Bears and Bears and Bears! Oh My!

 The other morning, Barkley started going crazy around 4 am.  She was barking and barking, but we didn't think much of it--we just opened the bedroom door and yelled at her to get inside.

Ashley went to the gym at 5 am, and the dog continued to bark.  At 6 am, I was still in bed, and she was going nuts again, so I opened the door and yelled at her to come back inside.  She did, but she was still barking.  At that point, I noticed movement in my neighbor's yard out one of our windows, and I realized Barkley was barking at some bears that had wandered into our neck of the woods.  I proceeded to lock her inside and then went out for some pictures.  They aren't that great--I didn't want to get too close and end up as a punchline about what happens when you get too close to wild-life.  In this first picture, you can see two bears (the second is to the right of the tree).

At first, I thought there were only two bears, but a third walked over while I was taking pictures.

I tried to get a close up, but this was the best I could do.

The bears were all good sized bears.  These three have been in our neighborhood for a couple years--it is a mama-bear and her two cubs, but the two cubs look full-grown to me (but what do I know).  I watched the bears get up and climb over the fence (going away from us), and they meandered their way down the street.  I even work Bode up to see, and he was excited (well, as excited as a teenager gets...)