Bear with me (yuk yuk yuk)

We had a black bear in our neighborhood last night. Yipes!

Understand that, while I do in fact live on Butt Mountain*, I also live in the middle of a fairly large subdivision. There are lots of cars driving around, people walking, dogs roaming around, the whole works. So this was something of a surprise.

However, we're not the only ones in this area having CEBK (Close Encounters of the Bear Kind.) From today's local newspaper:

ASHEVILLE-- A record bear population in the North Carolina mountains has led more of the beasts to look for food near areas where humans work and live.

An abundance of acorns, grapes and other forest food sources has allowed bear populations to build to a record 10,000 this year, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission biologist Mike Carraway said.

While most bears feed on the readily available nuts, they are opportunistic and will eat garbage, seeds from household bird feeders, and even sometimes kill and eat livestock, Carraway said. Bears attack livestock an average of about once a year in western North Carolina.

On Monday, a llama guarding sheep at a Buncombe County farm had to be euthanized after it was badly mauled by a black bear.

"The llama was probably defending its territory and its sheep against the bear," Carraway said.

An adult llama weighs up to 500 pounds and can readily chase off coyotes, but they're no match for a bear, Buncombe County Extension Service livestock agent Jeff Bradley said.

A llama. Guarding its sheep.*


*Can't make this shit up.

Tonight: GLEE! *puts a ring on it*

Edit: Oh! Hey, berreh, you may be amused to hear that after all my squealing about wanting to see Paranormal Activity, I woke up in the middle of the night last night because of some unidentified noises...and now I'm not so sure I need to see this movie after all. O_O