Of Bears and Heroes

Two notable events were reported in the local newspaper recently, the first of which was a black bear in the state park fronting Lake Havasu a couple miles north of London Bridge. This is a first: no other bears have ever been seen near LHC. It doesn’t seem like bear-friendly habitat to me at all; I’m thinking that it must have come over from the California side.
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The flora and fauna are virtually identical on both sides of the river but everybody knows that Californians are a little different. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people (or bears) from CA. To the contrary, I’m extremely fond of several - despite their numerous bizarre ideas and quirks (people, that is; don’t know any bears well enough to comment on their quirkiness). Besides, I think it’s involuntary, something in the water perhaps, not their fault at all. Many have achieved near-normalcy after living in other states for several years and are to be congratulated on that significant accomplishment.
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Back to the bear (got carried away back there, sorry). Here’s a link to the story:  http://www.havasunews.com/articles/2010/10/04/news/doc4ca964a28b655067215330.txt
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The other event, involving local heroes, is a little closer to home. In fact, the heroes are in our home at this very moment: they live here. Trish and Ranger made the front page of the local paper on Tuesday. While kayaking south of town, they found and rescued a dog that had gone missing from a boat a week earlier. The dog, Chipper, is a Shih Tzu – hardly big enough for a good snack for your average coyote, and it’s amazing the coyotes didn’t get him. Chipper’s owners were ecstatic, had about given up hope; they wanted to put the event in the paper – a good-news story to offset the bleak news of recent times.