The dogs had been barking on and off this evening. I wandered outside the first time to see a rabbit nibbling grass in the front yard. After a bit of shooing, it ran away.

The second round of barking came after sunset, but with a wee bit of light left to still see. All the dogs faced the chicken coop as I went out to check on things. Thinking a deer had meandered in for a drink at the pond, I went to shoo it away, too. Instead of the regular whitetail, though, I saw a small black bear lumbering off through the trees.

Yep. We now have a bear frequenting our yard. I'm glad we don't have a bee hive up yet, and I'm a little worried about the chicken coop because bears have been known to break into them and run off with both chickens and eggs. The dogs should be safe, (I've been Googling like mad, and everything says bears will more than likely leave dogs alone.)

So, I guess this means we need to clean up the spilled cracked corn, cover the compost and secure our garbage cans. We'll also need to hold off on feeding birds until late winter. Hopefully our little bear friend will save us some trouble and go over to eat from our neighbor's garbage instead.