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OK this isn’t truly a post about renovations, or even about our house, but just a week ago we were up north at a cottage for a few weeks and heard a strange noise at night. Thinking is was the dog getting into something we said something out loud about getting out of the garbage, but then looked over and saw the dog in the chair right next to us. So what was it making that noise?

When we went to the screen door on the cottage the dog barked and this huge black shape took off from right in front of us. Yup, you guessed it; a bear!

And what do bears like the most? That’s right; garbage and he was really bent on getting into ours.

Bears are strong and have strange dining preferences.

As you can see the garbage enclosure is secured to the side of the cottage and has a really heavy lid to prevent less determined wildlife from getting in. But this was one determined bear.

After the first time he took off, he came back again to check out the situation. I had my car keys and remotely set off the car alarm which didn’t really faze him too much but he sauntered away for a little while.

At this point I got the number for the Government “Bear Hotline” thinking that they’d be able to give me something concrete to do about the situation. They took my name address phone number and then told me that really there’s very little you could do except make sure that the doors were locked (check) and everyone was inside (check). They did say to call the local police if it was threatening, but really, I couldn’t see the bear sticking around to welcome the officers with some banana peels and coffee grounds when they showed up.

So we kinda let the bear come back and do his thing and instead of lifting the lid, he ripped right into the side of the box. Gives you a little more respect for nature.