Hinterland- Who's who?

Our society has for many years given wild animals a alter ego if you will, Disney first and foremost has 'cartoonized' our perception of the wild. Children for a few generations now has come to learn and love the cartoon version of wild animals. Aside from the marketing bonanza of stuffed animal and T-shirt sales I'm sure there are some other positives of the absurd objectification of the real world around us. On the negative side, sighting like this are all too common in our neck of the woods.  City folk who stop in the middle of the highway to jump out and look at the pretty animals.

As head shaking as it is to witness people putting themselves and the  animals that they so desperately want to observe and make some sort of connection with in danger, I too find myself doing the same thing.

 Take for instance the other day, as I arrive home from work to find the chicken legged brown bear milling around Fillmore.

 Although I knew better, I couldn't help myself and found myself drawn to see what he was up to.

Patch and repair. Over the years through various additions and subtractions Fillmore had some chinks in his armor, and the wild beast in the photos was busy patching the holes.

 As dangerous as it was to be this close, I couldn't help but think that maybe all this guy was looking for was what we are all looking for really, a safe place to call home......of course he said all he wanted was a pot of coffee, a bacon cheese sandwich and some quality .030 welding wire that doesn't spit and spatter.....but I think that really was a metaphoric call for help.