The Story of Stumpy the Bear
The True story of Stumpy the bear starts during the hunting season in "2003". Stumpy was drivin out of hiding and a hunter shot and wounded him in the right front leg. He was seen later that year running through the woods with the leg attached but near to falling off. During that winter Stumpy must have done his own surgery and emerged the spring with just a stump in place of his leg. Hence we named him Stumpy. Stumpy became a regular visitor to our log home even though we did everything we could to run him off as we did not want him to become habituated to people. But Stumpy was persistant and we finally gave up in trying to keep him away and accepted him into our life. I think he just liked hanging around! To tell you the truth, we liked having him around as he was a great tempermented bear. Never!!! once did he show any aggression toward us or our property. We were able to get fairly close to him though we never forgot he was wild animal and was to be respected as such. Of course all his visits were not scheduled ones. We put the bird feeders in at night though he would show up unexpectly some days and help himself. Stumpy would gently pull on the feeder while sitting on his rump and just pick at the seed. Never damaging the feeder. It's pretty crazy when you realize you are standing there talking to a bear and hoping to get an answer!! During a Stumpy visit we noticed his fur becoming thin. Amy (the other half of T.A.N. is a Game Warden with PA Game Commission) recognized that he had a small case of the mange. She set up a culvert trap and we were lucky enough to get him in it one Sunday morning. Amy tranquilized him and gave him medication and put tags in his ears which is one way used to track bears. At that time though we got the closest ever to Stumpy. We could pet him and were able to touch his "stump." He weighed in around 350 lbs so he was no small bear. But it was a special time. Even though he was trapped he continued to visit and quickly healed.
Unfortunately the third bout with nature's hardships did not end well for Stumpy. During the bear season of 2006 Stumpy once again was caught in the middle of a drive being put on by hunters. Stumpy could move pretty good on 3 legs but he could not beat a high powered rifle this time. We knew all the facts cause of the tags Amy put in his ears. Thus we have the Story of Stumpy the Bear. Stumpy was 5 years old at the time of his death. His legacy is not forgotten as we have etched his picture in some of our creations as an honor to a one of a kind Bear.
"Stumpy"
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