Grizzly Attack!

It’s not every night that I wake myself up dreaming of large grizzly bears who want to eat me alive. It was a fear instilled in me as a small girl, exploring the great outdoors and national parks every summer with my family that developed this sleeptime phobia. We were warned repeatedly through large posted signs, “DO NOT FEED THE BEARS,” pamphlets describing maulings, talks from rangers about the lone piece of bubble gum left inside a tent…

I have an admiration for these impressive animals, having seen them in the wild only from a great distance. For some reason though, in my dreams, they are on a mission to destroy our camp and eat my sisters as hor d’ouevres and myself as the main course. My dog has made cameo appearances, fighting off these beasts as well as myself, waking up with a ring of sweat on my shirt, convinced I would find a handful of thick brown fur. Why do these animals haunt me? Is it there large massive bodies, sharp claws and ravenous appetites? I really don’t know.
I grew up reading about freak alligator attacks in local lakes. Remember the summer three jogging women were killed, alligators preying upon Nikes and tube socks? I remember water skiing with friends, thinking about all the alligators we were speeding past. My mom’s friend was bit by a copperhead snake in our driveway. I worked for the Boulder YMCA Afterschool Program and had to keep the kids inside one week because a mountain lion was sighted in the neighborhood earlier (did somebody say kiddie snack?). I’ve reached my hand under the outdoor porch steps for missing tennis balls and Frisbees only to find a nest of black widows (4 total). Rabid raccoons, the angry chow next door, Burmese pythons too big to be kept as pets released into backyards, yet none of these friendly creatures visit me in my dreams like the grizzly.

I’ve thought about how here, in Morocco, there is a disturbing lack of wildlife. I saw a poster at a PCV’s house that listed all the animals that have disappeared from the great forests and deserts here. Lions once roamed these mountains, but were rounded up and killed in the Moroccan version of the Coliseum and gladiator games. The last one was killed in 1920. Wildebeasts, antelopes, wolves, and other great animals once roamed these hillsides. Now all we get to feast our eyes upon are sheep, goats and the occasional wild donkey.
Native Americans believe that the Grizzly bear has powers and is a medicine man from their people long ago. He is to be respected and revered. I for one, do both. What is it in our subconscious that causes these dreams to be so disturbingly real?