Association I Love My Island Dog, Saint-Martin

Teddy Bear is orphan now

Hi! I am a little Teddy bear, living with my mother in the french mountains. There are no other bears left, it is so booooooring. Just mommy to love and raise me. Apparently I have no daddy. The summer is over and soon it will get cold and we have to search for a safe place to spend the winter. We teddy bears and big bears sleep the whole winter and when the snow starts to melt, we put our nose out in the wind, to find out if it is the right moment to go for a walk and have some fun.

We, at the moment, are walking around. The nature is beautiful. The leaves start to get some bright colours. Some are yellow, some are orange and even some become red, and then they fall on the ground and we love to sleep on them, it is soft and they smell so nice. We are always together. Mommy never leaves me more than a tree or two. I love Mommy, she teaches me a lot of things to prepare me for life. Which berries I should eat and she knows exactly where we can find water. But I am still drinking her milk. It tastes so good and warm! Sometimes we sit down together on a rock, watching the sunset, I sit as close as I can, to feel the heat of her body. I definitely know nothing can happen to me.

One sunny morning we went for our usual walk, we had our little routine and I suddenly saw mommy putting her nose in the air, smelling. What could she smell? We never had a problem so far. In this forest we have always been respected, especially when she starts to scream, telling everybody to keep away from me. But today she is especially worried and finally I got worried too. What is this danger she is smelling? She starts to go to the right and then to the left, turning around . I see her more and more nervous, making some strange noises. She puts me behind her so she could protect me better. Suddenly I heard a terrible noise. An explosion in the air. It hurt my ears! I looked at my mother. I have never seen her like this before she stands up on her back legs and starts to scream that you could hear it in the whole valley, believe me. Then I heard a second explosion and I saw my mother break down, with all her weight. I felt the ground trembling . What happened? Mommy, mommy get up, get up. Please, Mummy what is this red liquid running from your mouth? Mommy!

She lies there and can’t move any more. What shall I do? Suddenly I see a group of men approaching us. First I tried to hide behind my mother, but there was no more life in her, so I panicked and ran. You will never know how fast I ran Over stones and bushes, I felt like I couldn’t get my breath anymore. What happened? I don’t understand. She would never leave me alone, I know that! Why did they do that? What am I going to do now? How will I survive? I am still very young and soon the snow will fall and cover the ground..I miss her, I miss her so terribly, why did these men kill her? We didn’t do anything wrong? I am so young to live without my mother. Why do people do these things?

In the beginning of November hunters killed the last adult bear in the mountains of the Pyrenees even though the race is protected. It left a little teddy bear at only 10 months old an orphan just before the winter sets in.

November 5th 2004

This happened for real in the French mountains of Pyrénées.

Story published in the dutch side TODAY’S newspaper

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