I Thought He Was Kidding

Rudy went turkey hunting on the morning of April 27th. It was his only chance to go all year because we've had so much rain and so much other stuff going on. He left earlier than I care to imagine. He goes way out in the middle of the middle of nowhere - no, that's not a typo - it's really that far out there. The last time he went he made a photocopy of his topographical map and highlighted the area where he would be...just in case.

He called me at about 10:30 and said he was on his way home. I automatically assumed he had killed a turkey because why else would be coming home that early? He said that he hadn't killed a turkey but that he had been in the woods long enough. He then began to tell me about sitting in the woods with a gun strong enough to kill a turkey and seeing a BEAR. Yep. A bear.

No, this is not the exact bear that Rudy saw. Just a bear - exactly like the kind of black bear one might find in the mountains of Arkansas.

Back to the story...

So, Rudy is hunting and sees a bear. He then tries to calmly return to his truck without losing sight of the bear. As he is doing so, he hears a huge splash and looks toward the nearby pond, where he sees a BIGGER BEAR. Apparently bear number one was the offspring of bear number two. Now - I'm no hunter, but I know that you don't come between Mama Bear and Baby Bear and get away with it easily.

Rudy was fortunate. He managed to get back to his truck safely and had just enough phone battery to call me to say he was coming home. It took a while for it to settle in that my husband had just seen a real bear that was not in a zoo. Once that sunk in, I was more than a little freaked out, but just glad that he made it home safely.

On a slightly freakier note - just before Rudy called me to say he was coming home, Caleb was playing with some animal toys and looked up at me and said, "Grrrr, Daddy." Spooky!