Melanie Wadleigh was sitting inside her parents’ home in Kennebunk on Wednesday morning, their basset hound puppy napping nearby, when her mother saw something out the window moving near the neighbor’s house on Mousam Ridge Road.
“At first she thought it might be a big dog, but then I looked out and said ‘Oh, my God, that’s a bear,’ ” Wadleigh said.
She had her phone nearby and started taking video – brief footage of an adult bear bounding along and sniffing the grass.
“I’ve lived here 23 years and I’ve never seen that,” she said.
Her mother called Kennebunk police, who sent an officer out. The bear was gone by then. A short time later, a state game warden called the house.
“They said they thought this bear might be the same one that has been spotted in town for the last couple years,” Wadleigh said.
Michael Fagerson, an administrative clerk with the Kennebunk Police Department, said they were aware of the bear sighting and encouraged residents to exercise common sense.
“If you have bird feeders, it might be a good idea to take them in for a while,” he said.
Fagerson said bear sightings in town are unusual but not unprecedented.
“It is Maine,” he said.
In most instances, when bears have been spotted, they have retreated to the woods by the time wardens arrive, Fagerson said.
“We don’t like to set out traps, especially in residential areas,” he said.
Wadleigh said she had been out back with her parents’ other dog, a golden retriever, on Wednesday morning shortly before the bear arrived.
“I’m glad we didn’t see it then. I’m not sure how (the dog) would have reacted,” she said.
Wadleigh said she won’t have to worry about the bear much longer. She and her boyfriend bought a house in Standish and are preparing to move.
Although, she said, there could be bears there, too.
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