MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — Most people know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It's a classic tale involving a nosy little girl who sneaks into a house owned by a bear family and then eats their porridge, breaks their chairs and then helps herself to one of their beds.
Well, in Maple Grove Tuesday night, a bear family turned the tables, and the whole thing was caught on tape.
Bailey Jacobson, her husband, and her dog Zeus live in a spot that backs up to a wilderness area. She and Zeus had just walked out the front door when the pup startled and trotted toward the couple's garbage cans.
"He ran towards the trash cans, I was like 'This is something weird,' and then BOOM... popped up, comes this bear, right?" Jacobson recalled.
Zeus was just feet from the mama and seemed to purposely turn and lead the bear away from Bailey and into the woods. But instead of running back inside the house, she ran after Zeus and the bear screaming at the top of her lungs, fearing what would happen to her beloved pup.
"For me, it was just that natural instinct of thinking I couldn't live with myself if something happened," she recalled. "Is my dog going to attack the bear is the bear going to attack my dog? as a worried pet owner, you think okay what do you do? Do you have a fight-or-flight instinct? As you can see from the video my instinct was to try to protect my dog as much as possible."
After running into the woods after the bear, Jacobson realized she was about 45 feet from a creature that could kill her and quickly returned to her home, fearing the worst for her dog. But after a couple of minutes - from the safety of her screened-in porch - Bailey saw Zeus peek out of the woods to make sure things were all clear, and then return to the safety of his home.
Looking back, she realizes chasing a mama bear wasn't the best idea... but would probably do it again to protect her buddy.
"I think any pet owner would agree, you would do anything for your dog, and if that means chasing a bear down and making as much noise as possible, I think you would do it."
Bailey says looking back, she should have realized something was amiss when the family bird feeder was missing. She figures the bears took care of it and then came back for more.
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