Arnold, CA…Am I the only one thinking this or have the animals gone from having a normal reticence around humans this year to thinking we need to leave? Tonight to top it off I was walking the dog, turned around and there was literally a skunk following us.

Mountain Lions: My son was literally chased away by a mother mountain lion on the Arnold Rim Trail early this spring. There have also been people I know who have gone their entire lives up here and had never seen a mountain lion to seeing multiple lions this year.

Bears : We are all used to having bears a part of our lives living in the mountains. This year however my encounters have been not only more frequent but the bears have been borderline belligerent.

First one was my fault I did have a bag of dog food in the truck and the window had about a two inch gap at the top. So the mother bear proceeded to break the window and grab the bag for her cubs. I chased her and recovered my bag of dog food dagnabbit.

Since then she seems to think I am bear grubhub. She seems to be waiting for me to drive up…probably says to her cubs…”Watch and learn young ones this is how it’s done”.

Last week I made a store run and took the grocery bags in the house and came right back out to get the bag of dog food in the back of the truck. It wasn’t there, I kept looking thinking I had left it in the cart at the store. Then I heard a bit of rustling behind the house. Lo and behold a mother and her cubs had pilfered the entire bag without even spilling a kibble and were gathered around my 15lbs of puppy chow.

Then this morning just before 5am the dog started going ballistic. A different and larger bear was trying to get in the back hatch of the SUV and also checked the doors. She completely ignored the dog not more that 20 feet away and calmly checked for any open doors. I went out to scare her away and she started doing her grunting noises and reluctantly moved about 30 feet away.

She did not however right back into the forest. She lingered hoping I would just go back inside so she could finish her bear kaper. I went back to the cabin I saw her again. All this while the dog was going nuts which see seemed to not even notice the noise.

Foxes: I think there is a fox family behind us in the woods. We have seen them sunning themselves during the day etc. However a few days ago a fox was in the neighbor’s driveway right across the street. The fox then literally started barking at me. It came within probably 25 feet or so. The little fox bark was kinda cute and it was probably just warning me to stay away from it’s family.

It was either babies or rabies as it’s fear of humans was nonexistent, I even warned others in the house about the overly aggressive fox.

Skunks?: Finally I was walking the dog tonight and turned around and less than 50 feet away a skunk with tail up was following me. After raising my voice and trying to scare it away it reluctantly went into a culvert.

These are just a few of the animal encounters I have had this year. Starting to feel like Dr. Dolittle. I half expect to start hearing voices. Been up here for over 20 years and I have had more encounters this year than all of the 20 years combined.

And don’t get me started on the mice….one even thought we were friends.

John