Introduction to Benjamin
I’m Benjamin [Ben] I’m now a little over a year old and I have just come out of my den this morning. The trees are swaying, it’s still over a foot of snow, here in Virginia. We have been denned up, now for over 3 months. I’m looking forward to adventures this year. Last year I was a young bear, I had to learn all things that bears do. I learned how to find food to eat, a lot of our diet is plant based. The black berries and raspberries were so delicious, as is the blue berries and strawberries. Acorns are a great food source in the fall and the white oak acorns are the best. Corn wherever we can find a large corn field, is so filling and delicious, but could be hazardous to our health, if a farmer sees us eating their corn. I also learned how to hunt and scavenge for food. During the fall it was so scary, when hunting season came in. I was hearing lots of bangs of deer hunters. We would wait at least an hour after the shots, we would then go to where we heard the shots. The deer hunters leave us bears, the gut piles, the hearts and liver are probably my favorite food. Then came bear season, the hound hunters hunting for bear. I’ve never been so scared in my life. One time the hounds almost caught me, before I was able to scamper up a tree, where I was out of reach of the hounds. My dad Oliver, then showed up, and smacked the dogs a few times, they left with tails tucked.
My Mom Sophia, was excellent at catching small game, with rabbits being her preferred game. The rabbits taste so delicious, they just do not go far for a family of four. Other game she captures are possums, they are so easy to catch when they are scared they just play dead, such easy pickings. I got pretty good at capturing possums myself. She would also capture some raccoons which are pretty good eating with lots of fat, us bears loves fat. One fun fact most people think, that bears eat their pray raw, we cook our food, just like people do. The streams around here, are loaded with native brook trout. They are also delicious, but they are more of an appetizer, due to our average size we catch is seven inches, our largest last year was a whopping 13 inches. Well Sophia is still sleeping in the den, with my dad [Oliver] and my sweet little sister [Lucy]. Lucy and myself are inseparable, we have so much fun together. We would play fight, and sometimes I would even let Lucy win. I can say that because she is still sleeping. We are very evenly matched at the wins.
I hear someone stirring in the den, let’s see who is now awake. Lucy is coming out of the den; we both are very happy seeing each other again. Lucy is so excited, seeing the snow, it was just beginning to snow when we went to den up. We decided that we were going on an adventure. We start walking down the hill as we were walking on top of the snow, it has frozen over with a hard crust. Oh, wow look at Lucy go, she is sliding so fast. I decided to join into the fun. This is like sledding with no sled. We were lucky as we missed all the trees, but we found the deep pool in the stream below. Fortunately bears don’t feel the cold very much. Oh, I just got an appetizer, a nice nine-inch native trout. It was so yummy sushi is very good. I didn’t realize just how hungry I was, until just now. My waist has gotten skinny after a 3-month hibernation. I’m now laughing at Lucy; she is going from one side of the pool to the other trying to get her appetizer. Wow I’m impressed well, maybe a little jealous she has caught the biggest native trout, I have ever seen. It’s at least 18 inches long, she has caught a meal. I was happy with my nine incher it was larger than the average size last year. Ok I’m hungry so I dive in and catch two more seven-inch trout. Well, it’s time to go back to the den and see if Sophia and Oliver are awake yet.
Oliver is now coming out of the den, he looks so thin, last fall he weighed over five hundred pounds, when we denned up, but be it be lucky, if he weighs four hundred pounds now. First words out of Lucy’s mouth were dad, I wished you saw the native trout I caught, it was huge, it was over 18 inches, she was just gawking as she was looking at me, telling our dad. I was so mad as she was telling it, I started a fight with Lucy, this was a serious fight, last year we never had a real fight, we always were just playing. Oliver had to step in and break this fight up. Oliver asked that we both apologize to each other. We really love each other, it felt good telling her, that I was sorry. I then said that I was proud of her, catching such a large native trout. But I was also thinking that someday, I plan on catching a fish larger than hers. Our dad was proud that we had made up to each other. I told Oliver how hungry I was, that the trout tasted so good. He said welcome to the life of bears. When we go into our den’s, we are fat and happy, but we come out hungry enough we could eat a moose. My dad last year was the big game hunter, he would go out hunting by himself, he would mostly bring back does, and fawns for us to eat. On occasion he would bring back a buck, he would say you can’t eat those antlers.
Sophia is now stirring and coming out of the den. She says I hope y’all have been behaving. I speak up and tell her how we had gone sledding down to the stream, and how proud I was of the 18-inch native trout, that Lucy had caught. I then tell her how I was mad and jealous over this, but that Oliver had us to apologize to each other. I tell her how much better I feel now, that we made up to each other. I didn’t tell her, that I know at some point, I’ll catch a bigger fish than Lucy’s. My mom also looks thinner, she was at 250 pounds when we denned up and now maybe 200 pounds. We decided we will make our way down to the stream, and find different pools to fish in, we will try to get a good meal. I go the farthest up stream; I catch several six-to-eight-inch trout. I see a huge one and I dive in, I come out with a 20 inch beautifully colored, it such a delicious native trout. It was at this point, I decided to be humble, I had decided no one needs to know of this beautiful catch, the sushi was delicious. We all met back up with a full stomach, we decided it was time to go back to our den for a short snooze. What will we get into next?
Want more? Buzz this chapter!
https://www.chapterbuzz.com/c/s56qr308a70d/buzz