Night visitors, at an awkward time

Our Ring camera was busy last night! It didn't notify us so we didn't know it at the time, but a little after midnight some bears visited us. First they checked out our garbage can. Unfortunately for them, the garbage had been picked up earlier and the only things in the can were little bags of dog poo and cat poo.

So they walked up between our house and the truck to cross right in front of our porch steps, before walking up towards other houses and other garbage cans. The whole family was here - Mama bear and her three big cubs from last year.

But....a just a few minutes after this happened I came out onto our front yard with Shorty who has been having diarrhea. I always look for bears, alligators or coyotes but this night I didn't see the bears until we were by the road. And then I saw 4 bears milling around in front of those houses with street lights. Time to scoop Shorty up and get back to inside! Since Shorty had to go outside, I ended up taking him out on the far side of our place while Randy stood guard, ready to alert me if they came this way and to fire a warning shot at them if needed. 

Everything turned out fine and I still LOVE living where bears and alligators roam!