We had a surprise visit from the bear at the next door cabin last night. He or she tore open a porch screen and walked through the living room to get to the kitchen. Where it open cabinets and pulled the refrigerator so far from the wall it unplugged. Leaned it over and pulled the racks and door rails out. For some reason the door gasket got messed up, and at first when we started looking at it, the door wouldn't close. In the excitement, the microwave got pulled onto the floor and the plastic door exterior shattered, and the door was sprung. Cupboard doors were opened, and some spices pulled out, but no dishes were broken. It bit a hole in the mustard bottle , but wasn't interested in more mustard, or barbecue sauce, either. I think there is a bottle of catsup gone MIA. The favorite treats were the contents of the sugar canister and two tubs of butter/margarine, all licked clean. The flour canister has bite marks on the lid, and some of the flour was dumped out in the living room, but the flour didn't get eaten.

There was dirt all over the outside of the refrigerator, and because we had weekend guests coming today, we are using a bungee cord to hold the refrigerator door shut. It could have been a lot worse - we had a spare microwave, and the refrigerator still works, although the bungee is a bit primitive. There is caulk holding the gasket on, and maybe once it sets, the door will be okay without the bungee. We might try to replace the gasket ($40) before deciding to get a whole new fridge.

This particular bear is probably the same one that was at the next neighborhood east of here, about 2 miles away last week. That one went all around the house trying the doors, and finally broke out the panes of a French door to get inside.

I posted a heads-up for the neighborhood on Facebook about the bear, and later a state Parks & Wildlife guy who is on that Facebook group dropped by to tell me that they want us to report any bear encounters to their agency, even if it's just them getting into the trash, so the officers can try to help us haze the bears early on, before they get bolder and start breaking into houses. We shouldn't be afraid calling it in will automatically mean a death sentence for the bear; I told him my thinking was that I felt guilty that it happened in the first place, and not CPW's problem. But they want it to be their problem, so we're supposed to call if we see the bear, and they will come shoot it with rubber buckshot.

Another thing he said was when they come and go like that, without anyone scaring them off, they will come back soon, around the same time of day/night, so we need to watch out for it to come back. He set up a game camera, too, in case they might be able to get a description of it.

Darn bears.

This was a few days ago, a daylight raid.