Huckleberry Bear Bear is now an elderly bear with a mind of his own, and his own bear sense of time. We learned that a long time ago and it hasn’t gotten any better.

Huckleberry is particularly sizable in the fall, having put on a couple of hundred pounds or so in preparation for hibernation. We should have been warned. We were dealing with a stubborn, elderly, plump, not-to-be-rushed bear. We didn’t think it through.

The other day we led him out into the Wildlife Garden for an outing and a photo shoot with Marilyn, who loved the bear brothers. He meandered around a bit, almost lively, exploring trees and bushes. Then he discovered “The Den” (capital letters from his point of view). Jean had built it for the wolves to be out of the sun before we had planted trees in the Garden for shade. He buried a large culvert, then covered it with rocks and soil to make a little hill above it. He intended it for the wolves to run in and out of and play chase-me, as it was open at both ends. Over the years the bottom has filled with soil and pebbles and leaves. In his wanderings Huckleberry came across the opening.

A big dark inviting hole. In late fall.

Close to hibernation time.

Too late did we realize our mistake. He was fascinated. He would not be lured away. Slowly, slowly he entered the west side of the opening until all we could see was a large, black back end—and then nothing. Just blackness. Whether it was his back end or the darkness of the hole we could no longer determine. My immediate reaction was, “Oh my god, he’s never coming out of there! He’s going to stay there to hibernate for the winter!” As it turned out, this was uncomfortably close to the truth.

We heard snuffling and scratching and digging. It sounded suspiciously, frighteningly, content. Jean went to the east side of the den opening and tried to entice him out with marshmallows. Marilyn waited patiently. Eventually a nose appeared, then retreated. More scrabbling. Jean lay on his belly to reach in with a marshmallow. Nothing. A nose appeared again, and a bit more of him became visible. Then more scrabbling sounds. It seemed as if his bulk was too large to make it out through the opening on this side. What if he couldn’t turn around and got stuck? How do we help a 400-pound black bear move out of a den backwards?

Jean reached in and tried to move some rocks to increase the size of the opening. A nose plus a little more body mass appeared again, but no go. Jean returned to the other opening to see if he could help him turn around and come out. Eventually, Huckleberry managed to turn around and his nose reappeared. More of his sizable bear mass appeared. He lifted himself out the rest of the way and took a bit of a walk following Jean. He likes following Jean. Then, to our horror, he made another beeline for the den. We rushed to cut him off but it was too late. It turns out he can still move quickly when he wants to.

After more waiting we gave up on Huckleberry and went to visit some of the smaller animals in the “Small-in-Size-Only-Animal Garden.” (The formal, six-word name, for the Garden created for the small [in size only] animals, is based on the acknowledgment that size does not denote importance). We checked back periodically to see if Huckleberry had come out, but no luck. After another hour or so Jean went back to check again; Huckleberry was still in the den. It was heading towards evening. Jean called him to come out again, asking if he was ready to go home yet.

After a few minutes Huckleberry placidly emerged. He had had enough. Jean led him across the garden towards his regular enclosure as Huckleberry willingly followed him towards the safety of his known world. Despite all the excitement of the new, home is, after all, home.