'I touched its bum hairs': A Kamloops resident's surprise bear encounter
A Kamloops resident is still rattled after a close encounter with a bear in her garage, but she also sees the humour in the frightful incident.
“I have a good sense of humour and we can laugh about it, but my adrenalin was up for two days, I can’t believe this happened to me,” Tania Rempel-Orsetti said.
After making a big batch of spaghetti and meatballs on Nov. 22, she put a plate of the delicious food on top of the big freezer in her garage, intending to put it into the freezer but she got distracted and forgot about it.
She went out to see friends and remembered the forgotten plate when she returned home at later that night, but she was in for a scary and hairy surprise.
“I thought oh shoot, and went to put the plate in the freezer, it’s dark in there, it takes a while for the lights to fully illuminate when it’s cold out,” she said. “When I reached out to grab the plate I felt the hairs on this bear’s ass.
“The lights brightened up and all I saw was this snout, he’d turned his head around and was looking at me.”
She said she screamed and ran into the house while the bear made a mad scramble across tires on the garage floor. He then returned to finish the meal and sauntered back out through the side door to the yard where she was able to snap a photo of the unwanted supper guest.
“We were so close I smelled his garbage breath, the element of surprise for both of us was good, I ran really fast,” Rempel-Orsetti said.
“He didn’t eat the meatballs, he only licked up the sauce, so I was insulted about that.”
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The bear has been spotted in the Westsyde neighbourhood of Kamloops this fall and returned to Rempel-Orsetti’s house briefly the following night, presumably looking for more spaghetti before moving along.
“It looks like a young adult bear,” she said. “I think if it was an older, crankier bear it might have swiped at me,” she said.
It’s the first time in almost three decades living in the neighbourhood that Rempel-Orsetti has had a close encounter with a bear.
She's typically on top of keeping garbage secured and putting food put away.
“The first thing my husband said is why did I put the plate on top instead of in the freezer,” she said. “I don’t know, we got busy, I threw it out there and we left, and the bear smelled my delicious spaghetti.”
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The incident has Rempel-Orsetti on edge when going out to the freezer now, which she does often as it is stocked with popsicles, ice cream and meat. She turns on the flashlight on her phone and waits for the garage lights to finish coming on.
“I’m glad it was me and not my kids,” she said. “It’s a good reminder to always put your food away, it takes two seconds.”
Bears have an excellent sense of smell that can lead them to food sources in towns and neighbourhoods, putting both bears and residents at risk, according to the provincial chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
Go here to see the chapter's top 10 ways to keep bears and communities safe.
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