Way to go, guard dog

Woody’s been kind of a pain lately, getting us up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Then I noticed the other day that the cover had been pried off a solar light on the deck. The light resembles a bird feeder. Must be raccoons – it was too heavy for even a very ambitious squirrel. Maybe that’s what Woody has been hearing at night.

Tuesday night I saw a big black shape on our deck moving past the patio table. Way too big to be a raccoon. Black bear. He prowled past the table to the edge of the deck toward that solar light. So that means two things, both bad: he’s been coming up on our deck at night, and he’s accustomed to raiding bird feeders.

I turned on the outside light and he looked up, turned around and headed in the other direction as if he was going to get off the deck. Nope. Instead he went to the kitchen window where a bird feeder was hanging, stood up and started digging in. Damn. Okay, I’m a Montana girl. We have to get after a bear occasionally. I went out on the deck and shooed him off. At least they run when you do that, unlike raccoons. They just look at you like “Who the hell are you and why are you making that ridiculous noise? Now what do you have to eat around here?” I would have been armed, but the garden trowel was in the garage I had used up all the zucchini.

So the bird feeder is down for now and the solar light is put away as well. They’ll be denning up once it gets colder and the snow flies, but until then they’re on the prowl and getting up on our deck, and Woody’s apparently been trying to tell us that. Except for Tuesday night when I was shooing the bear away. THAT he slept through. Way to go, guard dog.