Is That A Bear...AGAIN?

The McLaughlins must be a wildlife magnet!
Remember last year's Mutual of Omaha's Wildlife Kingdom adventure in Mammoth? There were huge deer on the golf course, a black bear (that was actually brown) while the guys were fishing, and to top it off, a pack of wolves or coyotes howling on the front porch in the middle of the night.

Well, this year, we all go on hike after hike up in the mountains, by lakes and rivers...and....no bears. (Which was, just fine with me!)

Then, it's about 8pm and Brendan and I walk out of the condo to get a load of laundry out of the dryer. Kevin is about 30 seconds ahead of us. The one gate closest to the pool and laundry room was locked, so you had to walk through the small parking lot, and come in the other gate. Right as we get to the parking lot, about 2 car lengths in front of us, a big fat dog goes trotting by. It's dark, and I'm squinting...what the heck? Is that an afghan hound? That is the fattest......"IT'S A BEAR!" Brendan excitedly says. I'm sure it's not a bear, I answer, it's just a really big,...fat...dog. Just then, Kevin comes over to us inside the gate, and says, be careful, there's a bear in the parking lot. Yeah! Got it!
After a few jokes with Kevin about him being more attractive to the bear than me or Brendan, we headed back to the condo. Kevin stayed inside the gate with his friend Dave and chatted, giving the bear time to move on, before coming back in.

A local told me the ranger station knows the names and locations of all the local bears. He also said 5 home break-ins a year is a lot. This year, they have had 40, 23 by the same bear! I guess they stand up, push on the front door a few times until it opens, then they walk into the kitchen...instant food. No berry picking or fishing. The bears will often have a regular route worked out...like a milkman in reverse, and they aren't wise enough to vary their route so as not to get caught. So I asked if the bear would come back to the condo parking lot looking for food. He said probably, yes. Sure enough, Bryson drove up in his car the next night with his cousins, and he said it was just as I had described...a really furry, big, fat dog trotting through the next complex parking lot, then climbed over a rock and through the bushes to our condo parking lot. Ah, yes, life in Mammoth.