Martha – The little Bear with a BIG Attitude

“I have a little bear in my apple tree!” the caller advised. This is not an unusual situation and in most cases the cub will hang out for a while and then make their way back into the bush to be with its Mom and the rest of the family. Not so with this little bear, she just would not leave and when it became clear that she was on her own we caught her up and brought her in to the Sanctuary. She was a beautiful 15 lb ball of fluff, we named Martha in recognition of a terrific lady who has been an amazing source of support to the Sanctuary, Martha Rogers.

From the day she arrived Martha had attitude. Every time we approached her enclosure with warm porridge and apples we were greeted with a charge and lots of huffs and a very pointy lip. This is big bear talk for “I am really not happy about this, you are in my turf  and would strongly suggest you back off!” Martha never missed an opportunity to spring out from behind her crate to startle us as we walked by her draped enclosure. I am convinced she derived a great deal of pleasure knowing she was responsible for a human clutching their heart as a result of her antics.

A few weeks into her stay at the Sanctuary Martha became very cleaver at creating her own secret space. She would turn her crate to face the back wall so that we could not see her. She would build up the straw around the crate as a visual barrier which made her “attacks” even more exciting. All of the animals at the Sanctuary are cleaned out daily, soiled straw is replaced with fresh, water and food are replenished. Martha’s enclosure was cleaned and then she did what had become a ritual, she did some housekeeping of her own by re arranging things the way she liked them with the crate turned to the wall. Later in the day, a well meaning staff member saw that things were pretty untidy in Martha’s enclosure and went about tidying things up for her. Very shortly afterwards there was an inordinate amount lot of scuffling and rustling coming from Martha’s enclosure. On inspection we found that not only had Martha set things to rights – her way, she had left a very clear and distinct, steaming message on the top of her crate. Message received! Martha was very quickly transferred to the big enclosure in the woods where little bears with big attitudes reside.

Martha continued with her independent ways well into the winter as she was the last little bear to tuck in and hibernate. Upon her release in July it was no surprise when opened, she shot out of the crate and kept running until she was out of sight. She is now a big bear with big attitude in the great big wilderness!