So, this past Sunday morning I discovered that BOTH of the birdfeeders in the back yard had been completely destroyed. That's right... DESTROYED! One of them had been pulled off of the rope that it hung on and the square metal frame was bent. Craig, even with the help of his massive muscles, couldn't bend it back into shape. The other feeder which consisted of a hard plastic cylinder and a tray to catch the seeds at the bottom, had been smashed. Two of the perches had been broken off and the tray which was screwed into the bottom of the cylinder had been torn off. Needless to say I was very confused... what kind of bird or squirrel would have done this kind of damage.
Craig immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was some wild teenager with nothing better to do now that school's out for summer... I swear he's slowly truning into a grumpy old man. I insisted that it probably wasn't a kid and that it was likely a racoon or some other type of animal. A couple of days later I was talking to a neighbor about what had happened and she told me that there have been at least FOUR black bear sightings in the neighborhood over the last couple of weeks! My neighbor said that one of her friends who lives on the other side of the neighborhood had had three birdfeeders destroyed and that the bear had even been seen coming onto someone's back porch looking for food. Within the past two days I have heard MULTIPLE radio and TV reports about the increase in bear sightings in the area. These reports also advised that people refrain from leaving food or garbage outdoors and to also hang birdfeeders high out of the bears' reach. There was even an article about the bear sightings in our neighborhood in today's paper. So, I guess this is for real... I knew I was moving to the mountains when I came to Tennessee, but I don't remember agreeing to the whole bears in the backyard thing! Who would have thought?!?
