My own little hero story.

Ok, well this happened this fall.. and I MUST tell you.<br><br><br>My neighbor, Rob, is a major outdoors-man. He hunts and cooks and fishes and all these things, and is very wilderness-smart (as opposed to street-smart). He has two massive, thick Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, a female, Chessie, and a male, Drake. They are taught in retrieving, and nothing really else.<br><br>Anyway, just as my Mom and I pulled into the driveway, he knocked on the window, and sort of startled us. He was dripping in sweat, beet red, and his eyes were as white as ghosts... which didn't help the blackness of the circles under his eyes. We were like, "What's wrong, what happened?!?!" So this is what he told us...<br><br>He went walking up into the "wilderness" which is no more than 200 feet away from my front door, with his dogs.. just for a quick stroll/painstaking hillclimb. When he thinks all is great and all is good, guess what he sees in the corner of his eye? A bear. Ok, whatever, great. A bear. Most bears around here immediately take off as soon as they see a person walk within their territory. Most bears around here are no bigger than 4.5 feet at the shoulder, on all fours. Not this bear -- this was a Grizzly bear who was at least the size of a Smart car, longer, thick, and aggressive. Rob immediately knew that this bear would not stand down, and that this bear was looking for something to chew on--in this case, Rob. The dogs were growling their faces off of course, but that didn't phase the bear in the least.<br><br>Rob immediately turned around and sprinted down the hill. (All those things teachers tell you about 'lay down backside up and put your hand over your head' would not work in this situation. The bear wants to eat you.) As he was running in his thick and heavy work boots, he would look back and see where the bear and his dogs were. This is what the dogs were doing: Chessie would come running in towards the bear and barrell into the bear and knock him over, and then run off, and then Drake did the same, and bit each time. Then Chessie would come back and do the same--basically they were distracting the bear by throwing themselves onto it, biting and knocking the bear off balance... taking turns.<br><br>Rob made it out alive. If he hadn't taken his dogs along with him, I wouldn't be able to say that his dogs saved his life. That Grizzly could have easily caught Rob in a matter of seconds.<br><br>Drake came back right away, but Chessie took about an hour to come back home. They were not hurt in the least.. walking fine, no bruises or blood. Tough as nails.<br><br>Chesapeake Bay Retrievers!