What follows is the account of Teena’s encounter with a polar bear on the evening of October 6, 2004 near her home on the Colville River Delta. It was written the morninig after the incident.
I
mixed up ice-cream sugar-milk mix after dinner. Toby was nervous
and
wanted outside, so I let him out ahead of me. (I normally never
let him
go with me when I'm getting snow mixed in ice-cream mix so he won't get
around
the clean snow I find to use. Praise God, I didn't think of that this
time,
only that he was impatient to be let out.)
I
walked out looking around for some soft clean snow deep enough to
scoop up
into my bowl. There was a small mound of snow beside the wood
pile Aaron
had stacked up earlier in the fall just NE of the garage. I
walked over
there and was just leaning down to start scooping snow when I looked up
and a
small polar bear was charging toward me, coming from the direction of
the river
porch (SW). I immediately recognized it as a large
cub. (Jim
thinks it is probably at least a two year old.) It was still big
enough
to stop my heart as it charged me! I don't know if I screamed at
that
point...I don't remember saying any words...just instant thoughts that
a BIG
mamma bear had to be right behind this small bear. I took steps
backwards
and the bear came on lunging toward me. I threw the whole bowl,
bowl
contents, and large spoon at the bear's face as he grabbed for
me. I
saw the sugary milk splash all over his face, top of his head and
neck.
That stopped him momentarily and he turned to look at the bowl hitting
the
ground to his one side, but was turning back toward me just as Toby
came around
the inside corner of the woodpile barking and snarling
ferociously. That
again turned the bear away from me and I turned and ran around
the back
of the garage and powerhouse, pausing to look carefully around the
building,
still expecting to see a bigger mamma bear. The way was clear so
I dashed
to the front corner of the powerhouse, paused to look again and seeing
no
threat, I ran to the house, and practically crawled up the steps in a
panic. Toby's barks and growls continued ferociously indicating a
fierce
fight, but I didn't turn to look, nor could I have seen them, since the
fight
had moved closer to the riverbank and was hidden by the garage.
I
ran in the house screaming (literally "bloody murder", as the saying
goes) Jim's name, and he came out of the sitting room wondering what
was going
on. I screamed that a polar bear had Toby, and that Toby had just
saved
my life...go help him!!! Jim told me to keep calling Toby back to
the
house, which I did desperately from the porch doorway. A shotgun
was not
on the porch like usual and Jim hesitated as to the quickest action to
take.
He then remembered the shotgun just inside the powerhouse door and ran
for
it. He was frantically getting the shotgun to load - there was a
slight
jamming problem - as he ran around the corner of the garage. Jim
said at
that point he saw Toby's woefully begging eyes looking at him from
under the
bear, who had Toby pinned down with its jaws clamped on the top of
Toby's
neck. Toby was no longer barking, and pretty helpless at that
point. Perhaps he had turned his back on the bear to run toward
my
calling voice and the bear pounced on his back. We don't know
since we
hadn't been able to see the fight.
Jim
then leveled the gun and shot the bear broadside and high, trying to
miss
Toby. The bear was thrown sideways, releasing Toby, who jumped up
and ran
to Jim. Toby started to run back toward the bear again when Jim
shot
again and the bear collapsed.
Jim
brought Toby immediately to the house and located fresh ammo and got
outdoor
gear on to go back out. There was still the strong possibility of
another
bear nearby. He first confirmed that the young bear was dead -
Yes.
Then he carefully walked around looking for other tracks or evidence of
where
the cub had come from. Tracks showed it was only one bear and
he'd been
around looking for food for awhile, even dragging a muskox skull
off the
bench on the deck. How he could do that without us hearing or
seeing it
is amazing. Perhaps Toby had been hearing something, which is
what had
made him nervous and wanting out. We've had foxes all around
since freeze-up
and Toby has barked a lot over them, both from inside the house and
outside. So I'm still puzzled why Toby didn't indicate by barking
about
any sounds the bear must have been making earlier. TV noise
probably
disguised it, is my guess.
Anyway,
tracks showed the single bear had followed Jim and Toby's tracks down
the
riverbank from the northeast as they returned earlier in the day from
walking
over to close the big hanger doors. The bear seemed too young to
be on
its own so has been separated from its mother for whatever
reason? Perhaps
she was killed?
We
left the bear lay where it fell for the night (it was nearly
dark by
then and we still didn't know if another bear would show up), but we
reported
to Fish & Wildlife. They have no problem with the kill in
defense of
life, and plan to come retrieve the hide and skull as soon as weather
permits. It is snowing and blowing right now.
We
skinned the bear this morning. It isn't that much larger then
Toby
length-wise, but weighs considerable more, stood taller, and was much
more
robust then Toby...a BIG rolly-polly cub. It wasn't starving but
the fat
still on it had turned pink like it was being reabsorbed, which
indicates the
cub must have been on its own and gone without food for awhile.
If it had
been an experienced killer, Toby wouldn't have stood a chance.
Just
writing about the encounter has my stomach tied in knots. I
hardly slept
all night. I couldn't stop thinking about the "what if"s like
what if I hadn't let Toby out with me, or what if there was a
mother
bear around... We discovered by following the tracks, that Toby
had gone
straight out and picked up the bear’s tracks around the
warehouse. It was
a NE wind, so the smell of the tracks attracted Toby first, while the
bear itself
must have been on or near the SW side deck when we first went out
(downwind for
us, but not him). Toby was just returning from over by the
warehouse when
he got to me just in time. Had he been a second later, I'm pretty
sure
the bear would have had me in his jaws.
Well,
I've reread Psalm 121:7-8 several times this morning: "The Lord will
keep
you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will
watch
over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
By
the way...about Toby. His head and neck were all wet with bear
slobbers
and tuffs of loose hair were all over, but no blood or wounds that we
could
find. Although the bear's teeth are full of Toby's hair, it seems
that
Toby's tough collar and thick hide and hair on the top of his neck
protected
him just long enough. Like I said, had it been an older
bear, I'm
sure that wouldn't have been the case. Toby's neck must be sore
because
he wouldn't let me try to clean off his neck last night. However,
he
rolled and rolled in the snow and let me rub snow into his hair this
morning.
This
episode certainly reinforces the need to be especially observant before
venturing outside this time of year, and take Toby with me!