Two Good Legs
A Tale of Two Grizzly Cubs (and how they finally grew up)




Elber and Yonty were born 7 winters back to a young grizzly she-bear in 
Northwestern Montana.  Like all such cubs, they had the odds against them 
from the first.

Elber was a little darker along the shoulders than Yonty.  And both had the 
misfit mentality of grizzly cubs the first couple of years.  It was a real 
wonder that either of them survived, not knowing two things about fishing, 
berry hunting or even how to avoid bee stings while robbing honey.  Against 
all the odds stacked against them, they nevertheless grew stronger and 
taller.

The pain was a blazing fire that would not go away.

After a while they were able to leave the momma bear behind.  They were 
figuring out how and where to fish.  They learned how to try and stand 
taller and yell louder than the other males whenever they were confronted. 
They learned when and where to sleep when winter overtook them.  They 
figured out where the berries were and how to snatch them before the humans 
got to them.  They each learned how to scare up a rabbit and other wild 
game.

This is not to say they were any smarter, faster, or better at hunting than 
other bears their age.  They were grizzlies, after all, and grizzlies are 
not known for being wise.  Grizzlies are known for being big and strong, for 
having a bad disposition, and for scaring the crap out of people who stumble 
onto them.

Last spring Elber ran into a clearing and surprised a poacher who was out 
for moose.  Elber was as surprised as the illegal hunter, and so he just did 
as he always did when confronted like that, he stood up tall and yelled 
really loud.  The hunter peed on himself, shot Elber in the left foot, then 
threw down the gun and ran for all he was worth.  I think he ran past New 
York City by now and is still running.

When the noise and gunpowder had cleared the air, Elber was still trying to 
understand what had happened.  It took a while for him to understand that 
his foot was really hurting.  At such close range, the rifle bullet had gone 
clear through the foot, breaking a couple of small bones in passing.  The 
pain was a blazing fire that would not go away.  Elber limped down to the 
stream, in a mood that was dark even for a grizzly.  In the cold mountain 
water, the bear found a little numbing relief, but not much.

Yonty did not live or roam anywhere near his brother, Elber.  Grizzly 
families tend not to hang together a lot.  So he didn't know anything about 
Elber's run-in with the poacher.  But a few days later while he was crossing 
a high mountain road, minding his own business, a Jeep came out of nowhere 
and ran right into him.  It was good for both the bear and the driver that 
the road was rough and twisting, I guess.  The Jeep was going a lot slower 
than it would