Do you believe in animal magnetism? Well, I disagree with you. Unless you answered yes. My cabin is a bear magnet. When I told Steve G about the third and final (I hope) bear break-in he asked, "Do you rub peanut butter on your door and sprinkle dog food around the cabin?" I said that I used lard instead of peanut butter but that I thought it should work just as well. But of course that was just the facetious banter of a couple of old veterans laughing in the face of tragedy. I don't put food of any variety on the cabin door and I suspect Steve knew it before he posed the question. The bear destroyed almost every food thing in the cabin. He spilled margarita mix and then dipped his paws in it. Then he walked outside and let the dirt cover his sticky paws and re-entered the cabin, climbed onto the sink and stove and inside the refrigerator. The bear did not eat everything, he merely spilled, spoiled and mutilated everything. Somehow he managed to poke a hole in a bottle of mustard without knocking it over (either that or he put back the bottle, upright, on its shelf after poking the hole and knocking it over).
The food items that I will miss the most include a can of Hood River Peaches, Ibarra Mexican chocolate, a couple pounds of sugar and a container of Armor brand lard (for a flaky pie crust). I will not miss the Peter Pan peanut butter. Laurie was upset when she heard of the demise of all but the Folgers coffee. Thanks to Kim and William for bringing sugar (for the delicious cobbler Laurie made) and coffee.
A couple of other things:
The bear left a gift of his excrement behind the cabin. I say "gift" because it was outside the cabin and not inside. Diego the chihuahua did his part to prevent further visits by peeing on the black pile of poo and also peeing all around the area where the bear took the food out to eat at his leisure. We watched from the kitchen window as Diego would sniff, pee, vigorously scratch the ground with his back feet, move a foot or so and repeat. Good dog.
