For the Love of Nature

Yesterday I had my first bear sighting of the summer.  She was fat and glossy and sitting very calmly along the busiest neighborhood street.  She wasn't a very large bear and she had two fine cubs playing on an old log beside her right in front of my friend Cathy's home.  The cubs rolled over the log, tried to crawl on top and playfully chased each other as mother patiently dug for grubs and small rodents in the log.  I slowly drove by as cars in the other direction did the same.  No matter how many bear you see, it always feels amazing that such wild creatures exist within the gates of my subdivision.  When the traffic seemed to stall, without waiting for a horn to blow, I began to circle around the narrow streets heading home.  I passed the pond which now has baby duck and young wild geese swimming and grazing in the grass field nearby. I had been to the Piggly Wiggly where I had purchased two pounds of carrots that had become too soft and had been marked down to move out of the produce aisles.  The carrots were for the doe who is heavy with a fawn that should be arriving within days.  She has taken up the post vacated by my special doe who frequented the first summer I lived here.  There were days that she seemed my only friend, days that I spent crying and worrying.  Her calm beauty made me feel that somehow I would survive in this remote place.  She had a notch in her left ear and would gently take a melon slice from my hand.  I was certainly not the first to feed her.  I have always felt she lost her life in the first deer cull, which is still considered the First Great Sin Against Nature, at least to some of us here.  This little doe is small but from the size of her belly, she is getting plenty to eat and is fairing well.  We are no longer plagued by the drought that has effected North Georgia for several years and the forest are rich in undergrowth and small trees.  I sat on my porch and watched her eat the carrots and thought how much I wish I had someone to share this with.  Then I remembered I did.  So I am sharing it with you.