Molly’s journey.
This picture of Molly was taken just shortly after her return to Canada following her trip across the ocean.
Submitted photo
I am not going to retreat to writing about bygone days for the rest of the winter, but I am going to let you know about one more animal from the 1990s. This memory was not inspired, as was the article last week, by bad driving conditions, but because of a conversation with Mike Macintosh (of Bear With Us) and the adventures we had, way back then, with a bear named Molly.
Molly came to us from Ireland. I had a phone call asking us if we had room for a badly abused bear. Our sanctuary was full, but Mike was working with us and he too, cared about bears. To him, bears were everything! The call was from Ireland, and it concerned the rescue of a circus bear.
She had spent her life, so far, as a dancing bear - trained by being put in a small cage, forced to stand on hot plates while music was being played, until the dance was an automatic, frantic reaction to the burning heat and the music.
Finally, when she rebelled, refusing to perform anymore, or not performing adequately, she was sold to a private menagerie. There, she was not well fed and cared for and finally, she was rescued by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and thus, the telephone call to us.
With all the necessary official permission, Molly came back to Canada. First she had to cross the Irish Channel by boat, which she did in a small cage in the hold of the boat.
Unfortunately, during the crossing, a fierce storm erupted and the boat was tossed in the waters for an entire day before it made it to England and to the plane which was to bring Molly across the stormy Atlantic to Canada.
With no more adventures, she was flown over and Mike met the plane at the airport.
Molly was a pretty bear. She was thin, her coat was sparse and dry and she did not seem to trust a single human being in all the world. Why would she?
Mike gave her a good home, quiet in a large enclosure, with good food and no demands on her, except that she eat, sleep and enjoy the gentle quiet of the Muskoka woods.
Molly had been born in 1986 and had lived her life as a circus bear. They told us that her origin had been somewhere in Canada, but that she had been taken from the wild illegally, and sold in Ireland. For eight years she was trained and endured the circus.
In December 1994, she made her second trip across the ocean.
When I was talking to Mike this week, I, of course, asked him about Molly. Most of our cubs are returned to the wild, where they belong, and we’re able to follow up with them for the next five years. But still, I wasn’t expecting him to reply, “Oh, Molly is doing very well.”
“You mean, she is still alive?” It all seemed so long, long ago. We had cared for dozens, and dozens of cubs since then.
“Oh, yes - and healthy!”
Born in January/February, which is when most bears in Canada are born - Molly is now 24 years old. Good for a bear with such a bad beginning.
She is fat and fit and glossy.
And right now, as are all sensible bears, she is spending the snowy cold days sound asleep.
(Audrey Tournay is the executive director at the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary and a regular contributor to the Beacon Star.)