Humans are so fickle and usually just plain wrong. My friend Gunther
and I were looking for some Perrier. Gunther had the misfortune of
picking the Raton Motel by getting the short straw. The clerk at the
Taos Ski Valley Motel was too busy reading a romance novel and
polishing her toenails to give a civil answer when i asked where the
soda machines were. I found it myself, bought a couple of bottles of
Evian, and went about my business. Fled? Not likely.

Poor Gunther leaves behind two young cubs and a lot of misguided humans.

Officially I was 'in transit' from HI at the time... The STTI
conference was great! Ran into Mary Ireland there.

:-)

bear

Bears Wander Into Motels in New Mexico

By The Associated Press 1 hour, 27 minutes ago

Maybe it's an early hibernation thing. A bear wandered into a Raton
motel on Monday and a second bear broke into a Taos Ski Valley motel a
day later. The bear that walked through the front doors of the Raton
motel possibly was lured by the enticing smell of fresh popcorn,
officials said.

"He walked in, went to the pay phones, then straight toward the pool,"
said desk clerk Kimbra Pacheco.

Lodgers with newspapers chased the bear through an enclosed pool area
until game officers arrived. A Department of Game and Fish officer
shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart.

Department officers later killed the bear, saying it had been trapped
and moved from Raton a few weeks earlier and had lost its fear of humans.

The second bear forced its way through a window screen Tuesday at a
Taos Ski Valley motel. The desk clerk called 911, but the bear fled
before the town marshal and game officers arrived.

Officers have set a trap to try to capture the animal, which officials
believe was attracted by the smell of food being cooked by lodgers on
a grill outside their room.

The recent hot, dry weather in northern New Mexico may have forced
some bears to search for food in different places, the department said.

The agency said people who live in bear country should keep anything
that would attract them away from living areas and keep all doors and
windows closed at night.