Hey DARYL - have you run across this guy?

That got my day off to a laughing start, thanks!

MUST SEE

😀 😀 😀 😀

I met a guy named Bob at a neighborhood Halloween party who's girlfriend lives here in town. Bob lives in northern Idaho, and told me the following tale. His girlfriend, whom I don't know but seems totally normal, corroborated everything he said. I present the information as it was related to me:

Bob has a pet grizzly named Buddy. He said that years ago (18 years?) he was picking huckleberries and didn't hear Buddy's mom approaching. She grabbed his head in her jaws (he offered to show me the scars, but I declined), and it took 5 shots from his sidearm to get her to let go. Having killed the sow he felt responsible for the cub, so he took him home, named him Buddy, and raised him like a pet dog. He says that Buddy has the run of the house, watches TV with Bob and his son, and has never shown any signs of hostility toward them.

Bob's girlfriend said that Buddy makes her nervous, but that he's never actually shown any hostility toward her.

Buddy doesn't like artificial scents, so Bob has to caution visitors not to wear any perfume or aftershave. He says that when a visitor makes Buddy nervous Buddy starts chattering his teeth, whereupon Bob knows that he has to lock him up in another room until the visitor is gone.

Buddy likes to play with a 500-pound boulder in the yard, and rolls it around like a basketball.

Bob claims that one of his own favorite games is to sneak up on a sleeping grizzly (a wild one, mind you) and slap it on the ass. He says that the bear's reaction is always to run away, and that Bob has never had a problem doing this. He does note that he never leaves the house unarmed. He lives on a 1,000-acre parcel a stone's throw from the Canadian border, and contracts with Idaho Fish & Game (or whatever the agency is called) to care for injured and/or nuisance animals.

Make of this what you will. I still don't know how much to believe, but as I said, his girlfriend seems entirely credible and didn't dispute anything Bob told me.

"Bob claims that one of his own favorite games is to sneak up on a sleeping grizzly (a wild one, mind you) and slap it on the ass."

Yeah boy, that's the first thing I'd do!

My only encounter with those people eaters is on the Discovery Channel. 😉

Just a fine point here... there are only WILD grizzlies. Also years ago when I worked in northern Idaho for the USFS, they said there were no grizzlies in Idaho. We worked on a camp job in the Bitterroots and had plenty of trouble with the black bears.

Mike - still need to talk to you. Give me a call sometime.

> Also years ago when I worked in northern Idaho for the USFS, they said there were no grizzlies in Idaho.

I have no direct experience in this regard, but I found the following on the Idaho Fish & Game site:

> Long ago, grizzly bears lived in every part of Idaho. Now they are only found in the northern part of Idaho and in eastern Idaho close to Yellowstone National Park.

Bob's description of his location comports with the above.

This guys name is Mark, but looks real to me :-S