This just came from Helen Morrison: 

Hi Jane,

I just spent a very nice twenty minutes watching a mother bear and her two yearling cubs munch their way through my dandelions.  I had just read on www.bear.org that, while they are waiting for their natural foods to ripen up, they will eat dandelion flowers.  It was pretty funny watching how delicately they nipped off the flowers.  They were somewhat interested in my house and especially garage where I keep sunflower bird seed.  But they seemed to know they couldn't get in, had their fill of those yellow blossoms, and meandered off.  It was great.

A few minutes later I had another message from Helen about Tux, a sweet black and white male kitty (pictured here on our walkway in 2007) she took in when he needed a home.

 

Was it you who told me that Tux had gone into a house down by the water and sauntered around until he looked up and saw a bear head mounted on the wall and he bolted out the door?  Well, he saw the bears today in my yard, out the window, and he disappeared.  I haven't found him yet.  He must have had a bad encounter once in his more wild days.

 

Tux roamed the neighborhood, visiting us but was not well received by our cat, Woody.  He spent a summer getting handouts when and where he could, and had a regular stop with a couple on Sandy Beach Road.  He got pretty comfortable there until one day he decided to explore the house, perhaps to determine if it would be an acceptable permanent home.  But then he saw the bear.  He took off and never went back.

 

I hope it doesn't take Tux too long to recover from the fright of seeing his old supposed enemies.