A quick-thinking Vancouver Island senior managed to scare off a black bear that lumbered into her living room on Wednesday -- using only screams and a squirt bottle.
Jessie Roland had just hopped out of the shower and was combing her hair when she saw the young bear inside her Port Hardy home. The 81-year-old says her first instinct was to shout.
“I saw this damned thing and I started yelling,” Roland said. “I just told him to get the hell out!”
When that didn’t work, she resorted to using the only weapon she had on hand: a squirt bottle full of water.
She eventually scared the bear out of the house and into the back yard. It returned again the next day, but Roland said she doesn’t mind as long as it stays outdoors.
In fact, the senior says she’s fond of bears – there are two on the sign for her bed and breakfast – and doesn’t mind the animals regularly crossing her lawn on their way to a nearby river.
She said she didn’t contact 911 after her encounter or notify conservation officers because she didn’t want to put the animal in jeopardy.
Roland came face to face with another bear in her home last year, and says her biggest complaint was the noxious bruin breath.
“Oh, their breath is just terrible,” she said.
That animal was after garbage, though Roland says she always tries to keep attractants off her property or out of reach.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Gord Kurbis
