{"id":1319,"date":"2012-06-05T10:32:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T04:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2012-06-05T10:32:37","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T04:32:37","slug":"a-bear-sighting-with-a-literary-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/06\/05\/a-bear-sighting-with-a-literary-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bear Sighting, With a Literary Twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

So this evening as I was finishing a salmon dinner (note the subtle motif about to emerge), a bear showed up in my yard–actually he kind of shambled up. Ever the amateur shutterbug, I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos. It’s funny (not ha ha funny, though) that in my novel about to debut, The Bird Saviors<\/em>, there’s a part about a cranky polygamist father, nicknamed Lord God, who tells his daughter that the bears come down from the high country during droughts, to raid outlying homes for food. (Raid<\/em> is perhaps a term best used for barbarians at the gate, but the bears are hungry. One ripped open my shed last year to get at the garbage cans inside. Now I pay for a bear-proof dumpster. You get the picture.) We’re in the middle of two-year drought, and have had bears mangle our bird feeders, multiple times.
\nIt’s like a chapter out of the book, life imitating art and all that. I nicknamed him Billy. How original! An artsier sort would no doubt name him Balthazar, BoBama, or Beethoven. Of course I could name him John Irving, who has a new novel out right now. But I won’t. He can name his own bear.
\nFor those who like their wildlife info particular, this is actually a Black Bear\u2014Ursus americanus<\/em>\u2014though his coat is obviously a shaggy brown, which is common in these here parts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this evening as I was finishing a salmon dinner (note the subtle motif about to emerge), a bear showed up in my yard–actually he kind of shambled up. Ever the amateur shutterbug, I grabbed my camera and snapped a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,9,24,29,38],"tags":[198],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bears","category-books","category-climate-change","category-photography","category-the-west","category-writing","tag-wildlife-photos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t