We have lived on the mountain above Roanoke for about twenty years now. The first winter we were here, there were so few houses that the snowplow turned around before it got to us.
Eventually Chester, our wonderful Labrador who died in 2004, joined our family. For over twelve years, Chester and I wandered the foothills and mountains behind our home on the slopes of Twelve O'Clock Knob.
We would see evidence of bears usually during berry picking season. We also heard a bobcat a few times, including once when it seemed to be stalking us. Still we never saw much in our yards except deer.
Then in 2005 we had a surprise ursine visitor. Not long after that a bear ripped the door off a neighbor's garage and feasted on cookie dough and butter that were in a garage refrigerator.
Likely development that is going farther back into the hills and hollows is driving the animals from their habitat.
Today I was outside trying to win back some ground in our perennial bed from an army of lemon balm. A neighbor whom I did not recognize stopped to warm me than another neighbor's cat had been attacked by a bobcat. I guess there have also been a number trash incidents with bears.
It is interesting how we lived here for fifteen years and only had a deer problem. The deer problem only appeared after our Lab died.
I guess you can only push the animals so far before they have no place to go. At one time I tried to convince Roanoke County to buy the 100 acres behind us on the mountain. It would have made a great park. The hiking trails were already there.
It was not long after my campaign for park that a developer bought the land and put a house right in the middle of it. We lost all our trails and now a driveway runs through what I had hoped would be a park.
Given how few large parcels of land suitable for parks are in this part of Roanoke County, it is a shame the opportunity was missed. I thought we could have a great trail from the river all the way up the mountain and then have it drop back down to Greenhill Park. It would have been a great hike and something that would have been a huge asset to the county.
I guess that I am lucky that our second home in North Carolina is in an area blessed with lots of great trails.
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