Bear Sighting Number 3

So, one of my cousins has come to visit us this entire week! It has been great getting to spend so much time with her since she lives in PA and I never get to! We had a fun day at Chimney Rock...yes we hiked and I am not in shape. We were expecting to see some sort of wildlife but we just saw bugs. So, I told her how every year we get a black bear in the yard. Anyways, we had a good time.

Then we came home...I took the dogs out since Jack was begging to play fetch in the front yard. I had asked Josh earlier this week when he thought we would see our next bear since every year we have lived here, we have had one of these black fuzzy visitors. He told me we would probably see one before winter..before they hibernate. That is usually when they come. WELL...I go outside with the dogs (who are loose of course). Maggie is whining, not coming off of the front porch and I figure she is just cranky cuz we are in the yard and she is not. Well, I thought about fetching the ball towards the woods but for some reason decided not to. Boy am I glad I didn't. I hear a loud crunch and decide to check it out (usually when I hear crunching it is birds or other small animals)--well it was a big black bear down the front yard by our creek. (Maybe this is why Maggie was whining??) I don't know how long he had been near us and he did not seem bothered to be close to us but I was bothered. I grabbed Maggie by the collar and told Jack to come inside and thank GOD he followed me in without seeing the bear. I do not know what he would have done if he had seen it. Thankfully we all got inside safely. My parents and my cousin were here so they all got to take a peek at him! So, my cousin believes me...that we have bears from time to time. We went out on the front porch so I could try to get a picture of him but he went into the brush. So, we listened to him walk slowly toward our neighbor's house and I have no picture. But if you have been keeping up with our bears, he is in between the size of the first and second one we have had here so far.

You never know when you will have an exciting experience at the Stones!
It has been about 30 minutes and I am just now calming down. Haha.