Our Evening Visitor

We had a visitor last night. Around 10pm, Steve and I both went to bed. Suddenly, we saw that the motion light on the garage had turned on. This happens occasionally, we look out, and either see nothing, or a raccoon or opossum. We look out the window and see - a huge black bear walk past my car, straight through the gate (which I apparently left open when I got home last night! oops) and into the yard. It walked directly to the garbage can, effortlessly pulled it over, grabbed a garbage bag, laid down, and began feasting. We watched from our bedroom window for a minute, then came downstairs to get a better look. We turned on the outside light, thinking we might startle it, but no. It just continued eating. I got out the camera and began snapping pictures of it. Unfortunately, the pictures being taken through the door were not coming out, so we opened the door and took pictures through the screen. Wouldn't you know it, those pictures were not coming out either. So, against Steve's wishes I opened the screen door just far enough to stick my hand and the camera out, and took some pictures. The bear, less than 10 feet away from me, completely ignored me. It looked up at me once, then resumed eating. I even stepped completely outside onto the back porch to get a better picture (which was difficult since it was very dark and the bear was very black - it just looks like a big black blob!), and the bear never even looked up. *
Of course, we had no idea how long this bear planned on staying, and all I could think was, "what if the wind blows the gate shut? How will the bear get out?" It looked extremely comfortable, lying on the ground, pawing through our garbage; it could have stayed for hours! We started making noises at it, whisper-yelling (so as not to wake Emmalee) for it to go away. It was not tagged, so I thought maybe we should call the police. As we were deliberating over whether to call and report it or not, the bear got up and walked out of the yard. Steve put on shoes and ran out to shut the gate. It was at that moment that the bear spun around and charged him! Just kidding.
So this morning we couldn't decide whether or not to tell Emmalee about the bear. You see, anytime we are away from home and we come back at night, she reminds us to shut the gate so that bears can't get in. I always say, "Emmalee, no bears are going to come through our gate. And even if there WAS a bear and the gate WAS shut, if it wanted to get in, it would."
Also, EVERY night when she says her bedtime prayers, Emmalee prays "and please don't let me have any bad dreams about bears". So I didn't think we should tell her. But Steve wanted to. And there was garbage all over the yard. So he shows her the garbage and asks her what she thought did that. Immediately, she says "a bear", with a very worried look on her face. Then we showed her the pictures and explained that it was only interested in our garbage, not in us. In the background of the picture, Emmalee notices that the gate is open and turns to me, "And why did you leave the gate open??"
It turns out she was fine with us telling her, and even thought it was really cool that the bear was in the yard. And I think from now on we will keep the garbage bins in the garage. As glad as I am that I finally saw a bear, I don't think I want one in our yard again!

*okay - before you think I'm a complete idiot for going outside - let me rephrase - I stood on the back porch with the screen door open in front of me - I leaned around the door to take the picture, did not shut the door behind me, the door stayed in between me and the bear, who, like I said, was not even remotely interested in me.