Sondra Grizzlyfingers and the B.V.B.S.

Sondra Grizzlyfingers and the B.V.B.S.

dedicated to Sondra Grizzlyfingers and Sir Charles of Evans

Sondra Grizzlyfingers was turning 5 years old. She wanted a very special present. She wanted press on nails. Most girls turning 5 don’t get press on nails for a birthday present, but she was insistent. She bugged her Mom and Dad for them. She told them that she thought that they would make her look beautiful just like the older girls she had seen in magazines. She bugged them night and day telling how happy press on nails would make her feel. On the day of her birthday, sure enough she got her nails.She was very happy to press them on and show them off.

What she did not tell her Mom and Dad was that she had a secret deep in her heart. She did want the nails to make herself beautiful and fashionable like the older girls, but there was more. In her heart she had always wanted to join a bear clan. She knew that if she got those press on nails she would look more like a bear, and be one step closer to being able to join an bear clan. She knew this was kind of nutty, so she kept the secret wish to herself and told no one.

Later that summer her Mom and Dad took her and her brother. Sir Charles of Evans, on a family vacation to the Canadian Rockies.  It was going to be a wonderful trip and maybe Sondra Grizzlyfingers would be able to meet some bears and ask how she might be able to join a bear clan.

On the trip the family went on a hike to a beautiful meadow. The meadow was full of wildflowers and berries. It was going to be a glorious hike. Just as they were about to start Mom said,”Oh no, I think we have a problem here.”

Sondra turned and all of a sudden she smelled it. Sir Charles had messed in his diaper. And this was no ordinary mess.  It was big, and it stunk! It was going to take both Mom and Dad to clean this one! And they were just on the edge of the beautiful meadow. Mom said, “Dad and I are going to quickly take Charlie to the car and clean this up. You stay right here Sondra, we are going to be right back.

Sondra was kind of mad at her brother, but she made the best of it. She used her nails and pretended she was a bear. She picked a berry here, she picked a flower there. She ate red raspberries, and blue huckleberries. She sniffed yellow flowers, she sniffed purple flowers.

All of a sudden she looked up. She was no longer at the edge of the meadow, in fact she was not sure where she was. The meadow was like a sea of flowers with no end and no beginning. she tried going right for while, she tried going left for a while, she still did not know where she was or how to get back to the edge.

She tried again. Left, right back and forth. She called out. She listened for people calling for her. Nothing. The sun sunk behind the mountains. It was getting dark. Sondra Grizzlyfingers realized she was lost! She sat down, put her grizzlyfingers over her face and cried.

Out of the shadows stepped a bear. A big grizzly bear! It huffed and grunted and growled a little. Most people would be scared. However, Sondra’s mother had been teaching her English, but other languages like French, and Spanish. Sondra was getting very good at these languages. What she hadn’t told her mother was that secretly she was teaching herself another language, Bearish - the language of bears. so, while other humans might hear growls and grunts, she heard the bear say, “Hello, little one! What pretty claws you have. What are you doing way out here in the meadow? My name is Momma Grizzly. What is yours child?”

In her best Bearish, Sondra Grizzlyfingers told Momma Grizzly that she had wandered away from her family, and she was lost. She also told Momma Grizzly about her wish to join a bear clan someday. Momma Grizzly told her that she did not know where her family was, but if she wanted to join a bear clan maybe she could help.

She explained that her bear cubs had been with her for two years as they grew up. This was the summer where they could go out on their own so they could start their own families. For the first time in a long time she was by herself. She missed her cubs, but knew they had to grow and move on. She told Sondra that if she wanted, she could stay with Momma Grizzly. Momma Grizzly would have a “new” cub to raise and Sondra could join Momma Grizzly’s bear clan.

Sondra thought about it. If she had lost her human family, this might be the best thing. Momma Grizzly seemed very nice. She told Momma Grizzly that she would be glad to become her cub and join the bear clan.

They spent the next few hours before it got dark eating berries for dinner. Momma Grizzly showed her how to tell the best berry patches. She taught her how to her how to use her press on claws to scratch the ground to get tasty roots. She even taught her how to find the super sweet Saskatoon berry! As the daylight faded, Momma Grizzly led her to her den, just off the meadow in the woods. She curled up in the den hugging Sondra Grizzlyfingers to her belly to keep her warm. Sondra was warm and cozy all night night.

The next morning, Momma Grizzly stretched and yawned. She told Sondra that it was going to be a great day. She was going to take Sondra to meet the rest of the clan. First however, they had to get breakfast.

“Come Sondra,” said Momma Grizzly, “we need to get breakfast. I have been keeping my eye on a herd of elk just over the pass. That will make a nice breakfast”

Sondra and Momma Grizzly climbed up into the pass. The looked down at the meadow on the other side. There were the elk.

“Look, Sondra.” said Momma Grizzly, “That little elk off to the side by the woods will make a nice breakfast.”

Sondra followed Momma Grizzly around the edge of the forest. They walked quietly, sneaking up on the young elk that had wandered off to the side. When they were just close enough, Momma Grizzly, leaped out the woods with one big jump. Sondra had never seen anything animal or human move so fast.

In one move Momma Grizzly had the young, elk pinned to the ground. The young elk was bleating and crying calling the other elk to come and help. Momma Grizzly yelled to Sondra, “Quickly Sondra, make the kill, before the other big elk come. Use your grizzly fingers, rip open her belly, I’ll hold her! Come on, it will be your first kill as a bear!”

Sondra, was stunned. She could not move. The young elk was crying and scared. Momma Grizzly held her perfectly for Sondra to make the kill. She couldn’t do it. She could not kill the elk. She just stood there.

The other elk were running over. Big adult elk with antlers that could really do some damage.  Momma Grizzly let the young elk go, grabbed Sondra and dashed back into the woods before the big elk could get there.

After they caught their breath, Momma Grizzly said, “Oh Sondra, I am so sorry. Did you not know that bears sometimes kill other animals to eat?”

Sondra shook her head no. Momma Grizzly explained that bear mostly ate berries, flowers and roots, but also ate meat. If they could kill and eat an elk, or a sheep, or a mountain goat they would. Sometimes they caught fish to eat. Sondra told her that she never thought she could kill others animals to eat. She knew the young elk was helpless and scared. It was just like she felt when she was lost. She could never take her grizzlyfingers and kill another animal.

Momma Grizzly, finally said, “I am so sorry Sondra Grizzlyfingers. If you can’t kill to eat, you can’t join my bear clan. Maybe I should try to take you back to your family.” Sondra, was sad and cried about not being able to join the bear clan, but wiped the tears away and agreed it was best to try to go back and find her family.

Momma Grizzly took Sondra back around a mountain and through a pass. There below they could look down on the big meadow where Sondra got lost. She could tell it was the meadow because way at the far end, she could see flashing lights and park trucks and a lot of people. There was even a helicopter. Her family and the park rangers were looking for her!

Momma Grizzly said, “Oh, no! I can’t go down there! The last time I got close to those park rangers, I got shot  with a tranquilizer dart and fell asleep. When I woke up I had a big radio collar around my neck. I wore that thing for two years before it fell off. I think they were tracking me and my cubs everywhere we went. I am not doing that again. You’re going to have to do this on your own Sondra. Look ahead, just keep very straight as you cross the meadow. You will run right into them.

Sondra Grizzlyfingers, said that she thought she could do it alone. She thanked Momma Grizzly for all her help and was about to start off, when Momma Grizzly said, “Wait a minute, I just thought of something! You told me you lived in Master-chew-nuts or something, right?”

Sondra said yes she did (she was too polite to correct Momma Grizzly, that it was pronounced Massachusetts, in human English).  Momma Grizzly went on to say that she had heard of a small clan of bears that lived in western Massachusetts. Momma Grizzly said, “This clan of bears had decided that they will not eat meat, or kill other animals to live as bears. They are a very small clan, but they are interested in getting more bears to join them. The are called the Berkshire Vegan Bear Society or the B.V.B.S. It is hard to find them as they live quietly, but they do have an office in a town called Amherst. The office does something called “advocacy” ,whatever that is, but if you still want to be a bear that does not eat meat, this is the bear clan you ought to talk to.”

Sondra Grizzlyfingers thanked her again and walked off in a straight line across the big meadow. In a short while the park rangers and her family heard a grunting and growling noises coming through the tall flowers. The rangers raised their tranquilizer guns, but it was Sondra Grizzlyfingers who stepped out. Sondra had been calling and yelling for her family, but she forgot she was speaking in Bearish and all her family and the rangers heard was grunting and growling. She quickly switched back to English, and yelled, “Mommie, Daddy, Charlie, it’s me, Sondra! I am back I found you!”

Sondra’s family was so glad to see her and she was glad to see them. She was so happy to be back with them, that she did not care that they did not believe her story of meeting Momma Grizzly (and she did not mind being scolded for wandering away from where her parents told her to stay. The family went on to enjoy a great vacation.

And next year for her 6th birthday, all Sondra Grizzlyfingers wants is a trip to Amherst, Massachusetts to find the office of the Berkshire Vegan Bear Society and she is beginning to bug her Mom and Dad about it already.