Apparently it's a lesson some of us have not learned...

Don't answer your phone after eleven o'clock at night.

She seemed surprised I answered. Between her and the dispatcher, they'd called everyone closer than I, and got no answers.

At all.

And there's a bear in town. Not our town, not even a town we're supposed to worry about. A town far away, the responsibility of a whole different crew of people.

And I have access to tranquilizing gear. She has access to a trap to haul said bear, although it's someone else's trap, in another whole different town, in a whole different direction, where three other people are apparently not answering their phones.

Okay. I'll start gathering things up. But it would probably be best if we talked to the boss man of that part of the state, to see how he wants to handle this. (And, I am hoping, he will be embarrassed enough at the lack of response from his people that he might actually wake one of them up to deal with their problem bear.)

She calls back as I am checking the pressure gauge on the air rifle. "This is the last time I'll call you tonight. I promise."

The boss made the call. Tell the town's PD that if they can't chase the bear out of town (it's not that big a town), just shoot it.

Well, craaap. I didn't want to go gallivanting across the state after midnight on a wild bear chase, especially since I and one of those unresponsive sleepy heads are supposed to be on the road to almost Montana by 7AM.

But I didn't want to sign a bear's death warrant, either.

But it's his bear, his town, his call.

What the heck is a bear doing wandering around this late in the fall, anyway?