Cool Hand Luke: Bear Hunter

So we're out walking the loop at the Nordic Trails yesterday evening with the dog. It's a great place because it's an even surface for everyone to walk on and the scenery is great.

Plus, we can let the little mongrel off the leash so he can do some running and get some needed exercise.

About five minutes into our walk, Luke perks up like he does whenever he's noticed something in the woods. Something usually means an animal, be it deer, squirrel, gopher, bird or whatever and he's generally wise smart enough to know that (a) he's seen one of those before so it's no big deal and (b) I really shouldn't chase after that because the parents tend to get angry-slash-scared.


Not this time though. This time it was something new and needed to be investigated.

So off went our dog, darting through some fallen trees chasing after an animal that Sarah and I had yet to see and identify.

Twelve seconds later, the yelling started, pleaded with our pug to come back. He was chasing a brown bear.

Now, this wasn't a full-grown adult bear, but even this cub could have mauled our dog and that is all that went through our heads as we heard and watched our dog working his way towards his new friend. Then the strangest thing happened...

The bear started running away. From Luke. Who wasn't even barking or anything.

Realizing the fear in our voices and having watched the bear scamper away faster than he could manage, Luke returned to us with new found confidence and energy. It was as if he knew that he had just chased off a bear, something that really shouldn't have happened. I mean, since when are bears or any kind afraid of yappy little pug dogs?

The rest of the trip was uneventful - in part because we didn't see any more bears (or animals at all for that matter), but also because the canine explorer and bear hunter was secured to his leash.

It's been almost 24 hours since this happened and I still can't stop laughing about it.

My stupid dog chased after a brown bear in the bear's natural surroundings and the bear took off like a bat outta hell.

No wonder he thinks he's indestructible.

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D'You Know What I Did Today?

I went for a walk.

Me, the smoky bastard who used to drive around the corner to go to the store instead of marching the twelve steps it would have taken.

Well, not any more.

After waking up and spending a little time surfing - making up for lost time in the Dark Ages of Faye's house - I realized that I don't live in the frozen wasteland of Newfoundland anymore and it's well above freezing already, so why not get off my ass and get out of the house?

Okay, that's a bit of a lie.

The main reason for leaving was two-fold: Starbucks and a cigarette. Threefold if you include the search for the latest issue of Passion, featuring my profile of Joy T-Shirts.

Regardless, my intentions being whatever they were, it's still involved getting up and outdoors and walking to Starbucks, a location I remembered from our Bambi Killing extended stay here over Christmas.

No luck finding the new issue, but I did find myself a nice Venti WCM, took a quick glance through the latest issue of Naked Eye - it's a Canadian Pop Culture Mag you sick bastards - and strolled home in the beautiful sunshine and cool breeze.

The plan for the rest of the day is all about hyper-domesticity: unpacking the bags and getting situated in my (our) new room, grabbing a couple groceries at the awesome Italian bakery / deli behind the house and making an awesome dinner of Italian Sausage and Peppers pasta with a nice fresh loaf of crusty bread.

So far, so good... not that I was worried.

* * * * * * * * * *

Scored sushi at Ye's in Kitchener last night.

Best ever, no question. $25 All-You-Can-Eat, the freshest you can imagine and damn delicious.

Now, if they could get the servers to not throw everything at you, the joint would be perfect.

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