Mark Hough was all set to spend his afternoon last Friday relaxing with a margarita in the backyard of his home in Altadena, California, not far from Los Angeles. But a wild brown bear had other ideas.
As Hough sat down with his drink, he heard a rustling in the bushes and the sound of twigs snapping that slowly grew louder. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a wild animal invading his property.
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“I got up, looked over in the bushes, and lo and behold there’s a bear climbing up over my fence,” Hough explains.
Without much hesitation, Hough retreated inside his house while the bear made himself at home in the backyard for the next few hours. At one point, Hough spotted the bear relaxing in his outdoor hot tub.
“He was having a grand old time,” says Hough, who took video of the bear enjoying itself in the water.
The bear had fun in the water for a few minutes. But a hot tub on a summer day in Southern California isn’t the best idea for an animal with thick fur.
After leaving the hot tub, the bear continued to wander around Hough’s yard. Hough says the bear “popped out of the bushes, walked right over to the margarita, knocked it over, and lapped it.”
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One would assume that a bear weighs enough to have a high tolerance for alcohol. Nevertheless, roughly an hour later, Hough spotted the bear asleep in a tree.
“So he had his margarita, he had his Jacuzzi, and now he’s ready for an hour nap,” joked Hough.
Following the nap, Hough says the bear moved out of his yard and down the street. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office said it received six calls on Friday about bear sightings, but it’s unclear if those sightings were for the same bear in Hough’s backyard.
When his backyard was finally a bear-free zone, Hough was finally able to sit outside and relax. He ended up drinking two margaritas to make up for the one slurped up by the bear.