...'cept Ann's not a blonde and two of the "bears" were dogs so...we'll go with stunning brunette, baying Coonhound, Choco Lab (kind of looks like a bear) and yes, there was a Bear. I guess this is going to be a very different story than I started :-)
When we arrived at what was to become 3B's Inn Bed Breakfast & Biscuits it was a closed down roadside motel. not ready to open, and certainly not ready to be the dog friendly / dog ready place we envisioned . It would need almost a year of renovation / construction for it's transformation.
We jumped right into the only livable accommodation on the property that is our, now very popular, private cottage rental. You can check out all our Rms/Suite & the Cottage here. Anyway...we moved in, called for some big dumpsters, ordered building materials and got to work. One of the first projects was to build a fenced yard around the cottage. We needed that ASAP for our dogs and knew that it would be a huge draw for future guests to have a yard for their pups. (did I mention how popular our little cottage has become? It really is like a home away from home. Kitchen, 2 bathrooms, fenced yard and you get to bring your dogs with you!) Sorry, I digress.
As some of you may already know, Ann & I are no strangers to wildlife. I ran a zoo for almost 20yrs and raised all kinds of critters including Black Bear cubs like those found right here around Asheville, and Ann was one of my animal educators, so we fully expected to see such things almost as soon as we arrived. Surprisingly, that was not the case. With the fence around the cottage not yet complete Ann would get up before sunrise every morning to walk Milo & Duncan on leash. She'd come back in and say, with some disgust, things like "there's NO animals around here. I don't even see signs of a squirrel or raccoon, let alone a bear. I just don't understand it" That all changed on the very first morning after the fence was finished. It might have been a little earlier than 1st light when Ann opened the back door to let the boys out into their newly enclosed yard and there lumbering between her car and a dumpster comes a couple hundred pound bubba bear right up to the fence to say good morning to my crew including our very vocal little hounddog! Mr. bear didn't seem too impressed, and certainly not scared, but he didn't stick around long. Perhaps he just couldn't stand the noise! (I get it buddy, we feel that way about Duncan sometimes too)
That's been our most exciting bear encounter to date. It's really rare to have them venture out of the woods and up near the buildings Our bears have been VERY well behaved. Contrary to reputation, we did not have even one incident through 8 months of large dumpsters that included all types of household garbage. There's plenty of good food for bears on the mountain behind us and since we've been open I think all the dog smells and human activity is what keeps them at a distance. I do, however, have cameras set up down back by the creek, where we see them passing through pretty regularly. That includes this Mama and her cubs. Is that not the cutest thing? I think that little one said...