Murphy: Bear Hunter

So, a couple of nights ago around 12 am, Murphy started to bark and growl and patrol the front room, concentrating on the back of the house. He has done this a couple of times before, but we were never able to figure out why until now. See the double set of green eyes in the tree? That's right, bear cubs. We had seen this pair with mama out in the woods a couple of times, but never had the camera.

The cubs were making these crazy sounds, almost like talking. Their claws made a sound like the crushing of aluminum cans on the tree bark, so Kelly and I though it might be a person looking for cans and maybe a little altered. So we grab the flashlight and start looking around. Nothing. Head back in and seconds latter, same noises, Murphy barking - What the Hell?!!

Then Kelly spots them with the light - "the babies!" she cries out. "The babies? WHERE THE HELL IS MOM?????!!!!" was my response. I quickly found the camera and got some shots off, then we headed back inside. Mom never was spotted and the cubs climbed down about five minutes latter and were gone.



We credit Murphy going Guard Dog for the cubs heading up the tree. When we last spotted mom, she was injured, so we are hoping that the cubs were sent up the tree by mom and are not on their own.

Here's old footage of Murphy's guard dog behavior.