We, at Critter Care, have always prided ourselves on being a fairly practical bunch; not prone to many flights of fancy.  We see an injury – we provide first aid; we see distress – we provide comfort; we see an orphan – we provide a new family.  But in October in the early 2000's we admitted an orphaned black bear cub.  About 10 months old, markedly underweight, and fairly traumatized, it seemed like a pretty straight-forward case.  Trouble was, the moment she arrived, our Caregivers had a sense that there was something a little different here.  In fact, the name that instantly sprang to mind for this little girl was “Spooks”.

Spooks’ mother had been struck by a car and was humanly euthanized by the RCMP.  Conservation Officers were immediately called and arrived shortly after that time they found nearby the mother’s now orphaned cub. They immediately captured her and took her to Critter Care. So Spooks was alone when she arrived at Critter Care – or so we thought – and we had no other bears to place her with.

Strangely, despite the fact she was on her own, the little cub settled in very quickly.  Caregivers were surprised but pleased at her progress and started to remark on how fast she had adapted to living in the den they had prepared.  As they exchanged stories about the little bear, however, it soon became clear that, on routine daily checks, each of them had heard the young bear making noises normally associated with one bear relating to another.  Caregivers also reported experiencing an eerie feeling around the enclosure whenever they dropped by to check on her, especially just before dusk or just after dawn.

You might say that our Caregivers were, indeed, getting very fanciful and that their imagination was working overtime.  Well, truth to tell, so did they.  That is until one of the Caregivers decided to capture some photos of the young bear in its enclosure.  One of the resulting pictures was enough to raise the hair on the back of anyone’s neck.  Quite clearly in the picture, surrounding the entrance of the den in that early morning light is the ghostly outline of the face of an adult bear!

A trick of the light?  A flaw in the film?  An over-active imagination?  Or was it really momma bear reaching out beyond the grave to watch over her own?   Who can say?   Many inexplicable things happen at Critter Care.  

All we know for sure is that Spooks continues to thrive and is due for release later this month.  Soon she will be back in the wild where she belongs.  With or without momma’s help, hers is yet another success story for our native wildlife and for Critter Care – and, if she had a little supernatural help, who are we to question it?

~ Mavis Sutton