Bear

“The 4-LEGGED CT SCAN”

We first became aware of Bear and his brother Moon in 2004.

They’d been moved from a facility to a private residence, where a horrible accident occurred and a child was bitten.  Because of the bite history, most rescuers didn’t want to get involved and saw it as a liability.  We were able to find a privately licensed individual to take both boys into safety.  Fast forward just two years and we were again contacted to relocate these amazing brothers.  The woman had come on hard times and was no longer taking care of them.  Some of our volunteers went up to bring back a mom and her pups and, upon seeing Bear’s condition, called another rescuer to drive up for an emergency transport.  Bear had previously been unapproachable by the owner, but literally ran down the hill and into the van.  He knew we were taking him someplace better.

Due to space constraints that always exist at Shy Wolf Sanctuary, we had Bear in a small enclosure and made the decision to try sending him to a new facility in North Carolina to give him a bigger enclosure.  He was only up there a month before we learned he was living by himself and depressed without much attention, something he desperately needed.  We decided to bring Bear home to Shy Wolf Sanctuary, where he remained an ambassador for several more years.

Bear had an amazing ability to hone in on anyone having a medical issue, as he demonstrated anecdotally over and over again.  He would deliberately make eye contact, nudge you in whatever part of the body was affected (e.g., abdomen, breast, kidney) and then stare at you.

George tells his story of how Bear knew he had the early stages of colon cancer.

Anyone who met Bear knew his love and wisdom and couldn’t imagine how he’d been shuffled around so many times over so many years.  We’re just grateful that he lived out the remainder of his life with us and was willing to share his amazing ability so we could learn to appreciate things that cannot be seen or even understood at times.