The Thanksgiving Day Bear By Travis Anderson Somerset County WCO OR MOST PEOPLE Thanksgiving Day is a holiday to sleep in, eat a large meal and lie around watching football. To a WCO, Thanksgiving means there will be a lot of people coming to hunt small game and visiting camp to scout for deer. In 2005, I chose to work a few hours on Thanksgiving morning, checking small game hunters before filling my belly with food. It was a beautiful day. There was snow on the ground and snow showers were forecasted for the afternoon. I was relieved that the bear season was over and looked forward to catching up on things before deer season. After patrolling for a few hours in the morning and checking several groups of hunters, I received a call from Deputy Ira “Bunk” Harding. Deputy Harding told me a local resident called him and wanted to know how to go about checking a bear he had shot the day before (By law, bears must be checked within 24 hours after harvesting). I told Deputy Harding to call the person back and have him meet me at a local restaurant in Berlin and I would check the bear. I arrived at the restaurant and found Deputy Harding and Cletus (the hunter) standing at the back of Cletus’s pickup. I walked over and introduced myself, and then looked in the bed of the truck and GAME NEWS