International Polar Bear Day

This is my second favorite day to celebrate after Miles birthday.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved bears.  One year she received a stuffed polar bear as a gift.  She named the bear Bashful.  Bashful and the little girl became fast friends and went everywhere together.

When the little girl got older she had to do a mammal report as a school project.  The girl chose to study polar bears.  While doing research (The old fashioned way.  Using a card catalog.) The girl came across a trip to see polar bears in the wild and spent the next 5 years saving all money gifted and earned detasseling corn to go see polar bears.
She flew to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada to see the beautiful creatures in the wild.  The first night on the trip the group saw cubs nursing and the girl began taking pictures.  She was in a tundra buggy (It's like a bus on tractor wheels.) The girl was sitting in the driver's seat and leaned out the window to get a better picture.  As she did this an adult male bear climbed up on the wheel and bit her arm.  She screamed and the bear let go.  The people around her thought she'd just been scared until she rubbed her arm about 5 minutes later and stated that her arm hurt.  Her parka, sweatshirt, tur
turtleneck, and long underwear were moved aside and there was a little scratch with two indentations from the eyeteeth of the bear.

(The girl was just fine.  They insisted on calling her mother and freaking her out though.)

That day the girl was told that she carried with her "the spirit of the bear."

Polar bears are back on the endangered animals list.  I ask each of you to think of some way to help the environment.  Try taking a shorter shower, reducing, reusing, or recycling. Try adding something you wouldn't normally do.

I want my great great grandchildren to know what a polar bear is and not just think that it's a myth that someone made up.