Elbert and the Bear!

Well, we finally have a story to tell about our new home in Elbert.  We like it and hope you get a kick out of it as well.

At 0000 hours, our two mini-dachshunds started barking loudly.  I got up and yelled at them to shut-up.  They did and I laid down.  But... after thinking about it for a minute or so, I rose, grabbed the gun and went downstairs to do a check.  I found nothing and Lisa, at the top of the stairs, handed me the night vision device and told me the dogs probably just had to go.  So I let them out in the barn proper and scanned the area for intruders - nothing.  So, we put the dogs to sleep and went back to sleep ourselves.

At 0315 hours, Lisa woke me up and told me that Marbles was at the bedroom window growling.  I reminded her that I had to get up in a couple of hours and then rolled over.  At that moment, we both hear a loud band and Lisa told me the outside security light had been activated.  Ok, here I go again.  I take the gun and night vision goggles and go back downstairs.  I scanned the area, again, and saw nothing.  But something had activated the night lights.  As I finished my scan, I heard a vehicle (probably from the highway nearby) and another loud noise.  I put the two together and was determined that no one was going to rob our house (yeah, right, we're prime targets living in a barn...).  In my underwear, I ran to the front door with gun in hand.  I flung open the first door (we have a screen door to the outside) and came nearly face-to-face with a medium-sized black bear; it was about 3-4' away and finishing up with our trash can (not much was in it).  I elected to not go after it but instead called to Lisa to hurry down to see it as the bear slowly moved down our long driveway towards the highway.

The next morning I cleaned up the trash and as I turned towards the house I saw that our visitor had torn the screen and its claw marks were clearly defined in the screen.  The bear could not have made it through the metal door but it sure makes an interesting story...  Here's the screen.

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