<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=headlineblack style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 10px">There's Something About the Love of an American Black Bear</TD></TR><TR><TD class=storytext style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px">Wednesday, September 13, 2006 <TABLE id=nointelliTXT cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=262 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=20 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=archive style="BORDER-LEFT: black 1px solid; COLOR: #ffcc00; BACKGROUND-COLOR: black" onclick="storyTab('archive',2);"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Oregon's own Grizzly Adams misses his confiscated Gentle Ben. Rocky Perkett found an orphaned American black bear and raised the tot, whom he named Windfall, as his kin. Theirs was a special bond. "When you can kiss a bear on the cheek and have it kiss your cheek back, that's love," Perkett told The World of Coos Bay, Ore. Windfall was a gentle thing. Perkett says the bear only grabbed him by the throat once, releasing him after they gazed long and hard into each other's eyes. "That showed me she really loved me, and that she'd never do me harm," Perkett said. "When it has your whole throat in her mouth and doesn't kill you, that's when you know an American black bear loves you." Oregon State Police didn't agree with Perkett's definition of love. They said Windfall's diet of pizza and Dr. Pepper was detrimental to her health and carted her away to the Applegate Park Zoo in California, where she harasses the monkeys and has developed a penchant for chocolate. She has a new nickname, too — Cocoa. <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=430><TBODY><TR><TD class=adHead></TD></TR><TR><TD><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>adsonar_pid=150759;adsonar_ps=405668;adsonar_zw=440;adsonar_zh=120;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com';</SCRIPT><SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="/js/adsonar.js"></SCRIPT><FORM id=qas_frm style="DISPLAY: none; MARGIN: 0px" name=qas_frm action="" method=get target=""></FORM></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> But Perkett cannot forget the bear that was once his Windfall. He's pledged to form a nonprofit to raise enough money to build an acre enclosure and bring her home to Oregon. He's still stuck on his baby, after all. "It's the kind of love that's tough to forget about," Perkett said. "Very tough." </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Dr. Pepper and pizza is bad for bears, but chocolate is not? It sounds like a case of "Do as I say not as I do."
'Why we waz a gonna git marred come sprang. den thay cum tuk mah love frum me. Tain't right I tells ya.' Okay, where do I begin? First, that is not a healthy diet for any animal. Sobeit. He could feed it better. Secondly, since the invent of the 'Endangered Species' act there are a lot of rules now about catching, capturing, keeping any wild creature. Thirdly, if he wants a bear to kill him, that can't be allowed to happen. Suicide and assisted suicide is against the laws. Haha. Fourthly, 'If she didn't kill me' Well if she didn't kill him then, there is no guarantee it will happen in the future. Look at Lion Tamer boy that got turned into a snack by his big kitty. People just don't learn. What is wild will stay wild no matter how many generations you breed them tame. Fifth, Why doesn't this guy just go get him a nice kitty instead of a big ol' bar? Speaking of that, a wolf will do it for him too. Snake? Alligator? Spider? Someone needs a reality check for sure. And as far as the zoo feeding the bear chocolate, that's also bad for it. I bet if you look at the final thing, they are doing the same stuff as the guy was doing except maybe kissing on it and stuff.
In Oregon, it's not against the law for Doctor's to perform assisted suicide on terminally ill patients. Although, I don't condone it and I think it's wrong.
Ric, I seem to recall the Pet Rock. Haha. Also the Rock Band, Rubber Band, Rubber Tree and Brick Pet. Seen alot of sell like hotcake items.
Was just telling my kids about Pet Rocks the other day. How they came in their own boxes and tons of people bought them (I never got one - I grew up in the country and Dad said I could go get a "wild" one ). They laughed and laughed and laughed, thinking I was just messing with them. It took a while, and the help of a friend who dropped by (she had one as a kid), to convince them that they were a real thing you could buy.
There is a little community north of Ripley, Ohio, where the mayor has a pet bear named "Blue". The mayor is also an attorney and cammandant of the local gun and nut club and rides around in a camoflauge hummer with a uniformed driver carrying an uzi and "Blue" the bear. Mayor Wannabe Esq. fishes traps in the Ohio River and Blue has been trained to pull the traps. Mayor gets the catfish and Blue gets the trashfish. Been doing it for years. Most of the people in that community know Blue, but they had to stop him from comming into the grocery stores when he got bigger. It is not uncommon to see Blue on his leash, chained to a parking meter outside a cafe. I regress...back to the fish traps. One question asked was what would happen if Blue pulled up an empty trap? The last time I saw the Mayor, the pawprint shaped bruise on his face answered that question. True story.
Might not be endangered now, though I'll bet there are a lot less around you Quigley. Teach that mayor to feed his bear 'Trashfish'.
