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Stiff was delightfully bizarre. Gulp was disgusting but fascinating. I admit Spook was a tad disappointing. But now? There’s Fuzz.

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The new Mary Roach book that deals with human animal interaction.

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This book is fun and filled with quirky tidbits I’m going to enjoy sharing. Chapter one finds the author in Canada taking classes with WHART.

WHART. Wildlife-Human Attack Response Training taught by the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service.

First up? Examining mannequins that represent people who were killed/mauled by bear/cougar and trying to determine who did what.

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Ya gotta love Canada.

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Now I’ll never be able to eat a plum without thinking of this. Thanks Mary.

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Tampons. Useful any time of the month apparently.

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Bear print long johns? Geesh. That guy was just asking for it.

There was a large section on bears and bear attacks, which are actually quite rare… so in the interest of public service, I’ll share WHART’s best advice should you ever encounter one in the wild.

If a bear is threat displaying (pawing the ground, huffing) in an effort to intimidate you, it’s a bluff and you should back away slowly while speaking calmly to the animal. Maybe something like, “No worries Mr. Grizzly, this little ole blogger is going to sashay back to her car now and post about her near death experience. Follow my site for an awesome close up of those impressive teeth. Kudos to your dentist by the way, they really are pearly white.”

On the other hand, if the bear is in full predatory attack mode…never run. Open your jacket to look larger, yell, scream, throw rocks, stomp. If the bear starts to charge with his ears flat, you’re the one who needs to look scary. If this happens to me first thing in the morning when I wake up… pre hairdo and makeup? No problem. The bear doesn’t stand a chance.

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