"For better or worse . . . or Bear"

Dean was the first to wake last night - to the sound of running water. Why was the deck faucet outside the kitchen pouring out water? As he went to explore and turn it off, he looked in through the now open kitchen window to see a bear in the kitchen. He came inside, picked up the pan and spoon, opened our bedroom door and banged. The bear took off back through the window.

Except Dean didn’t exactly see him exit the window. So I began to worry. Did he by Any chance go downstairs? We were lucky really - a bag of walnuts from the cabinet and bacon bits and one other something from the open fridge and lots of dirt around the sink was all the damage done. I poured more Pine Sol on the counter and we locked up and went back to bed. Except I kept wondering: did he go down stairs?

After lying wide-eyed and stiff for about 10 minutes I finally got Dean up again and when he asked if I wanted him to go look, I said, yes please. I hated to send him to do something I easily could have done myself, and I was not ready to go searching the house for a bear. So he went. No bear. No sign of bear. Elvis had left the building! Then I slept. And woke this morning to clean the kitchen and be grateful for such a small amount of damage. Plans for today include some more bear-prevention measures. Phew.