I have been curious.  Do the other Ojai bear residents know what happened to the bear downtown?  I know a female East End Bear.  She rubs her back on a telephone pole where I walk.  If you put her fur next to my hair you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  Both are blonde with reddish highlights and my hair on a windy day is as course as hers.  She has a longer snout and smaller eyes than the downtown bear, but she too is large and docile.  Here she tells me what she knows,

“Over the years there have been many men that come and hunt us.  We know their trucks and the sight of their guns.  They take pride in hunting us with dogs and each year they come back to the same location.  We have had so many new bears move in that it is hard for us all to hide.  I heard about the bear the night it went up the tree.  It made the coyotes restless. They spread the news quickly.  We tried to talk to the bear but he was too scared to hear us.  He was not from this area.  He was lost.  The coyotes say that the people of the town were outraged of the killing of the bear, but they do not understand how many of us die each year to guns in this valley.  We are taught at a young age to smell people with weapons.  There is killing here every fall.  I have had both a sibling and daughter die to a gun.  Lately, the hunters that were camping in the woods left town.  At first we wondered why they left in such a hurry.  We believe they were scared to be spotted by the people here.  There is a man on a ranch not far from where I live that kills many bears each year.  I feel sad for that bear.  I would rather die by a gun in our woods than by a gun in your cement unnatural forest.”