By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A dog survived a close encounter with a bear near the Sitka Cross Trail Monday, escaping serious injury.
Barth Hamberg, a longtime Sitka resident, said he had gone out with two Cardigan Welsh corgis, Roscoe and Scout, for a lunchtime walk just off the Cross Trail behind the Alaska Public Safety Academy.
“Roscoe was ranging out in front of me, the wind was blowing from behind us so he couldn’t smell anything (ahead),” Hamberg said. “I saw a brown thing moving through the brush, about 75 feet away – I thought it was a deer.”
Roscoe, now out of sight, barked, Hamberg saw the brown shape turn and run quickly into the woods in the direction of where Hamberg believed Roscoe was – and the barking stopped.
Hamberg feared the bear had gotten Roscoe.
“I called and I called but I didn’t see where the bear had gone, and didn’t see the dog,” Hamberg said. “After one minute or two, I heard him barking from the direction from where we came – 100 yards or more away.”
Roscoe, a corgi, eats from his dish. The dog’s hind quarters were wounded in a bear encounter Monday. (Photo provided)
Hamberg and Scout found Roscoe, apparently none the worse for wear. The three went home, and Hamberg went back to work at his U.S. Forest Service office.
He received a call later from his wife, who noticed blood on the pad where Roscoe had been sleeping. Hamberg took the dog to the vet to be checked out.
“Sure enough, there was a hole where the bear probably swatted him in the butt,” Hamberg said. It appeared that a claw had pierced the dog’s skin, requiring two stitches.
It was the second time in a year Hamberg has encountered a bear while out with a dog, but he said the experiences haven’t made him less willing to take his pets out for exercise in the woods.
“Sometimes things just happen – bears are unpredictable and they don’t like being barked at,” he said.
