The Bear Essentials...

I think I've found the true test of whether you're cut out for lake living or just a pretender. Here it is:

When you wake up one morning to find a bear on your patio do you...?

1. Shake in your boots too freaked out to move

2. Call the kids to look, get on the phone to let your neighbors know and notify your local game warden

3. Whip out your gun and start shooting

Pretty obvious, right? Well, you'd be surprised. Seems we have a new visitor this month to our Lake Anna development (won't tell you which one, you'll understand why in a minute) and he/she's furry, big and black with a passion for trash cans and bird feeders.

The community reacted just as it should. Emails started circulating and the homeowner's association spread the official word from our local game warden about what we need to do to keep ourselves safe and to encourage our visiting black bear to move on.

Here is a link to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries on the Virginia black bear. This really isn't anything new for Lake Anna and Louisa county, we have bears here. Truth is, they've been here a lot longer than we have.

But based on the reaction in our development, you'd think this was some menacing beast just prowling around waiting for the opportunity to eat our children and pets. In fact, one of our residents promised he'd take care of the bloodthirsty "vicious wild animal" himself and he was well-armed enough to do it. What nonsense.

Ultimately, I think the outrage from our community and a repeated recitation of the law forbidding the killing of this bear may have finally sunk in for this vigilante bear hunter. Alerting the game warden probably didn't hurt deliver that message either. But this is a lesson for everyone living and loving the limited wild Lake Anna can still offer. The wildlife (big and small) which we share this space with deserve our respect. A little common sense goes a long way ensuring we can coexist happily.

As one neighbor put it...if you can't live with that then you should stick to the suburbs.