Polar Bear Blog - Nudge Nudge - July 31, 2006

There is a place in Churchill, along the Churchill River, called The Flats. It used to be populated by the remnants of the homeguard Cree and a few white trappers in the early days of Churchill. Today, it has kind of a shanty town feel, still hanging on to a slower pace of life (yes, even slower than Churchill itself) and another era. It is also been reputed as a good place to occasionally 'feel no pain'.

One local, who for dramatic purposes we will call LL, was definitely 'feeling no pain' this weekend as a late night party drifted along on the riverbank. Finished for the evening, he headed, not quite straight, for home. The nice thing about the flats is if you need to rest before you get home you can.

So, LL was resting alongside the road when he was awakened by a gentle and persistent nudging. He growled awake, as many of us are prone to do returning from dreamland, with his fists and teeth clenched, ready to clobber this intrusion. Turning, he came eye to eye, although still relatively at ground level but eye to eye nonetheless, with a big ol' polar bear.

Seems this bear had been poking at him with its nose, possibly sizing him up for a meal, possibly just trying to wake him up. Regardless of its intentions, it more than succeeded in the latter.