Boy lost in woods says bear kept him company.
January 29, 2019 9:54 PM   Subscribe

"He made a comment about having a friend while he was in the woods -- his friend was a bear," Maj. David McFadyen with the Craven County Sheriff's Office told CNN Monday. "In the emergency room he started talking about what happened in the woods and he said he had a friend that was a bear with him while he was in the woods."
posted by thirdring (100 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
No one can prove it didn't happen.

Fuck off, CNN.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:57 PM on January 29, 2019 [32 favorites]


I... want to believe!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:01 PM on January 29, 2019 [10 favorites]


I hope a friendly bear or bear spirit did keep him warm. đź’–
posted by limeonaire at 10:08 PM on January 29, 2019 [31 favorites]


I wonder if it wasn't a dog.
posted by asteria at 10:15 PM on January 29, 2019 [10 favorites]


Sarah Witcher was my seven-greats grandmother — similar story
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 10:18 PM on January 29, 2019 [23 favorites]


Does a bear sit in the woods? And how much does it charge per hour?
posted by pracowity at 10:38 PM on January 29, 2019 [62 favorites]


Maybe the kid had eaten some shrooms and was trippin`
posted by greenhornet at 10:39 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


C'mon. Obviously a friendly sasquatch, but a three yr old can be forgiven for not knowing the difference.
posted by figurant at 10:43 PM on January 29, 2019 [33 favorites]


It's mentioned in passing in other coverage, but one of the boy's favourite shows is Masha and the Bear.

I wonder if the bear was part of himself, taking care of him, the way the tiger keeps Pi alive in Life of Pi. Kids that age have such strength. He may have just up and decided to be Masha.
posted by Jilder at 10:51 PM on January 29, 2019 [53 favorites]


I had an imaginary Grizzly Bear named Bosley when I was little so I am all for this kid having a bear friend, imaginary or real. If it brought this kid comfort then yay.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 10:56 PM on January 29, 2019 [8 favorites]


His mind is very clever imagining up a warm snuggley bear to keep him company. It'd be weird if he'd been comforted by an imaginary fish.

And if it was a real bear, then thank you bear for not eating him.
posted by kitten magic at 11:31 PM on January 29, 2019 [11 favorites]


GUARDIAN BEAR
posted by clockzero at 11:34 PM on January 29, 2019 [9 favorites]


I want to believe this too, and I want to know whether anybody looked for bear hairs on him.
posted by jamjam at 11:48 PM on January 29, 2019 [11 favorites]


a real black bear would have run for its life after encountering a small child
posted by ryanrs at 12:07 AM on January 30, 2019 [8 favorites]


Kids say weird stuff like this all the time. He was probably remembering a past life in which he was saved by a bear.
posted by bleep at 12:39 AM on January 30, 2019 [22 favorites]


I hope he didn't decide to be Masha. She's a complete asshole in that show. We didn't scrub it from Netflix like we did for that utter dingus Pingu, but frankly that's only because my spouse showed it to the child enough times that it got locked in as a favorite before I ever saw it for myself.
posted by Scattercat at 12:45 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Do bears not hibernate in North Carolina?
posted by theory at 1:01 AM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


if my 3 year old was stuck in the bush for three days he'd come out telling you that Thomas the Tank Engine had looked after him.
posted by chiquitita at 1:36 AM on January 30, 2019 [43 favorites]




Duh, it’s his patronus. Go on, ask him what color it was.
posted by wenestvedt at 3:04 AM on January 30, 2019 [18 favorites]


Scattercat: We didn't scrub it from Netflix like we did for that utter dingus Pingu

The episode where Pingu drinks too many sodas and pisses everywhere is the reason Television was invented.

Bonus: On Amazon streaming, the splash screen for Pingu was actually a screencap from parody video Thingu (complete with Pingu holding a flamethrower) and nobody noticed.
posted by dr_dank at 3:32 AM on January 30, 2019 [16 favorites]


Somewhere Tim Burton is furiously writing a screenplay.
posted by zardoz at 3:42 AM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


This was Disney researching an upcoming film. The previous six kids they set loose in the forest were eaten.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:25 AM on January 30, 2019 [11 favorites]


No YOU'RE crying like a damn baby.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:43 AM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


I grew up adjacent to bears, but once we moved away from the regular watershed they didn't venture anywhere near our house. I nevertheless had a number of vivid conversations about my friend bear at that age.

Bears are smart, one coming across this little creature clearly in distress wouldn't consider it a threat, and it probably didn't smell or look like food.

Bears are just smart enough to either run the hell away from kids or paw at them to see if there's food inside. They aren't generally into intra-species hangouts (I mean, it's happened in captivity).

I'm on team this kid has never seen a real bear close up.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:48 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Quite obviously it was Beorn.
posted by valkane at 4:49 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm on team let's take this toddler's story at face value because the world is a trash fire and I need the visual of a little kid snuggled up with an actual caring bear more than the truth.
posted by nerdfish at 4:57 AM on January 30, 2019 [64 favorites]


Team Totoro
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 5:01 AM on January 30, 2019 [40 favorites]


C'mon. Obviously a friendly sasquatch, but a three yr old can be forgiven for not knowing the difference.

The bear is a screen memory planted by the Greys. If a few years, the kid will be revisted by the "bear" at night and will end up drawing a star map across their bedroom wall.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:05 AM on January 30, 2019 [8 favorites]


I don't play team sports. But:
Casey, who authorities said weighs 25 pounds and is 2 feet 4 inches tall, was stuck out in conditions so bad that volunteers were turned away from the search.
I am having a hard time believing he cuddled up with a bear, but I am having a hard time believing he didn't cuddle up with a bear and not freeze to death over two nights. Unless someone took him and then let him go?
On day three, a tip led the search team to a spot where they were able to hear the 3-year-old calling out for his mother, Hughes said. He was found 40 to 50 yards away.
A tip, presumably not phoned in by a bear, and suddenly there he is?
posted by pracowity at 5:06 AM on January 30, 2019 [22 favorites]


The writer G Willow Wilson tweeted about this yesterday morning and wondered aloud if it was a djinn. She also linked to a Facebook write up of other lost children protected by bears, like ClaudiaCenter’s grandmother.
posted by putzface_dickman at 5:07 AM on January 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


Isn't there a documented phenomenon of people lost in the wilderness being joined by a companion? Apparently they are invented by the mind but seem real at the time.
posted by Kiwi at 5:19 AM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


A tip, presumably not phoned in by a bear, and suddenly there he is?

God phoned in the tip, duh.
posted by thelonius at 5:23 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Obviously, it was a young bear, as it wasn't old enough to be shy of people, even a very small person like Little Casey.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:23 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


Somewhere Tim Burton is furiously writing a screenplay.

Or Werner Herzog.
posted by bifter at 5:26 AM on January 30, 2019 [22 favorites]


I'm on team this kid has never seen a real bear close up.

At least not an average bear.
posted by thelonius at 5:28 AM on January 30, 2019 [14 favorites]


There's a Disney story in thi... oh, yeah....
posted by TrishaU at 5:39 AM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


"Apparently they are invented by the mind but seem real at the time." Or after meeting spirits the mind invents a rational explanation...
posted by xarnop at 5:39 AM on January 30, 2019 [11 favorites]


Correction: the other studio.
posted by TrishaU at 5:39 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Has anyone located the pick-a-nick basket?
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:40 AM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


I lived in Craven County for a while growing up, yet somehow my Facebook feed isn't covered in "God Sent the Bear!" posts, which is the real miracle.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:41 AM on January 30, 2019 [17 favorites]


Came in all set to make a Life of Pi joke, but the kid's 3? Shit. So glad he's okay. Literally any explanation for the bear (imaginary friend, subconscious self projection as fierce, large animal, homeless woodsguy, actual friendly bear) is good by me.
posted by Mchelly at 5:46 AM on January 30, 2019 [16 favorites]


Somewhere Tim Burton is furiously writing a screenplay.

Tim Burton doesn't write screenplays. His dreadful screenwriter John August, however, is hoping this is his ticket out of movie jail.
posted by dobbs at 5:49 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Hypothermia makes people hallucinate. You’d think that if there really had been a bear, there would have been bear tracks, especially on wet ground.
posted by Autumnheart at 6:00 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


The most recent episode of The Anthropocene Reviewed is about Teddy Bears and Penalty Shootouts. Really can't recommend it highly enough. The Teddy Bears segment in particular was equal parts fascinating and heartbreaking.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:12 AM on January 30, 2019


"Apparently they are invented by the mind but seem real at the time." Or after meeting spirits the mind invents a rational explanation...

I mean...MOST explanations for things are made up by the mind post-facto. Including the mind's own explanations for why it does what it does. So the difference between "spirits" and "invented by the mind" is not as clear-cut as one might hope. Per Lon Duquette: "It's ALL in your head. You just have no idea how big your head is."
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:14 AM on January 30, 2019 [13 favorites]


Did anyone think to ask the kid if the bear ... you know ... in the woods?
posted by DigDoug at 6:15 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


Hypothermia makes people hallucinate. You’d think that if there really had been a bear, there would have been bear tracks, especially on wet ground.

Probably God erased them, to test our faith.
posted by thelonius at 6:16 AM on January 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


I assume there was a dramatic departure where the kid contemplated living in bear society forever but missed his mom too much.

Okay, okay. It's kind of The Emerald Forest, except with bears. Yeah, we can sell this.
posted by Naberius at 6:23 AM on January 30, 2019


No one's name checked David Paulides yet? Apparently being cared for by a "bear" is a feature of several disappearances of children in national parks and other wilderness areas. Subreddit on the topic.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 6:26 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


It seems to have started a national conversation about black bears, with experts weighing in on the boys story. Meanwhile, In Alaska, some poachers were convicted of killing a sleeping bear family on camera as they were being studied, and in Tennessee, bear deaths set a record, indicating a population increase. Links.
posted by Brian B. at 6:29 AM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


A tip, presumably not phoned in by a bear, and suddenly there he is?

God phoned in the tip, duh.


When you saw only one set of footprints in the snow, that is when I put on the bear suit.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:32 AM on January 30, 2019 [54 favorites]


Surely he was smarter than....
posted by Fizz at 6:32 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


When I was little there was a gorilla that would look in my bedroom window so I would have to jump from the doorway into my bed so he wouldn't see me. It was awful.
posted by waving at 6:44 AM on January 30, 2019 [10 favorites]


No one else is imaging a guy with a beard, bit of a gut, flannel shirt, taking pity on a poor dumb kid out in the woods and then leaving in silence once he knew rescue was at hand, like a hirsute Batman on the way to the Eagle?
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:46 AM on January 30, 2019 [21 favorites]


So if there wasn't a bear, how did the kid live? Checkmate atheists!
posted by cjorgensen at 6:47 AM on January 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


Well, *I* believe the kid. His truth doesn't hurt anyone, and makes the world a better place. I'm happy to join in.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:53 AM on January 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


Ooof. I have trouble with the lost kid stories, because I don't like to think about little kids being scared and alone. I am glad this kid had his probably-imaginary bear friend to keep him company!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:57 AM on January 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


Clearly, there was a bear-friend, but then the bear-friend realized that the kid would be better off with his family, and he told the kid that, but the kid wouldn't leave, so he had to be all, "Go away, I don't love you anymore!", even though it broke his heart right in two, and then HE made the call to the police, and watched from a hiding place as the kid was rescued and wiped away a single tear with his big bear paw.
posted by amarynth at 6:59 AM on January 30, 2019 [51 favorites]


This is a story that I want to be true.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:02 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


No one else is imaging a guy with a beard, bit of a gut, flannel shirt, taking pity on a poor dumb kid out in the woods and then leaving in silence once he knew rescue was at hand, like a hirsute Batman on the way to the Eagle?

There's an old Little House on the Prairie episode where Laura runs away into the woods becuase she feels guilty for thinking an evil thought and then her brother dies. She meets a kindly old gentleman who is basically a "god" like figure and who watches over her.

I'm mostly writing this to say that I know way too much about LHOTP episodes. Like I remember that time that Ma almost cut off her leg because she went a bit crazy with a fever...anyways. Bears are awesome.
posted by Fizz at 7:03 AM on January 30, 2019 [15 favorites]


On UrsiNet, there’s a bunch of bears arguing whether it’s ever safe to help human kids.
posted by Celsius1414 at 7:03 AM on January 30, 2019 [28 favorites]


It imagine it went something like this.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:09 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Isn't there a documented phenomenon of people lost in the wilderness being joined by a companion? Apparently they are invented by the mind but seem real at the time.

The Third Man.

Jezebel: I Don't Care What 'Experts' Say, a Bear Definitely Saved a Toddler From Dying in the Woods
posted by BungaDunga at 7:10 AM on January 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


Do bears not hibernate in North Carolina?

Hmm. Could he have snuggled up to a sleeping bear who did not wake? I imagine they are pretty warm.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:15 AM on January 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


Do bears not hibernate in North Carolina?

I was curious about this as well. The answer seems to be "yes, but at times such that you might wind up seeing them at any point in the year."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:23 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Baby bear do doot do do doot,
Baby bear do doot do do doot,
Baby bear do doot do do doot,
Baby bear!
posted by suetanvil at 7:34 AM on January 30, 2019 [9 favorites]


+1 team sleepy bear.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 7:45 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Do bears not hibernate in North Carolina?

I too looked this up to be sure. I live in the mountains in western NC and I see bears up and active in the winter. The wildlife experts say "yes, they do experience a type of hibernation just not the kind where everybody disappears for a couple months". If the weather is "warm" they will stay active as much as possible. This event happened on the coast, so I figured that bear activity would pretty much be year-round.

I'm on Team Believe.
posted by achrise at 7:51 AM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Well, it might have happened before. The Swedish children's song "Mors, lilla Olle" is said to be inspired by real events from the 1850s.

And, yes, it's about a boy in the woods who meet a bear and feeds it blueberries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mors_lilla_Olle
posted by Rabarberofficer at 7:52 AM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


So if there wasn't a bear, how did the kid live? Checkmate atheists!

Shouldn't that be "Checkmate anursists!"?

And, yes, it's about a boy in the woods who meet a bear and feeds it blueberries.

I wonder if that inspired Blueberries for Sal?
posted by TedW at 7:57 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


Celsius1414: On UrsiNet, there’s a bunch of bears arguing whether it’s ever safe to help human kids.

With a group of bear fundies insisting that BearGod sent the boy to save the poor bear that didn’t fatten up enough to survive the winter.
posted by dr_dank at 8:17 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


Per Rabarberofficer's link, in the real incident that's supposed to be the basis of the song, it was a mother bear with cubs. Typically not the uh, most chill of animals when babies are involved*, but as a human mother trying to raise a similarly-aged and wander-prone child in this trash fire of the world, I'm choosing to believe there was some kind of overflow mammal maternal hormone-ing. After all, late January is bear-cub-birthing season.


* A family member works professionally with black bears, and part of her job is that for SCIENCE, she sets out traps, where the bear climbs into a tube after stale Hostess cakes, and the door swings shut behind them. I asked her what happens if she gets a mother bear but not the cubs, and she said that depending on the age, the cubs usually just mill around complaining.

"What happens if you have a cub, and the mom is outside?"

"Uh, you let the cub go. Carefully. Very, very carefully."
posted by joyceanmachine at 8:31 AM on January 30, 2019 [15 favorites]


I was at a restaurant with my 3 year old this weekend and the server told me all about this story, including how she was sure the kid would never be found (actually she didn't mention the part about the friendly bear.) I don't read the news enough to have ever heard of this, and it made me wonder about the apparently universal human need to tell each other horror stories. I am honestly surprised and grateful that she didn't end the anecdote by invoking the salvific power of a christian god.

Why on earth would someone tell this story to a stranger? Why would she tell me, in the presence of my kid, who listens to everything and has really good comprehension, about horrible things happening to a child just her age? I look forward to talking it over with her, maybe forever, ugh.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:32 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


Oh wait.

Maybe a big and gentle gay man found him in the woods and saved him?

That's my headcanon sorry.
posted by nikaspark at 8:58 AM on January 30, 2019 [14 favorites]


some kind of overflow mammal maternal hormone-ing

This is actually theorized as the reason for some of the interspecies adoptions that have occasionally been observed in the wild.

In general, it's not entirely beyond belief that a bear, curious creatures that they are, might take an interest in a toddler or at least tolerate it; it's just way way way less likely than the toddler having an imaginary friend. I'm acquainted with a 5 year old who has had several imaginary brothers for years.
posted by tavella at 8:59 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


It was just a lady in a fur coat who really liked picnic baskets and hunny.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:05 AM on January 30, 2019 [6 favorites]


Three-year-olds make shit up all the time. I have daily experience with this.

I mean, I want to believe a friendly bear cuddled with this kid to keep him warm, but it's rather unlikely (though not impossible).
posted by asnider at 9:05 AM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]




I'm thinking of a research study to prove whether this is true, but it might not be entirely ethical.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:53 AM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


Fuck off, CNN.

Don't worry, they'll get so many spec writers when the respectable institute known as Buzzfeed shutters because they have too much journalistic integrity.
posted by lkc at 10:01 AM on January 30, 2019


Obviously, it was a young bear, as it wasn't old enough to be shy of people, even a very small person like Little Casey.

Kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:28 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


Isn't there a documented phenomenon of people lost in the wilderness being joined by a companion? Apparently they are invented by the mind but seem real at the time.

no, no, you're thinking of the staircases.
posted by mwhybark at 10:37 AM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


Do bears not hibernate in North Carolina?
posted by theory


Not really, no. They get lethargic and dozy during cold weather and may lie up for a few days or a week but they are active year-round here.

As to the accuracy of the boy's claims? Hmm, maybe? Black bears are not typically aggressive and don't see people as food. They usually avoid contact with people, though some bears in the Park become so habituated to people that they panhandle and have to be relocated to remoter areas. I think it would be instructive to ask the kid how the bear smelled. Wild bears smell VERY strongly but I think it's unlikely he would include that trait for an imaginary friend.

Source: I work in the camping department at REI and live adjacent to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I also had a bear in my back yard about a month ago, much to my little dog's consternation.
posted by workerant at 12:46 PM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


That bear posted the most disturbing "Can I eat this?" ask. I'm glad the mods deleted it.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:19 PM on January 30, 2019 [25 favorites]


Weighing in late but.... That was awfully long for a small child to be exposed to the elements. Not really believing he could have survived. So I'm going with: there's something fishy about that tip or maybe the bear story is real. Animals are surprising sometimes. (There is something fishy about that tip.)
posted by sjswitzer at 1:37 PM on January 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


Weirder still, it wasn't a single tip:

Hughes said his team was concerned about the "extreme cold" as temperatures dipped near freezing, but against all odds, they found him.

"It was folks giving us tips and leads," Hughes said. "We hit every one of them immediately and it paid off."

On day three, a tip led the search team to a spot where they were able to hear the 3-year-old calling out for his mother, Hughes said. He was found 40 to 50 yards away.


Hello? Yes, I was hiking, and saw a toddler, but kept going... Well, ma'am, he was in the company of this bear...
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:10 PM on January 30, 2019 [13 favorites]


Yeah who doesn't hear what they think is a lost child calling for their mom and at least try to look around for them?
posted by bleep at 2:13 PM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


Balloon Boy 2019?
posted by tommasz at 2:14 PM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


What does it say about me that I find the idea that he imagined the bear into enough of a being to help him survive more comforting than the idea that an actual bear looked after him, which just seems corny
posted by criticalbill at 2:22 PM on January 30, 2019 [4 favorites]


It's possible that someone saw footprints or heard what could be a child, but couldn't find them immediately and rather than waste more time trying to search solo called in reinforcements. There's definitely some odd bits about the story, but at least so far the local cops seem to think it looks like he was genuinely lost for the intervening period.
posted by tavella at 2:30 PM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


This whole non story sickens me

We had a child lost in the woods for three days, and the community was terrified, and what a wonderful outcome that he was found safe and alive. Literally the best outcome and for me personally the best news I heard all week, I cried when they found him

Then a throwaway comment by the child (if you read TFA you see he had been recently reading a book with his family about a bear that takes care) that the media and now metafilter apparently blows up because slow news day I guess.

Congratulations to the community, the volunteers, the police, the local who tipped off enforcement that ultimately found the child and I rejoice in this good outcome.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:44 PM on January 30, 2019 [5 favorites]


The article mentions that the kid was found in a "mess" of vines and thorns. It's speculation on my part, but significant parts of the woods along the Eastern seaboard are covered in invasive multiflora rose. It's particularly prevalent in woodland that used to be fields or was cut a decade or two back and allowed to grown unmanaged, and is basically a mess of vines and thorns, as mentioned in the article.

And that stuff is no joke. I've seen canes as thick as my thumb and ten feet tall, with thorns an inch long. A big stand is basically impenetrable without equipment and determination. But if you do shove your way through, there are sometimes little "mini rooms," bare patches of ground formed because the canes are tall, but not super-strong, so they bend down and get tangled with other canes and vines and make sort of almost rooms with canes above and bare ground below, because nothing grows underneath.

I can totally see how a scared three-year old would be low enough to the ground and desperate enough to push through to one. And how an adult-sized rescuer would hear him, but be unable to get any closer.

Bears or not, I'm glad the story had a happy ending.
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:48 PM on January 30, 2019 [7 favorites]


how the hell am I supposed to anthropomorphize invasive multiflora rose??
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:17 PM on January 30, 2019 [21 favorites]


They hate when you do that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:06 PM on January 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm on team 'Presence of a Bear wouldn't have helped the kid with the weather that much'. Think about it, it was 20 degrees and raining, unless the bear was actively trying to shelter and protect this kid, having a big fluffy bear around isn't going to be of much use. Fur also typically works better to keep the warm in, not radiate it out. So unless the bear gave this kid a literal bearhug for 2 days and also constructed a small tent and cooked him a nice meal, even if there was a bear, it didn't matter. Cold and wet is cold and wet even with an animal to snuggle.

If the kid really was lost in the woods, it's impressive but not unbelievable that the kid survived without major injury. Humans are remarkably durable, and there's something to a healthy kid in a bad situation where they don't seem to realize they should be dead. Adults are also smart enough to be afraid of cold weather in a way kids aren't always.
The story I prefer is that the kid fell back on unconscious survival mode and doesn't know how to explain it, so his mind made a bear that helped him out. The bear was in him all along.
posted by neonrev at 6:15 AM on January 31, 2019 [3 favorites]


The "tip" was from a woman walking her dogs who heard his cry and couldn't find him. She called for help because she couldn't find the kid herself.
posted by Megafly at 10:35 AM on January 31, 2019 [5 favorites]


how the hell am I supposed to anthropomorphize invasive multiflora rose??

Try putting glitter on its balls?
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:26 AM on January 31, 2019 [6 favorites]


The more I think about this the more lovely the idea of imagining a big soft toy type bear for comfort appeals to me. I think now when I'm stressed in meetings with my manager I am going to think of my imaginary plushy bear friend sitting next to me patting my arm gently.

The kid's mind knew what it was doing.
posted by kitten magic at 2:12 PM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]


Apparently posts about bears have this effect on me where I immediately have to stop and write a children’s book in the comment box. So here’s another one:

My friend the bear

Just the other day, not so far away from right here, there was a little boy who got lost in the woods. But he wasn’t scared, because a BEAR saved him! This really happened. Everybody was talking about it. A little boy, saved by a bear.

Now, some time after the boy was saved by a bear, everybody had moved on to other amazing stories about bears and what not. And they forgot about the boy who was saved by a bear.

But the boy never forgot, of course. He thought about his friend the bear every single day!

When the refrigerator door was left open and all the ice cream melted, that bear saved that little boy again.

When the little boy couldn’t find his jacket and they were running late, the bear once again saved the boy.

At the zoo, the bear saved the boy, wrestling an elephant before the boy could get trampled!

Stuck in a tree? Not with that bear around. And when the boy threw a ball up on the roof, who climbed up and saved that boy? That’s right, the bear.

Several times, that bear saved the boy by fixing the internet.

Saved from a math test? Boy plus bear equals A-plus.

(The bear also saved the boy by hacking the security cameras during a heist, but that was years and years later, and really none of our concern right now.)

But the boy most often appreciated when the bear would save him from another bath.
posted by bigbigdog at 10:09 PM on February 1, 2019 [3 favorites]


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