|
"and have dominion over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28, part.)
And thus God blessed man. And one of those
men is Leigh Page. He and his wife, Lee, had a farm, down in
the USA. They don't, anymore. They loved nature and the simple
life. Over time, Leigh befriended a big, brown bear. It wasn't
big when they met. Fluffy's mother was killed by hunters. It
took a while, but eventually he and the bear became fast friends.
In time, the bear, Fluffy, brought members of his family to meet
Leigh. The circle of friends grew.
Leigh is a large, powerful man, but some of
the bears towered over him. Leigh said that the larger, the more
powerful they were, the gentler they seemed. Large and small-within
a few months, Lee and Leigh enjoyed the company of eighteen bears.
Eighteen-males and females. They brought their cubs, their children,
with them. They shared meals, frolicked and played together.
They became part of the family.
Then Leigh's neighbour bought a gun. As the
bears came to visit the Page's farm, the neighbour began taking
pot shots at them. He killed a few. It wasn't even during the
hunting season. Lee admitted that, way back, before he met the
bears face to face, he also had been a hunter. Not any more.
You don't kill your friends, do you? He reported his neighbour
to Wildlife protection organization. They chose to drag their
feet. They ignored Leigh's pleas to save his bears. Then came
the hunting season.
There are no more bears on Leigh's farm. Just
corpses of his friends. Leigh still feels guilty. By coming to
visit him, the bears became open targets. Pleading with the neighbour
did no good either. He liked killing.
"It was all legal", Leigh told me.
"My neighbour killed the last few during the hunting season.
"Yes", he repeated, "It was all legal"
"So what did you do?" I asked.
"We sold the farm," Lee whispered.
"I couldn't risk Leigh killing our neighbour, could I?"
She couldn't talk anymore. Her throat was choked with tears.
They now live in a trailer. They have to move,
from place to place, to make sure they don't form any attachments.
They're still easy to make friends. But not with bears. Not any
more.
***
NB: Sadly, the above is a true story. We met
those unforgettable characters on our way to New Brunswick, where
we delivered Bozena's sculptures to St. Andrews.
|
