Charles' wish came true!

Tonight after supper we all settled in to watch the premiere of 'V'. I was on the couch lounging with Ginger on my lap, Kiwi on my leg, Luna & I sharing a pillow and Minnie Mae was settling kind-of on top of Ginger and half of my lap. We were piled either under or on top of an afghan and super cozy. Charles was on the love seat watching 'V' intently. In fact, he had just asked me to rewind it 'cause he missed a part. Then I heard a noise coming from behind us in the general direction of the dining room. We have these baseboard heaters that sometimes make noise when they get started up, so I wasn't really paying attention. Then I heard another noise that sounded like one of the cats jumping down from the dining room table.
"Did you hear that?", I asked Charles knowing that he was better able to move around and see what it was than I was with a lap full of critters.
He gave a quick look and said, "It's just a cat."
Well, with 2 of the 3 cats on my lap, that left Elphaba, who is not known for being up on the dining room table. But...oh well.
Then I hear the noise again, big thump-thump followed by some serious scratching.
I say, slightly alarmed, "That is NOT a cat!" This makes Charles roll off the love seat and walk to the back door. Because I want to see what it is too, I pause the show and push all the animals off my lap and get up. Just as I round the couch I hear Charles yell,
"It's the damn bear!!!"
I see Charles' head in the door frame and just beyond I see the head of an upright bear on our back deck! Holy crap! I was frozen. I couldn't think of what to do, what not to do. Charles freaks and starts to say, "We've got to lock the deadbolt. Where are the keys? Where are the keys?!!!"
"I have no idea where they are, but what will locking the door matter?"
Charles looks out the door once more and sees the bear moving off the porch and down the driveway side of the house/towards the front so he yells,
"It's headed for the front! It's going around front!"
He takes off in search of the keys while I jump up on the love seat to see if I can see where the bear is going. I see nothing. I walk to the front window to see if the bear is coming up the front steps when Charles comes back with the keys and turns the dead bolt on both doors. I nervously giggle and ask,
"If a bear really wants to come in here what is a dead bolt gonna do?"
We turn off all the house lights and get flashlights and are searching out window to window to see where he went. We saw no more bear but were both really spooked.
In wondering what brought that bear to the back deck we figured that we have not fed Luna out there in months. BUT, Luna did catch a bird a couple of nights ago, bring it to the back deck to eat it, but didn't eat it all. There was some bird remains left on the deck-but not after the bear was gone.... I'll just bet that bear wanted that bit of bird. That is what I am going with!

Someone asked me for photos this time, but because I was rooted in fear during most of this visit, I never went for my camera. So, I'll give you this by-standers rendering. Enjoy!!




This is encounter has me wondering a few things:
1. Is it time we bought a gun?
2. Do dogs really need water to survive?
3. Where was Kiwi during all this activity? Why didn't that dummy bark? Or quietly growl a warning at least? Like, "Hey, there is something big and spooky out there and I'm a bit too scared to bark at it. But y'all should really do something."
4. When does hibernation begin?
5. Am I going to have to watch for all of Luna's kills and pick up her leftovers?
6. Why did Charles wait to tell me until after tonight's visit that PA has the largest amount of brown bears in the US? Huh? Wasn't there a better time than NOW to tell me this?!

I really do not like bears....one tiny bit.