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Grizzlies starting to gather in Cody studios
By Carole Cloudwalker
This document was published online on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Usually it's OK if grizzly bears fail to come inside the Cody city limits, where they can do destructive things and at the same time frighten the wits out of old ladies and small children.
But I know of one case where Cody people are simply begging for grizzlies to come around. The stubborn bruins just will not - or cannot - cooperate, however. Not so far.
In fact, the bears seem to be bunching up north of us, in The Town That Has No Name (but it starts with a “B” - take a guess, but don't tell the airport board what you've come up with. They'd prefer you swear in public and spit on the sidewalk than say that word. And no, “Belfry” is not the correct answer. You'll get the gong for that selection.)
The bears of which I speak are not flesh, fur and blood, of course. That kind is busy hibernating and giving birth to their young while sleeping through it, something many human mommas would like to boast of on Mother's Day.
These bears are fiberglass, and are manufactured in That Town.
But they must have failed to apply for passports, because they cannot seem to reach Cody, a mere 100 miles or so from the only plant in the region that could create them.
They are the bears destined for the “Grizzly Gathering,” a spring art event aimed at raising money for Park County libraries.
The fiberglass bears, which weigh about 200 pounds each, will be painted artistically, displayed during the summer and ultimately sold to raise money for county libraries in Cody, Powell and Meeteetse.
I was privileged to watch as “Buttercup,” a fiberglass bison, was being painted in Cody for a similar display in West Yellowstone last year.
It was pretty cool. So I am looking forward to seeing those bears all spiffied up with art, or mosaic tile, decorated to the nines and bearing financial fruit for the libraries.
But first they must arrive, so they can be distributed to their artists.
And there's the rub.
A large van initially secured to haul them here became unavailable. Meanwhile, more and more bears were being manufactured. They were lingering in a warehouse, taking up space.
Next, a large trailer was offered for the haul. But it was not big enough, since by then the bears had proliferated even more. Still, these bears were burgeoning in numbers.
It reminds me of the old animated film, “Fantasia,” the part where Mickey Mouse was the Sorcerer's Apprentice. His broom (or was it a mop?) ran amok and kept fetching buckets of water, until everything in the Sorcerer's workroom was afloat, and still the broom fetched more and more buckets of water and dumped them on the floor.
In this case, the factory keeps making those grizzly bears, which are all bunched up with nobody to haul them away.
Actually, they now have a hauler, but the bears need to have wheels installed, and then receive a last-minute cleansing, sort of a Bear Baptism, so the artists' paint will stick to them. One thing depends upon another.
The last bear crisis came, sponsors of the event told me, when the little dolly wheels required to move the hefty critters were not available in time to coordinate with one planned truck run. No wheels, no bears.
This still could be the week that the bears, or some of them, escape their warehouse and go south for the winter.
Meanwhile, as many artists as there are bears probably are pacing studio floors, simply bursting with wonderful ideas for decorating their bears.
These are going to be 25 pretty special grizzlies, once they are decorated and on display around town in the spring.
And it will be a case where no rubber bullets will be necessary.
Bear-human contact will be highly desirable.
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