So far this summer I have been eaten alive by giant blood-sucking mosquitoes, gone camping in gale force winds and torrential downpours, handed out a gazillion snacks, and attempted to unsuccessfully ignore the calls of “Mommmm, I’m bored!” about eleventy thousand times (and counting).
Clearly I’m doing summer wrong, and here’s a bear to prove it.
On Friday, June 29, Mark Hough and his wife were just settling in for a relaxing drink by the pool at their home in Altadena, California when an unexpected guest decided to crash the party. Mark tells Buzzfeed News:
My wife came home from work and requested a margarita, so we made a couple margaritas and went out to the pool to relax in the sun,”
Upon hearing some crackling and snapping noises coming from his neighbor’s yard, Mark decided to put down his drink and investigate. He found a bear climbing over his fence.
I realized, ‘Oh my, there’s a bear coming into our yard!’ So I yelled to my wife to grab the dogs because they’d been laying out in the sun, and we hightailed it down to our house.
Apparently they weren’t the only ones looking for some R & R and relief from the heat.
A few minutes later, Mark headed back outside and discovered the bear enjoying a dip in his unheated Jacuzzi. Hello, bear. It was “bobbling away having fun, playing with the chlorinator and the thermometer, and grabbing the string of the thermometer and throwing it up in the air.”
He took the following video:
A bear in Southern California was caught on camera taking a dip in a hot tub and licking up the margarita it knocked over. #summer https://t.co/kiEuf2IILL pic.twitter.com/nz786of4Sj
— FOX26 News (@KMPHFOX26) July 3, 2018
Once it tired of playing in the water, the bear then did what any of us would do. It lumbered on over to Mark’s abandoned margarita, knocked it over, lapped it up and proceeded to pass out in an oak tree. For two hours. It would seem that this bear is a bit of a light-weight when it comes to tequila.
Eventually the bear wandered off, and the Houghs have yet to have another bear encounter. According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Joana Warren, the department received six bear-sighting calls that day, but failed to find the margarita-loving animal.
This bear is so my spirit animal. Honestly, I don’t think there is a better way to spend a lazy summer afternoon than enjoying a dip in a hot tub, sipping on a margarita and taking a nap. This bear is truly living its best life. Heck, it’s living MY best life.
But the true hero of the story? Mark’s wife. She rescued the dogs AND her margarita. Because, obviously, this woman has her priorities straight.