It all started in early December, 2007 when a former Critter Care Intern, Jocelyn, who lives and works in Salmon Arm, heard about a sighting of a small black bear cub wondering around the banks of Shuswap Lake with no evidence of mommy anywhere around. She decided to check it out and see if it was okay. So she went down to the lake and started to walk along the beach.
Soon afterward she saw this critter struggle helplessly in the lake desperately trying to climb onto a log boom without any success in sight. There was no sign whatsoever of the mother bear. Jocelyn new that this cub was not going to make it and would soon drown, so without any hesitation Jocelyn jumped into the lake after it.
The cub new that Jocelyn was trying to help him and made no attempt to fight her. Jocelyn quickly took it back to the vets office where she works and it was checked over and dried off the best they could do. She called to Critter Care and was told to get it here as soon as possible. The next day she got into her car and in very bad weather drove all the way down to our center in Langley with him.
Our staff checked him over and discovered his undercoat was still very wet and he could develop pneumonia so proceeded to dry him with a hair dryer which he enjoyed very much. He weighed in at 24 pounds and was estimated to be 6 months old. They settled him in our triage centre in a kennel with a couple of hotties and bit of food.
We are happy to report that Boomer is thriving and is now in an outside enclosure with a room mate named Teddy who is about the same age and was admitted a month later. Both are becoming big boys and have bonded.
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