Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Keep Out of Reach....PERIOD

WARNING!!!! This stuff is seriously harmful and I speak from personal experience. While we were in Island Park, Idaho for a family reunion we were warned about a bear that had been seen and heard around the area. To be safe my uncle had bought this spray to send with the adults as we went on various walks around the beautiful area. Well, my mom and dad, my 18month daughter, and I went on a walk the first night there. My aunt and uncle handed my dad this spray and off we went, a little nervous about meeting a bear face on.

Well, we wanted to be sure that we knew how it worked so my dad gave it a spray and we were glad that we weren't bears and we wouldn't have to breath the stuff. It shot out a big green cloud. So we continued on our walk switching my daughter between all of us. We returned to the lodge and my uncle was out on the patio so my dad said "Hey Rick!!! Watch this!" then he gave it a spray. He sprayed it away from us and so we walked wide behind him so we wouldn't get in the cloud. Almost instantly I could smell the green cloud and knew we were in trouble. Mia, my daughter, instantly rubbed her eyes and started screaming so I buried her face in my clothes as I ran through the cloud. Thank heavens we were able to get poison control on the phone and they told me that her and I needed to flush our eyes for 20-30 minutes. We had to strip our clothes and wash them immediatley. I have never been so scared. My poor dad felt awful and Mia thank heavens didn't breathe it in, it just got in her eyes. We are all ok and at the end of the reunion I was offered the can of bear spray and graciously denied it.

I am sure that this stuff works and I know what it will do to a bear but my advice to you is don't spray it unless you need it and make sure you are up wind from the bear.

1 comment:

Lillian J. Banks said...

That is soooo scary- 20- 30 min washing out eyes? How traumatic. Thank you sooo very much for the heads up and I am glad things are okay.