Trap thief riles Momma bear
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December 31, 2013 |
Folks in Boundary County love the outdoors and
all it has to offer, from watching a glorious
sun set over the mountains, to hiking and riding
through some of the most beautiful and idyllic
scenery anywhere.
We like watching deer, elk and myriad other
critters large and small.
We also enjoy, both for aesthetics and
necessity, the toil and endurance it takes to
derive from the wilds around us those things
needed to survive and eke out a living.
You will never find anyone who appreciates,
enjoys and loves a healthy forest more than a
logger who relies on the woods for a living, nor
will you ever find anyone with a greater love of
healthy and diverse wildlife population than a
hunter or trapper raised from an early age to
learn the ways of the woods and the creatures it
contains to put food on the table.
It's the way our forebears from time immemorial
sustained themselves, their families, their
clans and their communities; it's the foundation
of who we are.
And from time immemorial, such people have had a
downright loathing for thieves.
Learning the ways of the woods starts early for
many raised in Boundary County, often before a
toddler can toddle. Like Mom and Dad before
them, they are guided to progress in steps; as
they grow, they learn, both the beauties and the
dangers.
When a thief steps in and disrupts that
progression, taking away as candy from a baby
that which was earned by slow, toilsome
increments over a span of years, the acolyte is
most often dismayed.
Such is the case today with a Boundary County
family of generations. And as since time
immemorial, when the cub is threatened, Mom is
livid.
This particular Mom doesn't want her name used
nor any but the most vague details given ...
she'd rather, she said quite honestly, take
matters into her own capable hands. She'd like
to sound a warning to others, though, to be on
the lookout, lest other cubs be threatened.
Pity the poor fool should he offend more Moms.
What happened is this.
Her young cub, 13, has spent all his years
learning from Mom and Dad, gaining knowledge and
skill to hunt, set a trap line and more. Over
the years, through his own time and effort, he's
learned and earned to make or buy the tools he
needs to match his growing prowess.
When he went out recently to walk his trap line,
not an easy endeavor, and discovered sign that
someone had gone before him, taking his
hard-earned traps, he was rightly upset. He was
facing a beast he hadn't met before.
Mom and Dad do know the sort of beast who stole
not only a string of traps, but knocked an
indelible chink in their young boys' trust, and
the retribution, while lawful, is apt to be
swift and painful for the miscreant, be it a
simple thief or a self-appointed protector of
nature.
Theft is theft.
And irate Momma bears are not likely to make
such fine distinction. |
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