Simsbury, Conn. – Sarah Loving had just returned to lunch house last Saturday with her husband and two young children when she looked out the window and saw two bears who walked through her backyard in Simsbury, Connecticut.
Her wildlife visitors really didn’t surprise her. In recent years, bears have been quite common in Simsbury, a 24,500 suburban community, located about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Hartford, where there are often garbage cans overturned along the way the “garbage day” after a bear has looked for a snack.
But when one of the bears stopped in his family’s wooden game and began to climb the stairs, Loving began to film. What came later, took it by surprise.
“He reached the landing and then went down the slide, as he had done before,” he said. In the video, the bear slips carelessly first, its front legs break its fall in a pile of soft sand at the bottom. The bear then lies down there for a few seconds, looking calmly around him.
Loving said the couple passed for a few more minutes before moving on to their neighbor’s courtyard. His appearance lasted about 10 minutes.
“They seemed so comfortable in the playing landscape,” said Loving, whose family moved to Simsbury about two years ago, without knowing that they could run over. “We keep joking that they have probably been before, but we have not seen a bear to lower the game landscape before, never. That was the first.”
