need the added protein for the added fat. I see 3 yearlings, I begin to chase, as I am chasing them, they do as expected traps themselves in the steep rocks. I go in for the kill, I have killed one, and when getting ready to kill the second one, my worst fear, I hear hounds, they are close to me, and closing quickly. I don’t want to go towards the den, so I head towards Toms old den. These hounds are fast and they catch me. What can I do; fight or go up a tree. I know going up a tree is certain death. I stood my ground, I had my ass end protected, back in the notch of where a blown down tree, meets with the root ball. I had my ass right where the tree meets the root ball. There are only four dogs; can I fight them all off. I hope I can, the first dog makes a mistake, comes in close to me, with one powerful swipe, the dog goes flying in the air. I never knew my strength before now, the dog flew a good 30 feet and crashed to the ground. I believe I killed him he is not moving. The 3 dogs are now trying to figure out how to get to me, they are staying 10 feet away from me now. I believe they are scared now, to come any closer. I decided to charge them and hopefully I can kill one more, during that charge, I take off full charge, the dogs turn to try to run away, I was barely able to smack the last dog as hard I could. It to flew maybe 25 feet. It wasn’t moving either. I decided now is my chance to try to escape. As I ran, they are following me, as I’m  now passing Toms old den, they are 500 yards behind me. I’m getting tired, but I knew I couldn’t go up a tree, or I would be dead. I have concocted a plan; I need to continue all the way to the county that Tom lives in now. Then I can go up a tree and the dogs can have me treed. I can rest until the hunters get there, and they will have to pull their dogs off of me. Can I run all that distance. I must if I want to live. Sophia and Lucy need me. The dogs are also tired and not closing on me as fast, so, my pace doesn’t have to be as fast. I have now crossed the road, I go about 200 yards off of the road, and go up a tree. The dogs come in and is jumping up on the tree, trying to get to me, and are barking full cry. I know I will have to stay where I’m at, until the dogs are put on lead and pulled away from the tree. I will live until another day. The hunters came in, one hunter said to the other, it’s almost like he knew when he was safe. The other hunter said, he killed 2 of my dogs he must die. The first hunter speaks up, no we are ethical hunters, we not changing now. We know every time a dog is released, we taking a chance of a dog dying. Yes, you are right and pull the dogs off the tree. I was so scared I was going to die.

                I’m only a couple hours from Tom’s, I’m hungry and tired, so I’ll go see Tom and Sue, and stay until dark tomorrow night. They were so excited to see me, and they gave me great hospitality, and wanted me to stay, at least until the end of the season. I told them no, my home is with Sophia, Lucy, and James now, that Oliver is dead. The following night I’m fat and happy and have 8 strawberry rhubarb pies to take back to the den, 2 a piece or should I camp out at Toms old den, until they are gone, that would be a lot of deliciousness.

                I’m at the county line a hour after dark, and continue the trip back to our den. That’s when it hits me, I know everyone is probably thinking I am dead, no I’m not but 2 dogs are. I make the trip as fast as possible; I want to be in the den well before daybreak. Upon entering the den everyone is asleep. I put the pies in the refrigerator and go to bed myself, that I see everyone is safe, I turned in for the night.

                I had a very short night because as soon Lucy was awake, she was screaming, oh my god brother you are alive. We thought you were dead. They were amazed when I told the whole story, of how I survived. We decided not to go high on the mountain, until after last day of the season. I said I have a deer, I must go up and get. James said he had found it, and it’s in the freezer. We will hunt low if possible, and kill some game. Maybe some possums are our best bet now. Also, the stream is still full of native trout. This went well for the next week and it is now the last day of the season.

                On the last day of the season Lucy was up before anyone, and has made her way down to the stream, and has 2 baskets to filled with trout. As she was fishing, she hears dogs coming, they are coming straight up the road, straight at her. She knows she can’t go to the den, as though it put all our lives in danger. She doesn’t want to go high on the mountain, where other dogs may be. She runs low following the road and stream. I’m now awake, and I can hear 6 different dogs and they putting on the steam. I’m so afraid I will lose my sister today. She always wears her blaze orange ribbon, with the marijuana bud on it. I hope and pray this will protect her today. Myself and James, have no protection, so we just stayed near the den, and prayed for her. Sophia says she can go help; she has her protection with her. We said no, you also with young cubs and the cubs is Olivers cubs, I will not let you go. Lucy is Olivers daughter, she is smart and powerful.

                We hear the hunters walking up the road, and I hear a couple of familiar voices its Rob and Dale and 2 others. We hear them say, it’s the last day and hoping for a good day. I know they will honor the ribbon. I feel a lot better now. Rob says looks like the bear is staying low it will be easier walking, except this road sucks after the great flood.

                Lucy runs as fast she could but Robs hounds, has caught up with her, after a 3-mile chase. She then fights and kill one dog, but the other dogs close in on her, she had no option but to go up a tree. Lucy has never been treed before; she was scared to death. She sees her Blaze orange ribbon, and says I just hope this will protect me. She doesn’t know its Rob’s dogs. She has never actually met Rob.

                Rob is looking at his GPS unit, says they have treed, and we will kill us a bear today, if it is legal. He said they are treed low on the mountain, not far off the road. The young 18-year-old shooter was excited, he has only been hunting with Rob, this kill season. He wants to kill a bear, and have to have a bear skin rug made. Rob says well let’s get to it, we will have a long drag out due to this road.

                I could hear all this from the den but I have faith in Rob. He is a man true to his words. Sophia and James doesn’t feel as sure as I do, that no harm will come to Lucy. All we can do is sit there and wait, with some marijuana, to help keep us be a little calmer. It’s going to be a long last day of the season for us.

                Rob and his crew are now 200 yards from the tree, and see it’s a nice-sized bear. Rob said Well looks like it’s a shooter, he hasn’t seen the blaze orange ribbon yet. The 18-year-old is ecstatic, he going to have a chance to kill his first bear. They were now only 75 yards from the bear, when Rob says that is not a legal bear. The 18-year-old says, what you mean that bear is easily over 200 pounds. Rob says you are not wrong on that, but this must be Lucy. What you mean Lucy, well you remember I told you of the large bear that I killed, opening day of the season, his name was Oliver. He had a family, Benjiman was with me that night, and was so upset, I ended up giving him 3 Blaze orange ribbons with a marijuana bud’s on each one. He had one for himself, his sister Lucy and his mom Sophia. This bear is too small to be Sophia, so it must be Lucy. It’s not Ben due to this is a sow bear. The 18-year-old was very upset but said OK, since you made that promise I will honor that. They get up close to the tree, and the 18-year-old job is to get all the dogs tied up on leads. He gets 2 dogs tied up and is getting the 3rd one, that’s when Lucy takes a big shit, yes it went all over the 18-year-old. He reaches for his gun, and Rob yells NO. The 18-year-old has his gun pointing at Lucy, and is pulling the trigger, as Rob gets to him, and tackles him, the gun fired. Rob had gotten to him just in time, the bullet missed Lucy. Rob tells him you disregarded my direct order; you will never hunt with me again. He then reaches for his gun, making sure its unloaded, and then wrapped it around a tree. The 18-year-old was mad as hell. Wait until I tell my dad, you are in trouble Rob. Rob said you don’t have to tell him, that I will. I will tell you, you damn hot-headed punk, you lucky your dad wasn’t here, you would have probably been the tree, that your gun was wrapped around. I have hunted with your dad for 20 years; we have much respect for each other. You just showed me no respect. Now get rest of those dogs tied up, and let’s get the hell out of here.

                Ben and James, being outside of the den, heard the gunshot and is very depressed. They know that they just lost their sister and mate. When they go in the den, they were at a loss of words, they go over and roll a large cigar, and one for Sophia. Sophia knew without any words, that she had loss Lucy. I said, I can’t believe this; I knew Rob would be true to his words. I decided I don’t want my cigar, as I angerly go to the road, Sophia begged me not to. James seeing this, also head down to the road with myself. Sophia knows she must stay, due to her babies. She set there mourning Lucy, and know she will probably lose Ben and James also. When they confront the hunters, they will be dead.

                Back at the tree the 18-year-old has all the dogs tied up, the 1st half of trip to the truck, was complete silence, and then he apologized to Rob. Rob said, that’s words mean nothing, you must prove you are sorry. 1st thing I want to know from you is what you learned today. The 18-year-old said, that a man’s word means nothing if you break your word. I also learned bears do shit in the woods, and even on you. But getting shit on is nothing, compared to letting everyone down by going against your words, even if you were to get shit on. Rob said OK, I will accept your apology, next year you can hunt with us, but you will be on probation period for the entire season, before you can become a full fledge member of the hunt club. The 18-year-old agrees to these terms, you have my word that I will never go against your orders. I’m very sorry, I was not going against your words, until I got shit on, then I wasn’t true to myself mostly, and also to everyone else here with me today. You know shit happens and that’s when you find your real integrity as a man. You must work through what hand you are dealt, today has made me a better person.

                Lucy, being faster than humans made it back to the den, Sophia was so happy she was alive. Sophia was sad but chilled, she had smoked 4 large cigars. She then thinking about Ben and James, she tells Lucy she must get to the road, that they going to confront, Rob and the hunting party. She made it to them, had just finished telling them the story, before Rob appeared over the hill, headed towards them.

                The 18-year-old said he was so sorry, that he had disregarded Rob. He tells them he has learned his lesson, that even when a bear shits on you. You still have nothing, if you have lost respect of yourself, and of all your fellow friends, and hunters, if you end up doing something, that you said you would not do. Lucy kind of giggled a little and said, I did not mean to shit on you, but the dogs had scared the shit out of me, and I couldn’t hold it in any more.

                Back at the den everyone was happy they had made it safely though kill season. I tell Lucy I thought it was funny that she had shit on him. We have about a week or two left now, before we will go into hibernation. I was thinking to myself ok our den has 4 bears in it, when we go into hibernation. How many bear lives will it be, when we wake up in the spring?

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  • The Great Flood

    The Great Flood

                Well, looks like we will be shut in for a while, the only way to go through this snow is to tunnel through it. The good news is the storm has stopped, and it’s a beautiful sunny day. It’s morning time, and the temperature is already 40 degrees out. With days like this, maybe in a few days, we will be able to get out of our den again. We have plenty of food to eat, good protein of deer, possums several turkeys and possums, also a lot of native trout and a few rainbow trout. Plenty of greens with bacon to go in the greens, and porridge. Best of all we have a lot of flour, and sourdough starter to make sourdough bread. A plenty of honey from the 7 buckets of honey, we had collected, and berries for Sophia’s famous berry cobbler. Our den couldn’t be doing better, except we all still miss Oliver.

                Being couped up, we will have to play many board games, to keep energized, and not wanting to go into early hibernation. If we were to go into hibernation too early, we would have an extended hibernation, which means we would lose more fat, and be skinnier come spring. Food is no problem so we can continue to fatten ourselves, for several more weeks, prior to go into hibernation. Speaking of hibernation, I can’t wait until we come out of hibernation, to see my brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews bear cubs.

                We have now spent 4 days couped up inside and gouging ourselves putting on weight. I decided that I would venture outside. Over half of the snow has melted very quickly. I can hear the stream below it sounds like a huge river since the snow has melted so fast. I wanted to get out and venture a little, and walk down to the stream, oh I mean river. I have seen the stream flooded before but nothing like this.

                I wonder back to the den, and everyone is now awake and Sophia is fixing sourdough bread. She has already made porridge, fried turkey eggs and bacon. We have a feast, and everyone wanted to take a little bear nap. I woke up to a loud creaking sound, at first, I had no idea what I was hearing, then I saw a small stream of water and it is getting larger, coming from the back of the den. There was so much melting snow, that the water, it is breaking our den apart. I get everyone awake, and we all ran outside, just prior to the den being ripped apart. All our belongings, and food is being washed down the mountain, and into the raging river below.

                We are grateful for escaping with our lives. I grabbed the deer bag of marijuana, prior to escaping. We will need this now, while we try to relax, and figure out, what we could do. Everything is gone, I mean everything. Our whole lives washed away in a moment of time. We all roll us a cigar and are grateful of escaping the den, prior to it being ripped apart. As we are beginning to chill out. I think about Samuel and Angel, maybe we can share their den for a short period of time, until we can make it across the road, then we can use Lucy’s and James’s den, until next spring, then I can find a new den for Sophia and myself. Everyone is on board with this. But will Samuel and Angel, let us share their den?

                We decided on our way to Angel’s, we need to do a hunting expedition, to help pay our way, if they were to let us stay. There is only a foot of snow now, we probably won’t get any small game, but hopefully we can get some deer and turkeys. We see the biggest buck I have ever seen, the rack was thick and very wide over 24 inches wide and had 18 points best I could tell. I wanted to kill this deer, but I told Lucy it was hers to kill. She said she wouldn’t let me down. It will not be as easy as, the 5 deer I killed, in the heavy snow. Lucy stalks and gets below this huge buck, and then she sprints towards it. The deer did what she wanted it to do. It ran to the steepest part of the mountain, and into the rock bluffs. With a few swipes of her paw the deer was dead.

                We would get 2 more yearlings, and we ran into a flock of turkeys and harvested 6 turkeys. This should keep us in good graces with Angel, for a few days. We take all the game to Angel’s den; she was happy to see us. We didn’t see Samuel, I was were almost afraid to ask, but I did. Where is Samuel at, oh he went fishing down by the pond, said he was so bored, staying in their den all this time. We tell Angel about our den, and she immediately said y’all must stay with us, until you can get across the river and road to Lucy’s den. We also let her know about Oliver being killed. She was so sad for us, and gave all us a big bear hug.  She said looks like y’all brought some food, I said it is the least we could do, for the hospitality. Angel said that’s a hell of a buck you have there. I told her Lucy had killed it; the meat was theirs but for some odd reason that I don’t understand, Lucy wants the antlers to hang in her den. I have never been able to eat antlers, so I don’t understand why, she has a strange addiction to wanting them.

                Everyone decided to go to the pond, knowing with the weather, the likelihood that farmer Brown, would be out was very low. We grabbed the last 2 fishing poles, and all go to the pond. Samuel was happy to see us, and we let him know Angel had said we could stay, until we can get across the road to Lucy’s den. Samuel said yeah, this has been a crazy storm. He said we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted to. Samuel said with all us staying in the den, we needed to have a ton of fish. We love sitting here on the banks with fishing pole in hand. But let’s all get in the pond, and do fishing the old-fashioned bear way. Farmer Brown will restock in the spring. Let’s just catch every fish we can. The rich in protein will fatten us up well, and we will be ready for hibernation, here in a couple weeks. We were very happy getting in, and catching as many fish we could. We had to go back and get 10 more baskets. Oh, we going to be happy fat bears.

                We take all the fish back to the den, and we decided to give Angel the night off cooking. Sophia, Lucy, James and myself fried up 2 baskets full of rainbow trout, and made 50 pounds of French fries. Sophia saw where the freezer was full of strawberries and rhubarb. She decided to try Angel’s recipe for her famous strawberry rhubarb pie. Angel had shared this recipe also with Sue. Smelling this had me missing Tom and Sue, and hoping they were doing ok. I just feel at ease they in a county where there is no hunting. Maybe later in my life I will move out closer to them, but Sophia and Lucy and James need me now though.

                We hear snoring coming from the living room, boy could Samuel snore. Angel said yeah you should try sleeping with him. If I didn’t love him so much, I would move out. We tell Angel everything is ready, and to wake Samuel up and come have a feast. She wakes Samuel and they come in. I tell Samuel I heard him snoring, he denied being asleep and said he doesn’t snore. Angel just gives him that look, you know the look. After supper everyone was stuffed, and said it’s so nice of farmer Brown providing us with all the rainbow trout. We decide it was night time, and we all laid down for the night.

                The next morning, I wanted to go visit Luna and Maverick, I was the first one awake and I headed down to their den. She was so happy seeing me, she gave me a little nose rub. I’m not sure that was good thing, I mean it felt sooo goooodddd, but it gives me false hopes. We are friends that all that was, I must believe that. I know she loves Maverick, and I would never do anything to hurt Luna. Maverick said it’s so great seeing you Ben, it’s been a while. I first tell of the loss of Oliver, Then I tell how I helped Tom and Sue, to a different county, where no bear hunting is allowed. I then tell him about our den getting ripped apart, so we will be staying with Samuel and Angel, until the river goes down. I then said Well farmer Brown’s Pond is all but fished out. They invited me to stay the rest of the day, and have super with them this evening. After dinner Maverick said its late, so I might as well spend the night. The next morning Luna was up early, and I had breakfast before heading back to Angels.

                As I walked out the den, I noticed the sound down below. It didn’t sound like a raging river any more. I,m thinking we probably could make it across the creek now. Angel has breakfast fixed when I got back, and I said no, Luna had a good filling breakfast, before I left her den. There was sourdough bread so I said yes, he would partake in a loaf of sourdough bread. That when it hits me of the 6 buckets of honey that was left, was washed away from our den. I was very saddened. There is no honey to be found this time of the year.

                After breakfast we headed on towards Lucy’s Den. The road is washed out badly, I don’t know if it would get fixed, before the end of kill season. We may be safe from hunters’ for rest of this season. Is that a blue bucket that I see, that was caught by some brush, could it be some of our honey. I walked down to it; it was still sealed, and we now have 5 gallons of honey. That made all of us happy.

                We headed on up to Lucy den we are hoping it is still in good shape, and not ripped apart. It is in very good shape. Sophia said she would clean some, while Lucy and myself try to get some food. We are starting all over, kind of like Tom, except we have each other. Lucy said she noticed that the stream had washed several deep pools, and we could try to get some native trout. I was all in for that. We dive in the first pool; it was loaded with trout, 2 baskets full. We go down to the next pool, as we walking, I see something blue, several hundred yards down the stream, could it be more honey. I tell Lucy for her to fish, while I walk down to see what the blue was. It was another 5-gallon bucket of honey. We are now in good shape on honey. By the time I’m back to Lucy, she had filled the last 2 baskets with trout. We take them back to the den. Sophia was happy get the trout and honey. James and Sophia fixed supper for us, and we all had a big day. We now have a den that Lucy and Sophia can have their cubs in, later this winter.

                The next morning, we hear something we wasn’t happy to hear. There were dogs running a bear, on top of the mountain. They must have come in, from the other side of the mountain. Now with less than 2 weeks of the season, would we be safe until the end of the season. My anxiety was beginning to get to me. I rolled me a Cigar to calm down, it’s stressful being the boar of the den. How did Oliver do it, and he never seemed to be stressed at all, after all those years? Will I ever be the boar bear that Oliver was? Will we survive rest of this Season?

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  • Return Home

    Return Home

                I give all my good byes to Tom and Sue, I truly hated leaving them, at least I know they will be safe. It would be nice to live in paradise and not worried about being killed. But North Mountain, has always been home, there is no place like home. It’s a little before dark as I head out. I don’t want to cross the county line, until after. The back country road, divides the counties.  It’s a moonless and starless night, but bears are nocturnal and I can see just fine.

                It’s now pitch-black outside, as I cross the county line, I saw a truck go down the road with a dog box on it, just before I crossed the road. I need to make good time so I can cross over Stone Coal Gap Road, at least 2 hours before daylight preferably longer than 2 hours. It has been snowing here, making travelling a little slower, I already know I won’t make it the whole distance. I decided I would just spend the day at Tom’s old den, when I get there, I was having going have to stop there, to get what all Tom had left me anyway. Upon entering, I was remembering, when I first met Tom, and he was sitting there waiting to die. All the emotions, good and bad, were flowing though me. The marijuana had changed Toms life, but he was able to get off of it. Then during chase season, when we turned the tables on the dogs. We just left them stranded up the tree. Best part of that day was without a doubt, meeting Sue. I was as determined she would be Toms, as she was, that she would be mine. A little trickery, and she fell for Tom. I’m just so blessed to have them both in my life. They have giving me a purpose in life, since I have no mate. Without them in my life now, what would my life be like?

                I don’t even know what Tom had left for me, but I’m about to find out. I hope there is some food for me here. I,m now be getting hungry, after that trip back here in the snow. I started to look around the den, and there is a whole yearling, he left for me, also in the cupboard, there were 6 strawberry rhubarb pies, I was in heaven now, thanks Sue. As I was preparing the deer backstrap, I was just thinking tomorrow is Saturday, and all the hunters will be out. I need to just stay put here, until tomorrow night, as though there is no hunting on Sunday, it will be safer for myself, Lucy, James, and Sophia. It would be reckless of me leaving scent going up to our den. So, I have Toms den all to myself, until after dark tomorrow night. I have all I need inside of the den, So I don’t need to go outside. The good thing is, it is continuing to snow; it’s hiding my track so, the hunters and hounds can’t track me here. As I’m preparing the backstrap, there is porridge, collard greens, and several pounds of bacon. I put the collard greens and bacon on to cook, but decided to leave the porridge until morning. The den is smelling, as if Sue was here cooking. I’m going to miss those two. Ever since meeting Tom I have had a purpose in life, I’m just hoping that doesn’t change now; with the loss of Oliver. But even though James, will be in our same den this winter, I consider myself as the boar of the den now, that Oliver is dead.

                Supper is done and I dig in, everything is delicious for the main course, I had popped 1 of the strawberry rhubarb pies in the oven to warm up. Heated it taste almost as good, as when Sue pulls one straight out of the oven. This den just brings back so many great memories, and some that wasn’t so great, when I first met Tom. I still get sad thinking about him sitting right here, stating he was waiting to die. I have 5 more strawberry pies; I should I eat them all I’m thinking.

                The next morning, I go to the entrance of the den, boy this is one hell of a doozie of a storm, there is almost 3 feet of snow, and it is still coming down. I knew it would be a week or 2, before anyone would be hunting, so I decided to go ahead and head to the Sophia’s den. It’s been a week now, since I’ve been there.  I cooked breakfast; I’m having the rest of the bacon and porridge it’s so delicious, well there’s pies left so I dig in to them. I guess now is as good a time as any to head home to our den. I grab rest of the food and start towards the den. This storm is a storm to remember, as I’m trekking my way to the den, it’s a whiteout blizzard condition. It’s a good thing bear has a good sense of direction, or I’d never find our den. It’s very slow going, my plan is to get to Stone Coal Gap, before I start hunting for deer, then If I kill one or 2, I can get the belongings that Tom left me to the den, and then myself and James can come back for the deer.

                I finally made it to the road, and there are 5 deer right on the edge of the road. It was the easiest kills I have ever made. It was more like hunting possums, I walked over to them, and 1 big swipe they were dead. I guess myself and James will be making several trips to the road. Yes, I did kill all 5 of the deer, a bear must eat and get fat, this time of the year. I take everything Tom left me to the den it, doesn’t look like anyone is home, I also see no tracks outside of the den in snow. I go inside, and I find everyone safe and sound, taking bear naps. Sophia is the first one to wake up, she said I did not expect you back, this is the storm of the century. I figured you would stay with Tom and Sue, at least until the storm was over. I tell her I needed to be here, now that I’m the boar of the den. I tell her how I got 5 deer laying down at the road, I am going to wake James up to help me, to go and get them back to the den. Then I showed her the 4 strawberry rhubarb pies that Sue had left me. She said that’s amazing they each can have one for supper tonight. Then she says James knew the storm was coming, so he had killed 3 deer prior to the storm. Also, you know your sister, she fished all the time before the storm, we were trying to be prepared. So, we have plenty to eat until time to go into hibernation. I was pleasantly surprised, that everyone had prepared for the storm and hibernation.

                I wake James and Lucy, they were very glad to see me, and Lucy said I wasn’t expecting you back during this storm. I tell them, that being the boar of the den, I had to make my way back to the den, come hell or high water, well snow. James tells me he had killed the 3 deer, and Lucy had caught 10 baskets of fish. I tell James, let’s go and get the 5 deer laying down on the road. Lucy said, she would go also. 3 bears walking in all this snow, looked like a snow plow went down off this mountain. We each grab a deer and took to the den. Once there Lucy said, her and James would go and get the last 2. She said just sit here and relax, with Sophia; you have already had a long day.

                Sophia was asking how Tom and Sue were doing. I tell her that they were ready to move to a new county, that doesn’t allow bear hunting, when I got to their den. They were moving due, to both their neighbors was killed, the same day that Oliver was killed.  We took a nap and were ready to go to their new county come dark. It was a long night getting their belongings there. We spent the night in a very small shelter. I found them a den on our first full day there, but I didn’t find until almost dark. So, it was several hours after dark before I got back, to the small shelter, that they spent their 1st night in. We stayed in the small shelter the 2nd night, then, the next day they moved all their stuff to the den. Tom and Sue were extremely happy with their new den. They both wanted me to stay, but I told them I knew they was safe, and I had to get back to y’all, since I was the boar of the den now.

                James and Lucy are back now, and we all clean and bag the deer to put in the freezer. While we are doing this, Sophia starts cooking some fresh backstraps, smashed taters, and put on 4 loaves of sourdough bread. Sophia has this den smelling wonderful. She finishes cooking about same time, that all the deer is in the freezer. We had a feast and after the feast Sopia tells Lucy, go and look in the oven, at what Sue had sent us for dessert. She said OMG, it’s her famous strawberry rhubarb pie. The smell when she opened the oven was delicious. Everyone enjoyed their own strawberry Rhubarb pie. Could it get any better than this? What does the rest of this winter and kill season hold for us? Will we all survive rest of this kill season? How long will this snow storm of the century snow last? So many questions but so few answers!

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  • Tom and Sue

    Tom and Sue

    The next morning as Sophia feared, I was thinking about leaving tonight to go and check on Tom. I will have to take the path we did last night, using the creek to wash away my scent. Sophia wants me to stay. I said my other blood brother may need me. Well at least we will have today, our new smaller family, she is bawling. We get into a group bear hug, then I roll a huge cigar for everyone. They sit and smoke the cigars, everyone has their own tales about Oliver, that they shared with each other. Our mood is improving, having our discussion about Oliver, along with the cigar that everyone was smoking. Sophia says she will fix breakfast and Lucy said I want to help you. It’s been a while since we have cooked together. I tell them that a little berry cobbler would be good for dessert. Lucy said, “you will get whatever we fix.” Yes, Ma’am I said. I asked James if she always that sassy now. James says, “yes Sophia had taught her to stand up for herself and unfortunately she wears the pants in our household.” I remember the day y’all moved into y’alls den and how Sophia had jumped you and Oliver and then she told Lucy to take notes on how to keep her bear in check. I about died a little latter when Lucy had told you she would cut you off. She learned quickly from Sophia.

    Wasn’t long that the den was being permeated by delicious smelling aromas. I know, I smell sausage which we don’t get very often, and the unmistaken smell of sourdough bread. Lucy says it’s almost ready y’all can’t come in until its done.

    We hear Lucy say come and get it. Along with the sausage and sourdough bread was eggs and porridge. There was a loaf of bread for each of us. I must say I was disappointed no berry cobbler. We all dug in and had a feast of bears. I’m fat but happy now, and about to go into the living room and lucy say’s hold on I have something else. She walks over to the oven and pops out a berry cobbler for everyone. My eyes lit up and I tell Lucy how great of a sister she is. She about in tears, tells me I’m a great brother, and she couldn’t stand it, if she was to lose me. Then myself and James, excuse ourselves to the living room, Lucy speaks up, ok Sophia and myself is going into the living room, for our break now, while y’all clean the kitchen, and don’t forget to clean the oven well, the berry cobbler had spilled and is now baked on. I’m thinking to myself, damn you Sophia, you are the cause of this. But then I remembered we all must all help each other out. James says he will clean the whole kitchen; I only need to clean the oven. I said deal, in about 20 minutes James said he was done with the kitchen. This damn oven with everything baked on so hard, I’m not even half done. Then James speaks up Yeah, I’ve had to clean the oven twice now, after Lucy fixes cobblers. 30 minutes later the oven is clean.

    I go into the living room and it is filled with smoke. Sophia and Lucy have a very fat cigar, that they were smoking. I was thinking I don’t even need to roll one for myself, I just have to inhale. Well, I rolled me a fat Cigar and everyone else almost done with theirs, said to roll them another one, so I did. The household is calm and we are talking, and having a family meeting. Sophia then speaks up and tells me she wants to know everything that I know about Oliver’s death, and events afterwards. I just told her I was sitting on the hill, with James and we heard Dale and Rob talking about how that son a bitch killed 3 dogs, and that they glad he is dead. Then while waiting for help to get Oliver out of the mountains, they ripped open his belly and pulled his guts, lungs, and his heart out. Sophia screams OH MY GOD, I cannot hear any more right now.

    We changed what we were talking about, and started talking of all the happy times, the family had together. We talked about this spring, when we had come out of hibernation, and sliding down to the stream. How Lucy caught the largest native trout and I started a fight with her. How Oliver broke the fight up and made me apologize to Lucy. I then said I miss him so much. I then talk about Rob calling Oliver the marijuana bear because of his weight after field dressing was 420 pounds. I tell everyone looks like we have become the marijuana family, I then remind everyone, that we need to do other means of finding joy, before turning to the marijuana. For like the next 3 days lets agree to keep it in our system we need it now. After 3 days we must try to get weaned off the marijuana. The family agreed to this. We sat there full from breakfast and didn’t even think about eating lunch. Lucy says around 5 pm she a little hungry now and its mine and James’s turn to fix supper. I look at Lucy like that’s women’s work, I was going to tell her that, she can’t cut me off. Then I thought, she is right, this is a family, we all need to share responsibilities.

    I tell James let’s just do fried fish and fried tatters. Then we can also do a berry cobbler. James said yes sounds delicious. We both prepared the tatters to fry and get the fish battered up. James will do all the frying while I fix the cobbler. I mixed all the ingredients including the honey. Now I’m placing it in the oven thinking about payback maybe, I’ll spill a little cobbler. Well supper is on and we call the sows to the kitchen. Everyone enjoyed the fish and taters. Then I brought out the cobbler. Lucy says wow twice in a day I don’t think I have ever had cobbler twice in a day. After supper, I tell Lucy she has the stove and Sophia can clean the kitchen. Wow, that look could have cut right through me. I go in the living room and I hear Lucy say damn you, the oven is clean. I just knew it was going to be a mess. Lucy then helps Sophia to make quick cleaning of the kitchen.

    We sit around in the living room and have us a cigarette we are calm but we need to keep a level in our body. We had a good time talking for a couple hours, and then I said it was time, for myself to leave to go and check on Tom and Sue. Everyone was sad to see me go, James wanted to go with me. I said no Sophia and Lucy need a boar bear around the den until I return.

    So down to the stream I go and I walked the stream though the culvert and then follow the stream a good way to hide my scent. I continue out the mountain, staying about half way up the mountain where my scent won’t be as noticeable for the bear hounds. As I’m going, I decided to check on the young bear couple I met before meeting Tom. I get to their den and knock; no answer I go in the den is empty. Where are this young couple? Are they OK?

    I then decide it’s time to go and check on Tom and Sue, I hope they are ok! I get to their den, and it looks very different, everything has been moved to one area. Tom says hello brother, how are you doing. I tell Tom I’m not doing very well, that Oliver was killed, day before yesterday. Tom was very sad to hear this. I then ask if he had seen the other young couple and he says oh yes Myself and Sue watched both them, get shot from the same tree, day before yesterday. We heard hounds and thought, they were coming for us. But they were chasing the other couple, and the dogs were almost catching them, they went up a tree. They remained treed in that tree, for almost 2 hours when the hunters came, and shot them both out of the tree. I said that’s horrible they seemed really nice. I then thinking OMG where is Sue. So, I ask Tom where was Sue. About that time, I hear Sue say I’m here in the bedroom, as she comes out with a paw full of their belongings. I asked what’s going on. Tom says after watching them being shot, Sue states she knows of a county, 2 counties away that doesn’t allow bear hunting, and you can grow big and old there. So, we have decided to move there. I tell Tom that I would miss him brother. And he said yes, I can’t thank you enough helping to get my life back, and finding and helping me get this marvelous sow.

                They said they would be moving out tonight after dark and it is illegal to kill bears after sundown. They said they going to lay down now for a bear nap, that everything is packed. I tell them, that I would snooze with them, if they didn’t mind. They were delighted I would be staying for a short period of time with them.

                Upon waking I had a great Idea; they have lots of stuff to transport so, I’ll help them move. Tom and Sue are now awake, I tell them, they were ecstatic. Tom says that the 2nd best thing that has ever happened to him, was me, and Sue was the best. I was happy being 2nd best.

                Time to go to work now, we all get all that we can carry, there were just a couple things left, Tom told me I could have anything left, on my return trip home. We have 45 miles to cover tonight to get into a safe county. So, it’s no Lolley gagging around, we are on a mission to complete.

                We have made it inside the county lines and is safe. Sue said there’s a small shelter she knows of, only a mile away, that they can stay in, while searching for a good den. So, we go to this little shelter, she is right, its small, we must leave all their belonging outside, and the 3 of them retired for a bear nap. Once they wake up, they have a little to eat, we decide to head off in 3 different directions to look for a den. We will meet back here at dark.

                We all headed off in our own directions to find a den. Tom and Sue both get back to the shelter right at dark. They asked each other if they found a den or seen Ben. Their answers were no. They are wondering what could of happen to me. I was on my way back to them, but it would be over 4 hours after dark, before getting back to the shelter. I made it back after midnight, they were still awake hoping I was ok. I tell them the good news; I found a very nice and large and spacious den for them. I tell them it was almost dark when I found it. I was determined to find y’all a den, I knew the time frame that there was no way, I would make it back to the shelter before dark. I’m just so happy I found y’all a den.

                They get a good night’s sleep in their little shelter. Sue is so happy that she is getting a den, in a county that doesn’t allow bear hunting, and they can grow old together. The next morning it is getting all their belonging, to their new den. It didn’t take as long as yesterday, since I was zig zagging, trying to find a den. It only took us a little over 3 hours to get there. We had a quick snack to eat and Tom and myself head out hunting. Between the 2 of us, we were able to kill 3 deer, 2 turkeys, and a couple possums. Tom zig zagged until he was able to run down a rabbit also. We take all the game back to Tom’s new den, to dress and freeze. Sue said give her 3 of the back straps, and she will prepare them for supper tonight. She already had the den smelling delicious, that wonderful smell of sourdough bread.

                Sue said just rest after y’all get all the game in the freezer, and she will let us know when supper was ready. I was just remembering, it’s been over 2 days now since I have had any marijuana, but I’m so happy helping Tom and Sue. I havn’t had time to think about Oliver. About then, Sue said supper is ready. Tom and myself go in; wow she has a feast prepared. We all had a backstrap of deer. She also had both possums and rabbits fried to perfection. Collard greens prepared with 5 pounds of bacon, and a loaf of bread a piece. Sue tells me she wanted to make sure he ate good; I couldn’t thank you enough, for everything you have done for us this year. After eating our main course, Sue goes to the oven and out pops a strawberry rhubarb pie one for each of us. I tell Sue she trying to butter me up, to stay. Sue said you are always welcome here. I tell her thanks for the hospitality, but I will have to leave shortly, so I can get home before morning arrives. I feel good leaving y’all behind, knowing y’all are safe. I must get back to Sophia, Lucy, and James. I don’t know if they are even still alive! What will I find when getting back to the den?

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  • Marijuana Bear

    Marijuana Bear

                I hear the sound I heard earlier, of some kind of tool. I move from the door to the window so I can see what’s happening. It’s the hoist lifting Olivers lifeless body up in the air. I hear someone counting numbers as he is lifted further up off the ground, I hear 200, 275, 360, 390, 400, 415, and the final number was 420. Dale tells Rob, it looks like he has killed a marijuana bear. The place broke out in laughter, I could stand it no more. I broke the door down angerly and said, y’all all think it’s damn funny, that you killed my dad. I want y’all to meet my dad, his name was Oliver. My mom Sophia is waiting for him to return to our den. My sister Lucy, also lost her dad. Now y’all sick sense of humor, laughing and calling him the marijuana bear. He has never touched Marijuana, in his long life. But because his empty body with no entrails and his heart ripped from him, and his weight is equal to, what marijuana slang term is. I tell them, I could kill each one of y’all right now. Rob goes over to his counter, and gets out a drawer, some wrapping paper, and a small bag of green material. He rolls a large cigar and a small cigarette. He says Benjamin I’m so sorry, I have taken your dad’s life. Please come over here, and smoke a little marijuana with me. He hands me the cigar, and he lights his lighter, and lights mine up and then his. After smoking I felt slightly calmer, but was still very sad, and I was still mad at the entire hunting group, for killing my dad.

                Rob and myself, sat there with a cigar and cigarette in hand for several hours. Most everyone else was drinking beer and some hard liquor. Both Rob and Dale felt so bad, Rob comes up with a plan, to protect myself and my immediate family. Rob said that I’ve had enough heartache this season, and this is only 1st day of the season. He goes over and picks up 3 blaze orange ribbons, that could be worn over our neck. He said there is one for my mom, my sister, and myself. Each ribbon had a marijuana bud attached to it. He says he tell other hunters, not to shoot any bear wearing the blaze orange ribbons. Rob said, he can’t guarantee our safety, from the other hunters, but his group would honor the blaze orange ribbons.

    The door of the hunt club opened and it is old cripple, he is back from the hospital, and tells Rob to roll him one for the pain in his leg. He was shocked seeing a live bear with a marijuana cigar sitting smoking with rob. So, I stayed long enough to have 1 more cigar, I’m feeling very chill but sad, and I have a huge hole in my heart. I don’t know if James stopped by to tell Sophia. I hope he didn’t, she needs to hear this from me. We still have some marijuana at the den, but we are running low. Rob says, here take what have, it’s not much but you need it worse than I do. Old cripple said, can I just have 1 more cigar before you go, I rolled him a cigar, and thanked Rob for rest of it. God knows we going to need it.

    I head towards Sophia’s, when I was leaving Rob’s it’s a bright moon out tonight and the air is very crisp. I’m just a strolling along in my drug induced mind, where I’m not ready to kill everything, I see. I’m sad, I’m angry but the marijuana has me chilled. I feel as I just exist now; I have no purpose now. Oliver has been my world; Tom has his new mate, Sue; so, he doesn’t need me. As I get to Sophia’s den she said, “where have you been at.” Her next words were, that she is afraid that Oliver, may be in big trouble. He left out of here to protect Lucy and James. I heard those dreadful hounds chasing him. She then says she was afraid he may be dead. I tell her that I had seen his lifeless body, and that he was dead. I tell her of all the horrible events of that evening. I told of smoking marijuana with Rob, she has been in shock until now, once she heard I was smoking with the murderer, she went into a full outrage and anger. She orders me to get the fuck out of her den. If you can set and smoke with that murderous bastard, I don’t need you here, get the fuck out. I had 2 rolled cigars, I laid them on the counter, as I went outside. I hope she will pick them up, and smoke them, while I sleep beside a rock outside. I’m not going to be far away. Sophia needs me, she is just hurting so badly and want’s blame it on me, since I’m closest.

    I’m outside and can’t sleep, I would say I was cold but us bears, don’t really get cold. I can hear Sophia all night long crying. I finally decided to go back in, and Sophia said, I thought I had loss you also, I was horrible to you last night son. I was in so much pain; I had to take it out on someone. You are the most loving and caring bear I know. I hate the way I unloaded on you. I then tell Sophia I was literally just outside the den, and tried to sleep but couldn’t. I could hear you bawling your eyes out. I wanted to come in earlier, but I was afraid of your reaction. Sophia says thanks, yes, I needed some time, and thanks for the marijuana, it has helped to take the edge off. I tell her that Rob has given us all, a blaze orange safety ribbon, that his group would honor, and he going try to get other groups to honor it as well. She says, well that’s actually nice of Rob, trying to protect us. I tell her, I have one and one for you and Lucy. How about James, she said. I tell her Rob only was able to give them to the immediate family.

    I tell Sophia, I rolled the last cigar for her, and I’ll have to go get a couple deer bags from Ceasar. I know Rob wasn’t hunting today. I hope he has gotten the word out, to other hunting groups. My ears and eyes will be on alert for any hunters or hounds. I will not be spending any extra time outside than what I need to. No fishing from the pond, my favorite thing to do, on way to Oliver’s. When I arrive at Ceasar’s, he can see I’m not the happy go lucky, Benjiman, that I have been lately. He asked what’s wrong. I tell him, and he is shocked that Oliver is gone. I looked up so much to him, he was so strong and smart, he has helped me out a time or two said Ceasar.

    I tell him Sophia is in bad shape and knew that Lucy would be also. I asked for 2 deer bags he said, with that much sadness and depression, he was giving me 4 deer bags, at no charge. I’ll miss that old son of a gun Oliver. I believe he let something slip that he hadn’t intended to let slip. He said, he almost out, and he will have to go visit farmer Brown. I think farmer Brown is his big dealer. I thought back to the time when Ceasar stated that farmer Brown wasn’t all that bad. Now I know why he said that statement. I didn’t let on to Ceasar, that I now believe farmer Brown is the big dealer. I thanked Ceasar for all the marijuana, and then I was on my way back to the den.

    I decided that Luna’s life to me, was more important than mine, so I took my ribbon to her, and let her know what had taken place. Both her and Maverick were heartbroken. She tried to get me to keep it. I said no, you have baby cubs, that will be here in a couple months. I tell her I have a big day yet in front of me, I must take 3 bags to Sophia to leave with her, and myself. After that I must cross Stone Coal Gap Road, and take Lucy her ribbon, and her bag of marijuana. I know James has told her, and I know she is devastated. I get back to Sophia before dark, and gave her the marijuana. I’m in need of a cigar, so we both smoked one to calm down. I decided to wait until a couple hours after dusk, before I headed over to Lucy’s, to let the traffic on the road to slow down. I also remember Oliver once telling me, this time of the year to go a different route, when crossing the road go right when leaving the den, and then angle down to the road, so, I would run into the creek that’s on my side of the road. Then walk the creek up to the culvert, and go under the road through the culvert to get to other side of the road. Then follow the creek a way before leaving it. Oliver said the creek will hide your scent and the hounds can’t follow you as easily. Oliver was a brilliant old bear. When getting to Lucy’s, James was holding her, and said she has been like this ever since I told her of her dad. She is crying unconsolable in James paws. I have tried to console her but nothing I do helps. I tell Lucy that I will roll all 3 of us a big cigar to smoke. The first words out of her mouth were, she doesn’t want to be like Samuel and Maverick. I would rather die than to live that life. I agreed with her, and tells her it’s Ceasar’s marijuana, and it will only help, not any bad effects. She finally agreed to smoke one. She felt better, but she was still angry at the world, I rolled her another cigar and myself and James a cigarette.

    It’s getting late I asked James if they would be ok together, he had to get back to Sophia since he is the man of the house now. James then came up with the ultimate plan. How about Lucy and myself go back to Sophia den with you. We all can be there for each other. I agree that is an amazing plan. I tell them the route we must take back to the den. We must stay in the creek as long as we can to kill our scent.

                Once back at the den Sophia, was overjoyed to see that everyone was OK and had come back to her den. I tell her that James had come up with the plan, and I hope she is ok with it. I’m overjoyed, if that is even possible right now. I begin to think of everyone else. I know Samuel and Angel are ok, or Luna would have told him. I then think about Tom and Sue and if they are ok, I also remember the young couple that lives near Tom. Sophia is worried, of what I may want to do next!

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  • Kill Season

    Kill Season

                It was early, on a cold 1st Monday, in December, the official start of bear season in Virginia, hunters can hunt with hounds, and legally kill any bear over 100 pounds. Oliver is outside of his den, when across Stone Coal Gap Road, he hears the hounds beginning to open up and barking. The dogs sound to be right on top the mountain above Lucy’s and James’s den. He is terrified that they will either tree James or Lucy and kill them. He sat there and listened for a while; he could distinctly tell there were only 2 dogs barking. Neither one putting off a lot of mouth, but he could tell that one of them, is coming down off the mountain, towards Lucy’s den. He was hoping maybe another bear had crossed the top of the mountain, and the dogs were headed towards another bear. Oliver must do something, but what could he do. The dogs must be smelling James and Lucy. He could hear 3 people talking on top of the mountain, saying they hope this is a legal bear, to get this season started off right. These dogs hasn’t hunted since chase season, a kill will jump start the season, as the dog gets to pull some hair, and lick up the blood. Every bear hound loves the taste of bear blood.

                Now panicked, Oliver knows he must do something, to help James and Lucy. He hears a truck in the road, and he figures out what he will do. I’ll run out in front of the truck, as he does, it’s a face, he recognizes its Rob. He knows Rob is an ethical hunter, and wont shoot anything too small. Only problem is James is now over 220 pounds, and Lucy is 180 pounds. I know if treed, which ever one is treed they would be killed. I hear Rob get on his radio, and tells everyone on top the mountain, get that last dog, and come to the road, don’t cut anything loose until you meet up with me. I just saw a bear, it will go over 500 pounds. He tells them the bear had come out on the road, and saw me and went back in the woods, the way he came from. I could hear that big bruiser, go down into the creek here. About then one of the hunters, said he had fallen and has broken his leg. He gives his dogs to the other hunters, and said don’t worry about me. I will make it down, I will just be a little slower. I’ll fix me a crutch to help me out of the mountains. Go kill that big son of a bitch. By now all dogs are on lead, and couple of them are now barking, and they are wanting to go to their left. Rob said no, don’t let them go, the big bear is down here. Rob said I’m going to kill that big bear today.

                All the hunters made their way to the road, except for old cripple leg. He tells them over the radio, his leg hurts like a son of a bitch, but for them not to worry about him. Go kill that big son of a bitch for me. Rob said “buddy I will kill this bear for you.”

                With everyone in the road, and dogs raising so much hell, you couldn’t here yourself think. Rob says walk 50 yards down the road, that is where the bear came out onto the road, and then went back into the woods, and went down into the creek. The dogs were pulling down the road, and then suddenly hooked left. Rob said turn them loose. The dogs go down into the creek, we heard a hell of a battle taking place. There were 6 dogs down in the creek with Oliver. Rob hears one of the dogs let out a big yelp and then the bear and dogs takes off, up the mountain, chasing this big son of a bitch. He didn’t like the sound his dog had made, so he walked down into the creek, he found one his dogs dead. He carries his lifeless body back to the truck. Now more determined than ever Rob, tells old cripple over the radio, he will make sure this bear is dead. The hunters, all except Rob heads up, to the top of the mountain, hoping to get on top of the mountain, before the bear and hounds do. The bear is going slowly up the mountain and the  dogs are raising hell. We are now maybe 300 yards from them, they sound like they have stopped, on top of the mountain, could it be they have treed the big boy. Rob said he thinks they are bayed up, and fighting the bear on the ground. We hear another dog, it sounded like it got slapped, and then the dogs and bear are on the move again.

                On top the mountain they find a 2nd dog that the bear had killed. Rob was extremely mad now. He radios Dale, which is sitting in his truck, near the old iron ore furnace, and Rob says he is on the way to him. The dogs and that damn bear are headed his way. Dale says he can hear them, but they are still high on the mountain. When Rob drives around to where Dale was. Dale said they are coming straight down the mountain, Rob to go kill this damn bear, that’s killing your dogs. Rob walks about a half mile on an old logging road, he can hear the dogs closing in on him, they are getting close to him now. About that time the bear bays up again and starts fighting his dogs. He sees the violent swipe that the bear made, he had swiped another one his dogs, and his lifeless body was flung over 25 feet through the air with no effort. The bear is now on the move again and doesn’t know Rob is there. The bear now with only 3 dogs left chasing him, steps out in the logging road 50 yards from Rob. Rob takes a shot with his 45/70 rifle, the bear didn’t seem to be slowed at all, with this shot. 2 more shots from Robs rifle, and as Rob is levering in his next bullet in his gun, is when he realizes his gun was empty. Oliver is now angry as hell, and is headed towards Rob. Rob knew this bear is going to kill him. Rob then hears 2 shots from behind him. Dale has come in behind him with his 30/06 rifle, and the bear is dead. Rob tells Dale he was so glad he came in behind him, or he would be dead.

                James had gone and found Ben, when he realized that Oliver may be in trouble. The 2 of them are sitting up on the mountain now crying. They hear Dale and Rob talking about the damn bear [Oliver] that had killed 3 dogs, and they were glad that son of a bitch was dead. Rob says this bear must be over 500 pounds. We need to get more people to get this bear out. Rob then thinks about old cripple leg, and if he ever got out the wood. He then hears over the radio that he has made it to the road, and has been picked up. It was confirmed that his leg is broken.  

                Rob and Dale sit to wait for others to come to help, to get the bear out. They are petting their 3 dogs that were still alive, telling them how good of dogs they were. I was sitting there so angry; I have loss my dad. I tell James go back and protect Lucy until I return. I tell him I must stay here, as long as I could, to be close to his dad’s dead lifeless body. Rob said Well let’s go ahead and field dress this bear by removing its guts, heart and lungs. I watch in horror as this is being done. My thought is to go down and tear them apart. 1 problem they have guns, I would be dead just like Oliver, before I have a chance to tear them apart.

                About 6 more hunters shows up telling Rob, that’s the biggest bear they have ever seen killed. They congratulated him like he is a fucking hero. I’m so angry, I wished I had some marijuana right now, I need to chill out before my head explodes, or maybe I need some laced with PCP. That would change the game a little. Going through my mind the thought of using laced PCP scares me. I have never wanted to be like Samuel was. The forest was such a dark time for everyone. I watch them as they drag Oliver to Robs truck. I know they will be taking him to the clubhouse at Robs house. I must go there; I need to be with my dad as long as I can. I’ll be safe, its after sundown now, and is illegal to kill a bear now. As much I hate Rob and Dale now, I know they are ethical, and I would be safe. I’ve been to Robs house before, our family would go by on occasion and raid Rob’s chicken house.

                I beat them to the club house and set on the hill. Watching for them to come up the driveway. I see them come and watch as they unloaded Oliver’s body, and take him into the clubhouse. Rob says it’s been a hell of a day, and that they would weigh the bear now, but wouldn’t skin it out until tomorrow. I’m standing just outside the door listening to them. I hear a sound of some kind of tool, it was making noises. One of them said, OK the scale has been zeroed out, and before raising the hoist back up, they all need to put a 5-dollar bet, on how much it would weigh. I know I have never been so angry in my life. I hear Dale say 450 pounds, another one says 380 pounds I heard several more with 380 being the lowest and 495 being the highest. Rob said Well he knows live weight would have been more than 500 pounds but his field dressed weight will be 420 pounds. The whole clubhouse broke out in laughter as he said this. Dale said what’s this the marijuana bear. What would the weight be?

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  • Late Fall

    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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  • Sue

    Sue

                Both Tom and myself are just thrilled, to have Sue staying with us, I guess the competition to win her over, is on. Not so fast, Tom needs her more than I do. I have my whole family and their mates. Tom has his blood brother, that is all he has in life, I must make sure Sue is his. Without me in Tom’s life, he would dead by now. With Ceasar help we have nursed him back to a joyful life. Yes, I’d love a mate but right now, but I want Tom to have Sue, if she is even interested. I’ll do whatever to get her interested in Tom. We all laid down for a good night’s sleep.

                I was the first to wake up, then Tom did, as Sue is sleeping in this morning. I tell Tom, he needs to fix breakfast for Sue. He said, “what are you planning on doing, while he does all the work. Are you planning on making a move on Sue.” I told Tom, “No I plan to go out and do a little hunting.” Tom said, “oh ok” and he is then thinking, well maybe I can make a move on Sue, while Ben is gone hunting.

                Sue is now awake, and smells the food a cooking, and tells me “It smells so delicious.” Then she says, “where is Ben at;” I said “he out hunting.” She says “WOW” Ben is so strong and brave to go out hunting alone.” Tom isn’t really happy with the way things are going right now, he is thinking well maybe I can win her over, and fix her plate of food for her. I gave her some tenderloin and eggs, also some porridge. After the main course, I tell her, “Here is some delicious berry cobbler.” She complements me she said, “that everything is so delicious, especially the berry cobbler.” I didn’t even make it, Sophia had. I wasn’t going to tell her that though. Sue says “We should have waited on Ben to come back, before they ate.” I’m thinking by now Ben, Ben, Ben, always Ben why not Tom.

                Ben come walking in dragging a 12-point buck. Sue says “WOW what an amazing hunter you are, so strong, so brave, so handsome,” as she brushes up against Ben. I am just helping Tom out; he the gourmet cook, I’m trying to get her interested in Tom. Sue said “yes I had breakfast and it was good, he does make a great berry cobbler.” I wasn’t mad at all, that he took the credit for the cobbler, I’ll do whatever it takes, to get her interested in Tom. Tom says “he has plans for a good lunch.” Sue said “well that’s good Tom:” she then “ask what I’ll be doing” I said “I will be going fishing.” “I love fishing” said Sue “I’ll go with you.” I tell her “Wouldn’t she rather stay to help Tom; with lunch, and learn some of his gourmet recipes.” “I’ll go with you Ben I love to fish.” So, they go off fishing.

                Tom stays back and he is feeling depressed again, Ben is outsmarting me by telling me, to fix breakfast. Then Ben goes off, and don’t even come back with a small yearling, that’s good to eat, no he brings back a big 12-point buck. Then snows her, to the point she goes fishing him. I get out my marijuana and roll a double cigar and smoke it, before I do my job, of being a cook, yeah, I’m just Ben’s slave. Everybody wants a brave hunter and fisherbear not a damn cook. Ben is my blood brother, I don’t know why he is doing this to me. Having smoked a cigar, I am feeling only slightly better I rolled another to smoke. Ok I’m calm now; I can concentrate on being a gourmet chef now. I’ll fix up a fancy dish of trout not just plain old fried trout. That will have to help in winning sue over. My scallop potatoes are 2nd to none, and some greens with bacon in them, she will recognize what a prize she has in me.

                While down at the stream, Tom was fishing in the deep ponds, it was so relaxing watching him fishing. Sue says “you are so strong and brave Ben.” I then tell her that “Tom is stronger than I am, he is a much better cook, also he a master hunter, and fisherbear.” Sue says “well that’s nice but I kind of like you.” I’m lost for words at this point, as much as I want a mate, I want Tom to have a mate, before I get one. I must come up with another plan. We take the fish back to Tom’s. He said “lunch is ready it smells delicious in here” I tell Tom. Sue says “it does smell good.” Tom says, just wait until you taste it, it is better than it smells. Tom fixes Sue’s plate, and the plate looks so good, the way a Gourmet chef would place food on a plate. Sue says it looks good then bites in, and says it ok, but she prefers plain fried fish. She continues the plate looks good the way you prepared it, but I’m a bear, you need to fill my plate up, instead of making it look like a beautiful canvas. Tom says “ok I will keep my cooking simpler, and not cooking like an extreme gourmet chef, and I will always fill your plate.” Sue said “thanks.”

                Tom after lunch decides, well Sue loves the big hunter, so he tells Ben “he was going hunting and for him to fix supper.” I tell Tom “Ok I would fix supper.” I decided I would make the worse possible tasting supper, that I could make, maybe deer brains and tripe. I tell Sue “She should go with Tom to see how a master hunter hunts.” “No, I think I’ll stay here, I may take a little bear nap.” As I’m fixing supper, the room is permeated in a stench. Sue is still napping when Tom shows up, with a small yearling doe, he said “what’s the hell is that stench that he smells.” I hollered to Sue to tell her supper is ready. She says it “smells really good.” I placed small proportions on Sue plate and hand it to her. “That’s the best-looking plate I have ever seen; I can’t wait to dig into it.” I fix Tom a plate and he said “no he doesn’t think he is hungry.” Sue upon eating the food said “that was absolutely delicious.” Tom can’t believe this is happening, as I can’t either. I must do something; I must do something extreme. But what? What can I do! I’m remembering Angel placing herself where Samuel was, and they nose rubbed, maybe I can figure a way to make this happen.

                Tom is very depressed now, and decides to smoke a double cigar. He is feeling a little calmer now, and I tell him to have another one, and then I rolled him 1 more. Tom says he is going to bed. I walk with him to the bedroom; I then helped him into bed. I then get into bed and tell Sue “To come on in and climb in bed with him.” Sue is so excited that Ben is wanting to sleep together tonight. She is thinking he has showed her, no interest at all in her, but she is glad he is now. I make sure the room is dark before she comes in, and I tell “her not to turn on the light, it would wake Tom up.” I hear her come in, and crawls into my bed.  Sue said, WOW you have more muscles than I really realized you have. I was in Toms bed, and I had helped him into my bed. I hear Tom say “Sue I’m so glad you are here in bed with me. This will be a hot steamy night we will never forget.” Sue says “awe you big boy you just wait darling, I will rock your world.” Tom is in total disbelief; he had just woken up, with Sue’s paws all over him, but he was thinking I love this. Tom didn’t know I had set this all up, but I don’t believe it will matter after tonight. After the 3rd time of them having sex, I very quietly got up, I went into the other room, where I’ll spend rest of the night. I could hear the bed squeaking most of the night.

                The next morning when there was enough light to see, Sue saw that Tom was in my bed, but she didn’t let him know, she had come in to be in bed with me. She said “damn you are one hell of a good lover.” Tom said “that you not bad either Sue, looks like that we may be having a family this winter.” They were getting the aroma, of bacon cooking; I had started breakfast, after I heard them stirring around. They come into the kitchen, I said to them, “I think Y’all had a good night.” Both Sue and Tom agreed, that they had an awesome night. Sue told me “Thank you.” I tell the new love birds “to come on over and have breakfast.” After breakfast Sue tells me “Damn son, you can cook, that last meal you cooked, I have had a week old road kill, that tasted better than that damn shit, you fed me. Tom says, “brother I am so sorry, I had thought that I was trying to hone in on Sue, I wasn’t happy about that. I now know you had my back.” I told Tom “He has been alone so long, he never even thought of this being a competition, I was going to do whatever possible to make Sue yours. They both agreed they were blood brothers, and that nothing could ever separate them.

                I tell both Tom and Sue “I was going back over to Lucy and James for the next week to give y’all a honeymoon. I then tell them after last night I don’t think they need any more love making.” Sue with a big grin said, if the den is a rocking don’t come a knocking. I’m really just kidding as far as we are considered, you are part of this family.

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  • Chase Season

    Chase Season

              Fall is here now and I’m hearing the traffic going up and down Stone Coal Gap Road, I’m also hearing the dogs barking in the back of the trucks. I know we can’t be crossing the roads like we have been, or the dogs will get our scent and chase us. I still have nightmares of when the hounds almost caught me, I had to go up a tree to keep from being caught, and tore to pieces by the hounds. I’m larger now, and can I fight them off, but with their numbers, they will chase me up a tree, and have me treed. I’m concerned for all my friends and family even Maverick. Afterall he is my blood brother. I guess I’m most concerned for Lucy and James since they live across the road from us. Also, my new blood brother Tom, which also is across the road. I know we can’t check on each other without crossing the road, and leaving scent for the dogs.

              I’m actually thinking that late one night, about slipping across the road, Sophia and Oliver has each other in their den. If I stay with Tom, I can watch over him, also keep an eye on Lucy and James. This is a hard decision but I feel as though I need to tell Sophia and Oliver, that I am moving in with Tom. I hope when doing this, the hounds don’t pick my scent up. While telling Sophia and Oliver, Sophia begins to cry saying we will have an empty nest. Oliver tells her, we knew this day was coming, and Ben is an amazing bear. He always has others bears, in his mind and wants to help them out. Sophia says yeah, I know but it’s going to be hard having an empty nest.

              I Tell Sophia that tonight, well after dark I’ll slip across the road, and go tell Tom my plans, I don’t even know yet, if he will want me to stay with him. But if I’m on that side of road, I can go back and forth between Tom’s and Lucy’s. Sophia gives me her blessing, she said at least it’s just chase season, and not kill season, if the dogs should get on his track. I will just have to sit there until the hunters come, and pull the dogs off the tree, then I can go on my merry way. Speaking of merry I’ve done great with my depression; I haven’t had to use any marijuana. Been a few days since I’ve seen Tom, I hope he is doing well. Sophia says she is going to fix some of her berry cobblers, I can take 2 to lucy and 2 to Tom. She said they almost out of honey to sweeting them. She told me to keep my eyes open for a bee hive.

             Well, it’s a couple hours after dark now, so I head on down the mountain, I cross over the road, and head up to Lucy’s and James’s place. She said she was very surprised seeing me, why am I taking a chance of the hounds getting onto my scent. I tell her I waited until after dark, so the hunters have gone home, and my scent should not be very strong by morning. She is questioning me of my depression, I tell her it has been doing great. I tell her been a few weeks since I have been using any marijuana. I tell her I am still mad at myself, about Luna but at least she is happy, so, I’ve accepted them being mates. Maverick had it so hard so, I’m glad he has her to keep him happy. Then Lucy tells me her and James have been fishing with fishing rods, it is so relaxing. They had gotten them 2 fishing rods, and maybe in the spring, we can go to the pond.  I tell Lucy was great talking to them, but guess he better head on over to Tom’s. She said that can wait it’s been a long time, since they have spent the night together. James said yes, blood brother I miss you. So, I decided to spend the night.

             The next morning, I get up and ready to head on over to Tom’s. Lucy said I can go after breakfast, she been teaching a James to cook, he will fix some deer tenderloins and eggs. We can sit here and catch up on old times. I say well looks like the honeymoon is over, you now have time for me. Not over she says we know we have our lifetime together; family is important, we enjoy everyone when they come and visit. James said breakfast is on and we can dig in. I tell Lucy hey you getting him trained well. I almost forgot, I have 2 berry cobblers that Sophia fixed. I asked Lucy if she have found any bee hives so we can get some honey, we are almost out. Lucy says nope I haven’t seen any hives, but I’ll keep my eyes open.  

                I tell them bye and start the trip to Tom’s; I hadn’t gone anywhere till I hear a truck, right where I crossed the road I hear the dogs all open up. I hear the hunters saying, we have a track that crossed the road here. Oh no it was still scent there. Then I’m think oh no my scent goes right to Lucy’s den. I must do something so the only thing I knew to do, was run down, and meet the dogs head on, then take off away from Lucy’s den. They will follow me, instead going to Lucy’s den. I go down and I see 5 hounds I smacked one of them good. Damn that felt good smacking that damn dog, I then take off running away from Lucy’s den. I remembering that Oliver has always said, go up into all the rocks, whenever you get chased by the hounds, because they can’t climb the rocks, the way us bears can. I headed to the steepest rocks I could find. I am scampering up though the rocks. The dogs not too far behind, but as I’m climbing the rocks I can tell they have fallen well behind. I hear a couple voices down on the road, I’ve heard before. I hear one say hey Dale looks like the bear, is trying to lose the dogs in those rocks again. Then Dale responds back, Yes Rob, it sure does. The bears love those rocks and have the advantage over our dogs. I then hear what sounds like one the dogs, making a different bark. It sounded like it has fallen off the rocks. But he is ok, he now barking just a little, as he goes back down the mountain. The rest of the dogs are following. I survived this one, and I know I’m going have to be more careful. I can’t cross the roads anymore.

                I then head towards Tom’s; I hope I don’t run across any more hounds today. I’m now right outside of Tom’s den; I haven’t heard anymore hounds. As I go inside, he isn’t there I hope he is ok. The den looks good, and nothing tells me anything is wrong. I’m tired so I go in and take a little bear nap. I then wake up and hear Tom say, welcome blood brother.  I said hello, I have you 2 berry cobblers, that Sophia made for you. He said yum yum yummy. I didn’t think I would see you any more, until after chase season. I tell him that if he didn’t mind, I would like to stay with him, until after chase season. He was thrilled, I said I was going back to get my stuff, but the hounds had chased him, I don,t feel like I should cross the road again. Don’t worry I have any and everything you may need here. I even got a deer bag of marijuana form Ceasar, just before chase season came in. I took him 2 large does for it. I didn’t want him, to just give it to me this time. He told me I was not ready to come off it. But I,m weaned down to an average of only 1 or 2 cigarettes a day now. I tell him that was great.

                 I ask what else has he been doing since I last saw him, well I’ve been looking for a sow, but no luck so far. Tom then said we got this whole mountain range that we can stay on, without crossing any roads. We can go hunting for a sow together. I was happy with this; with any luck we can find us 2 beautiful sows. For the next 2 days we were out all day long, looking for an available sow. None seems to be around. Tom said you know the last 2 days I haven’t even smoked one cigarette, just having a good friend around, helps with this depression stuff. He said he owed me so much. You being my blood brother is all the payment I need.

              On the way back to our den I happen to see the largest bee hive I have ever seen. I tell Tom, that Sophia is almost out of honey. He said he has several 5-gallon buckets; we can harvest all this honey for her tomorrow. We get a good night’s sleep and plan on harvesting the honey, in the morning and then go sow hunting some again.

              We have harvested almost 7, 5-gallon buckets of honey, when we started hearing hounds, sound like they are chasing a bear, it is coming towards us. We see a 3-year-old sow cross just above us, and the hounds just a little behind. I tell Tom, I’m going up there, I’m going to get the hounds chasing me. Tom said not without him. I said Well let’s go rescue this damsel in distress. We get up to where she had crossed, we waited for the hounds, we both was swiping at them making them fly through the air, this felt so good. Then we went off running together, with the hounds chasing us. We are going to fix those hounds and teach them a lesson; we will climb up this tree here that’s leaning into the other tree at a 45 degree angle. We will set at the intersection of the 2 trees, and once all the dogs have climbed up this leaning tree, and they are 50 feet up in the air, we will then slide down the other tree. That’s what we did and oh wow did it work well. The dogs now sounding totally different, not their big loud mouth bawling barks, it’s more of a whimpering now. Tom said let’s go over on the next ridge, we will watch when the hunters find their dogs. The first one that sees them yells out, y’all got to see this, all our hounds are 50 feet up in the damn tree. Myself and Tom get a huge laugh out of this. We decide we would walk just below the hunters so they can see us. The dogs can’t chase us now, we let out just a slight growl when we were below them. I tell Tom, lets go find that damsel in distress now. Wasn’t long until we found the sow, she was so appreciative, that we had helped her out. She spent the night with us tonight.

              The next morning, we had breakfast, we found out her name was Sue. This here is Tom and I’m Benjiman [Ben]. She said I am glad to meet Y’all, thanks again for helping me. We asked her where she lived and she said, “she lived 3 mountain ranges over from here, she has been all alone since losing her mother and father almost a year ago. We tell her she is welcome to stay with us, and she said that just sounds perfect. I have been very lonely!

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  • New Friend

    New Friend

    As I wake up to the smell of breakfast, that Oliver and Sophia had prepared. We had breakfast together, and I let them know I was going out, and it might be a day or two before I return. I tell them, that I am going out to find me, a sow friend and mate. I’m very happy this morning, I’ve decided since Luna wasn’t available, I would need to find myself a sow, that would make me happy, and I could spend my life with. I not feeling depressed at all, I’m taking an approach, that will keep me happy, and not just a temporary fix. 

    I know everyone on my mountain range, North Mountain, and there are no available sows on this mountain. I have decided I will cross over Stone Coal Gap Road, and see if I can find me a beautiful sow, on that mountain range. I’ll stop by and say hi to Lucy and James, it’s been over a week since I was there. Lucy was excited to see me, and we decided we would fish for a few minutes. Lucy said James has gone out in search of game to fill the freezer. She not sure if he will have any luck. He assured me he would, that Oliver had taught him well. I didn’t bring my pole so we decided to fish the bear way. The bear way actually fills the basket much faster, and that would be good, so I can get on my way, my goal of hunting for a sow. It only took us 45 minutes, to catch 2 baskets full of native trout. Lucy said thanks. She tells me to be on the outlook for James. I told her that I would.

    I am now up in the steep part of the mountain, close to the rocks and to my right I see James. He has 2 deer that he had killed. I guess that Oliver did teach him well. I went over and congratulated him on his deer. He said that down below he had left 2 rabbits and a turkey in the little cave, they had left the turkeys in while hunting with Oliver. I tell him I was going looking for a sow, but I’d help him get the deer to the den. He said he has all day to get them to the den, go find yourself a sow. He said I know how good a sow makes him feels. James says he has never been happier than now, that himself and Lucy are together.

    I cut back to my left and head to find a good sow. It was a couple of miles to the 1st den that I came to. There was a young boar and sow couple there, I tell them I am just out meeting all the neighbors. I didn’t want to sound that he was desperately looking to find a sow. The young couple invites him in for supper and tells him he might as well spend the night, and head out in the morning. He accepted the offer. We had possum and greens for main dish and then she brought out a blueberry pie. I think I could of eating the whole pie, it was sooo delicious. We sat around and talked some, and I asked where the closest neighbor was. Well Tom’s den is just a holler away, but it is down low. I said OK I’ll visit them in the morning. He slept well that night, and woke the next morning, to a great a great sausage and turkey eggs breakfast. I tell them I have never had sausage, what is sausage. Its ground hog meat with sage, red pepper, and other seasoning in it. It was very delicious. I’ve heard of wild hogs but I didn’t think there was any around here so, I asked where the hog meat came from. He said there is farm over the top of the mountain that has hogs. So about twice a year, I’ll slip over and get one. I don’t go often; I have to be careful, I got a 12-gauge slug in my hip. 1st time being shot with a slug, it penetrates deep, it’s a good thing I didn’t get shot in the shoulder, or I be on their plates. I’m learning a bear’s life, can be difficult and painful. The next morning I tell them thanks for the hospitality, and tell them I’m headed to Tom’s. I hope Tom has a daughter and she will like me.

    I go over into the next holler then drop down low, I find Tom’s den, and he invites me in. I see no one else there. I introduce myself as Benjamin and he says he is Tom. I noticed that Tom is looking like he had just come out of hibernation, he is so thin and lanky. I asked if he was ok, he said no but thanks for asking. I asked if anything I could do to help him. He said give me my Lula back. I said I don’t have your Lula, I don’t even know who your Lula is. He said I know that you don’t have my Lula, but last winter Lula was killed, and she was carrying his soon to be family. This has devastated me. I hardly ever leave this den I occasional will go out and kill something, when the hunger gets so bad. I just sit here waiting to die. I said it sounds as though you are very lonely and depressed. Tom says, “yes I am.” I begin to tell Tom of Ceasar, and how he has helped him. I tell him I have almost a turkey bag left, I rolled him a large cigar, to let him smoke. Tom says, “he has never done anything like that before, I don’t know if I should.” I continue telling him about Ceasar and how he made him promise, that he would only use it if I am very depressed, and that doing other activities doesn’t help. Ceasar makes sure I wasn’t using marijuana for recreational smoking. I can tell we are way past where other activities may help. Let me light this marijuana cigar for you. But first you must tell me, you agree to all the above rules. He agrees and said, “yes if it can help, he will give it a try. I don’t really want to die, but I have nothing to live for. If this will help, I’ll give it a try.” I lit it for him and told him I would get him a bite to eat. Tom says the pantry is bare, that he might kill a possum a week to help with his hunger. Ok I’ll go and get you something to eat. I know the creek is just a short way below, so I’ll take a basket and go fishing. The creek was loaded with native trout, due to no fishing in it this year, by Tom, it took only took 10 minutes to fill the basket. Several were 15 to 18 in native trout. I guess that no fishing for a year has let the fish grow big. I head back up to the den, and Tom says, hey Ben did you get me anything to eat, I have the munchies now. I said, yeah smoking can give you the munches, plus you been starving yourself. Hopefully you are not as depressed now, which also will help make you to want to eat. Tom says that’s enough talk now give me that basket of fish. He ate every one of the fish in that 10-gallon basket. I have never seen a bear eat so much, not even when first coming out of hibernation. Tom then burped, excuse me, that was good.

    I asked how he was feeling now. He said that for the 1st time this year he is full, but I still miss my Lula, and the family she was giving me. I rolled him a double cigar and gave him. Tom said for me to have one with him. I can’t I promised Ceasar I wouldn’t use marijuana as a recreational drug, right now I’m not depressed.  Tom says yes, I remember you telling me that. I don’t know if I can ever get to where I’m not depressed. I begin to tell him about Luna, and how I had missed out on a relationship and having a family with her. She is very happy with my blood brother Maverick. By now Tom says he still depressed, but less than he has been since that dreadful day, when he lost his Lula. He then asked what is a blood brother and I tell him. I then tell him I was glad he was doing better, and that I would be right by his side, until he is no longer depressed. Ben is thinking to himself that this is good therapy for him, giving him a purpose in life, to make sure Tom is taking care of. I rolled him a regular size cigar and told him, I would be back shortly, I am going fishing again, and maybe do a little hunting to help fill the pantry.

    I was able to harvest a deer, I also brought back another basket of fish. Tom was in bed and snoring; I had a few fish for supper and cleaned rest of fish and deer and placed them in the freezer. I left the back straps of deer out for our morning breakfast. I knew after breakfast we will have to make a trip to see Ceasar, the marijuana supply is running very low. I’m hoping that Tom will go with me. Today has been good for me. I feel as though I have a purpose. I’m happy to have met Tom, and to have Tom as a new friend.

    I’m up early and waiting on Tom to wake up, before I start breakfast. Its 11 am, he is still snoozing. Well, a little after noon he is now awake and said, that was the best night’s sleep he has had in a long time. He thanked me for everything and wonder what time it was. He thought it was like 8 am. I said Well I guess I’ll fix lunch, since you had slept through breakfast. Tom recognized the smell of deer frying, he said is that some backstraps. We each had a backstrap with some greens. I tell Tom that I needed to get him more marijuana, I would love for you to come and meet Ceasar. Tom said he would love to; he needed to get out of his den for a while. I told him I was going to roll him a cigar before we head out. As depressed you have been, you will need the marijuana to remain in your system for a while.  

    We cross over Stone Coal Gap Road and go over past Samuels and Angels den, we didn’t see them so they may be visiting Luna and Maverick. Samuel had his poles sitting outside, so I left him a note that I was borrowing them, that I would have them back in a couple hours. I wanted to show Tom, some pleasure of fishing, the way a human would fish. Tom’s line no more than hits the water and he had one on his line. I showed him how to reel it in, it was a nice Rainbow trout. No ruler to measure with but it looked to be around 20 inches. That’s a large and strange, but beautiful native trout Tom said. I told him that farmer Brown had stocked them in his pond, and it’s a rainbow trout. We catch a couple more and then take the rods back to Samuel. I didn’t want to stay long and have another run in with that damn farmer Brown.

    We are now headed to Ceasars again and Tom said, “yesterday I was just sitting and waiting to die. I can’t thank you enough for everything you have helped me with, having you as a friend, I now have hope. I miss Lula so bad, but I now know with your help, and a little added help from Ceasar’s marijuana, I can get some joy back in my life. I have not had so much fun catching those fish, since I lost Lula.

    We are at Ceasar’s now, and I introduce Tom to Ceasar. I tell Ceasar all about Tom and how he loss Lula and his unborn cubs. How he has been depressed since this happened last winter, it’s been almost a year now. I told him, that he has smoked most of what I had left, of his marijuana. Ceasar’s tells Tom, “You have really had a tough time, I’m going to help you with a deer bag. He starts telling him of all the rules and stipulations.” I tell Ceasar I have told him everything, and he is willing to abide by all the rules. Tom was in tears that anyone would help him, the way myself and Ceasar have. He tells us both he will get his life back.

    Ok Tom, I said, we are now going to go to my mom’s [Sophia] and my dad’s [Oliver] now, if he didn’t mind. Tom said he would be honored to meet my parents. He said he was feeling just slightly nervous, so I rolled him a cigarette to smoke. I felt he didn’t need a big fat cigar now. We had a nice walk to my den.

    When we get to the den Sophia and Oliver says who your friend, he doesn’t look like a sow friend. This is my new friend Tom; I met him while looking for a sow. I’m glad I did, he was sitting in his den and just waiting to die. I have helped him with food, I introduced him to Ceasar, he was given a deer bag of marijuana. I have showed him how to fish, with a fishing pole and catch rainbow trout. Sophia said you didn,t go back to farmers Brown pond did you. Yes, but I kept a sharp eye out for farmer Brown. I tell her that meeting Tom, has been so good for me, by having a friend and having a purpose is helping me. Sophia said you are a good bear.

    Sophia goes in to fix supper for everyone and Tom says they are nice. Tom then says you are a great friend; I know I havn’t known you that long, but I would love to be your blood brother, I mean if you would like to. I tell Tom that I would be honored to be his blood brother. So, we became blood brothers and now I have 2 blood brothers. With a new blood brother. I’m wondering could things get any better. Or what may tomorrow bring?

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