Sometimes I'm amazed at how brave Theo can be.
Case in point: Quite by chance he catches sight of an old TV commercial warning against forest fires. Smokey the Bear is the hero, of course. Nice bear, Theo thinks. Who can do no harm. Who likes honey.
He gets an idea in his head--bears are kind, gentle, friendly creatures, like Teddy Bears.
Fast forward. We are at our local zoo. Standing outside a large fenced in area (fenced-in for a reason) where a sloth bear lives.
Sloth bears are big, brown, furry bears with big noses. They love a challenge. The zoo keepers will often hide their food at the very top of a man-made wooden structure, forcing Mr. Sloth Bear to climb up, sniff around, and figure out how to get to the food. Because he has uniquely designed long curved claws, he can easily climb and hang from trees.
Sloth bears can also forage on their own for food, of course. They can consume 40,000 insects in a single feeding by suctioning the insects into their mouth, creating a kind of funnel with their lips and tongue. Zoo keepers say that when they eat they sound like a vacuum cleaner and can be heard from 300 feet away.
This is what he wants from me. To lift him over the fence and plop him down into enemy territory (my words.) So he can approach the bear because he believes that Mr. Sloth Bear IS Smokey the Bear.
By a pure coincidence, this sloth bear does look like Smokey. What are the chances of that?
"Theo, I would gladly help you. But . . ."
"I have to do it, see?"
My little gangster cat. I hate to ruin his day. I wish he could keep on believing that Smokey the Bear lives at our local zoo and just does TV spots to earn a little extra cash. That he's an employee of the Forest Service. A government employee.
There is no Santa Claus. Or Easter Bunny. Now, interestingly enough, there was a real bear who Smokey was based on, but that real bear lived a long time ago.
"The truth is, Theo, he isn't Smokey the Bear. He's a look alike Smokey the Bear. And he's dangerous." I want to say-he could suck you up like those poor insects. He could claw you to death. In short . . . I pause. "Theo, he's a wild animal."
Theo frowns. He doesn't care. If he could, he would make tiny muscles in his cat arms to show me how fearless he is.
"He doesn't want to make friends."
Theo wiggles a bit in my arms. He has a clean view of the sloth bear. We can hear grunting and snorting sounds.
"Right now he's foraging for food. Sniffing all around like you do. And he's with a friend."
Sure enough, another sloth bear has suddenly appeared and they're foraging together.
"But he's fun to watch," I add.
We leave the habitat with things unresolved. "This is a cruel world. Everyone isn't your friend. Sometimes you have to live and let live. That's our new motto. Okay?"
Theo looks up at me. "Really?"
In truth--it's tough raising a cat.
