NORTHAMPTON, MA | This is the bear-faced truth, as reported by Art Greaves, a retired USAF M/SGT formerly of Littleton, NH and a long-time resident here in the Pioneer Valley. "It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting in a chair in the driveway, facing my garage, and reading the instructions on how to operate my new cordless lawn trimmer.

"Suddenly, there's something breathing hot air on me and smelling my arm. I look to the left and I'm looking a very large female black bear straight in the eye.

"I stared her down and she ran off.

"No, what actually happened was I jumped out of the chair and yelled JESUS CHRIST!

"This startled the bear. She ran into our back yard, climbed over the fence, and landed on the bike path.

" Meanwhile, her two very small cubs -- they were still wearing their brown coats -- were at the end of the driveway. They quickly scampered into the yard next door and climbed high into a tall tree.

"Mama Bear climbs over the neighbor's back stockade fence, balances her way across the top, drops back onto the bike path and comes around the end of our house. She is looking for her babies.

© 2009 Art Greaves

"She hears/sees/smells them up in the tree. Up she climbs. They all stay up there for about 90 minutes.

© 2009 Art Greaves

"Mama Bear finally climbs down and waits. The cubs soon follow.

© 2009 Scott Greaves

"They saunter across the street and flop down under a large tree and take a nap.

"The police were called. They didn't show. Lots of bears roam these parts. Another exciting afternoon in Northampton."

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I was at Art and Judy's house two weeks ago. I asked him if he had seen any bears. He said no. Good that he and his grandson Scott had their digital cameras on hand.]

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Copyright © 2009 Art Greaves/Log Cabin Chronicles/06.09