from

k e l l y d e a n  and  c o m p a n y

in

'Living Graciously with Grizzlies'

Chapter 2

Wherein once again, we dispel the myth of the fierce & ferocious grizzly. . .

Gertie lived with her mother in a cave deep the forest.  The cave was near a river, which meant plenty of water to drink and lots of fish to eat.  Gertie loved fish.  Gertie loved her mom, and she loved the little cave, too.

This is Gertie.  She's a happy little cub.

  Most of the time, anyway.  Gertie really only has one problem.

Gertie gets into a lot of trouble.

It's not her fault, really.

She tries to be good, but she gets so bored sitting alone in the cave, while mom goes out to find food.

It's not like she looks for trouble. . .or does she???

She tries to amuse herself.

And she's got the 'roll & squirm' game down pat.

and scratching your nose is always good for 5 minutes or so.

Of course, she gets tired pretty quickly, too.

So she sleeps a lot.

a LOT!

One day, Gertie woke up from her afternoon nap early.

She was still pretty groggy, and she was so thirsty.  

She knew that she wasn't supposed to leave the cave when mom was gone, but she was sooo thirsty.  Maybe she could sneak out for just one small sip of water from the river.

Gertie walked along the trail happily, soon forgetting about her 'quick' drink.

She quicly got tired, and sat down on her haunches.

She spent some time watching birds and butterflies flutter overhead.

And then she heard a strange rustling sound.

She wondered what it was.

It was a leaf. . . she caught it as it blew by. . .

She played with the leaf for a while, but actually, leaves get pretty boring fast.

Then she found a curl of birch bark rolling by.  It looked like a lot of fun.

She rolled around in the leaves, snorting into the bark curl & pretending that she was eating ants, like shes'd seen her mom do.

Then Gertie heard a strange, peeping sound behind her.

She got up and turned to investigate the matter.

Gertie couldn't believe her eyes.  She had never seen anything like this before.  She didn't know what it was, but it sure looked like fun. . .

There, just ahead of her, were three tiny little bundles of fluff.   and they were moving.

Oops!  I think they saw Gertie, too!

Yep!  they did!  They stuck out their necks and hissed at her!

Gertie walked over to see this phenomina up close.

She moved in carefully. . .

But the gosling shuffled forward, still making that curious hissing sound.

Gertie just had to get closer, but these little creatures seemed pretty fierce. . .

She sniffed closer.  

So did the goslings. . .

All of the sudden, the front gosling pecked him.  hard.  right on the nose!

Gertie sat back on her butt.  Gosh, that really smarted!  'I wasn't going to hurt you',she wailed.

When she started to cry, the little goslings ran up to her, peeping 'We're sorry, we didn't mean to hurt you.  We didn't know what you were, either.

The gosling snuggled up around her, and Gertie reached out to pet one of the fluffy little peeps.

They started to clamber all over her.

It really tickled and Gertie rolled over on her back giggling.

Gertie and the goslings started to play.

They practiced flying. . .

They did foot-flops and belly-rolls. . .

They decided to play hide-and-seek.  Gertie was 'it'

The goslings ran to hide.

'He'll never find us here, they whispered.

(goslings really aren't very smart ;-)

Of course, she did!

(bears are VERY smart, you see ;-)

So they romped the afternoon away.

It was really fun for everyone!

But Gertie was getting tired.   She was just getting ready to suggest that everyone curl up for a nap when she heard a familar 'hurrrrmmppppp' sound, followed by a rather anxious roar!

She quickly sat up!  'Oh, dear', she said, 'That's my mom!.  I forgot!  Boy, am I in trouble!  She quickly got up and ran towards the path back to the cave - and mom, with the goslings peeping good-bye behind her.

She turned and looked back at her newfound friends.   She ran back to them. . .

Gertie stuck out her nose.  The goslings stuck out their beaks.  almost at the same time, they all said

THAT WAS REALLY FUN!!!

Lets do it again!!

and they did!

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