I knew as soon as I opened the door that I shouldn't have. But it was too late!

We have an enclosed dog run that measures about 80'x60' just off our  back door. It's actually more of a Jack Russell free-fire zone. Right  outside the door is the stairway that leads to a midway landing where  the stairs take a 90 degree turn and head down to the dog run. We've  lived here going on 9 years and never had a problem with wildlife in the dog run.

That all changed last night around 11:30pm.

Woody, our youngest rescue JRT - he's about 2.5 years old - was running  around like he had ants in his pants. Usually an indication he needs to go outside. None of the other Terriers were agitated so I didn't think anything of it. I went to the backdoor and decided to send the 3  youngest JRTs out one last time for the night.

I opened the door, 3 Terriers bolted out of it and down the stairs like  they were fired out of a rifle! And in that brief moment I knew I'd  have about as much luck getting them back in the house as I would have  getting a bullet back in a barrel after it's been fired. Three Terrier  bullets had just been launched. As wild as they can be their behavior  was noticably above the normal, out-of-control, multi-Terrier madness.

In the 7 nanoseconds it took the first of three to get to ground level I heard the first loud SNORT. I walked the four feet from the door to  the stairway gate and saw her. The sow was standing in the middle of  the dog run with three swirling, brown and white, four-legged tornados  circling about her. The two cubs were busy scampering their little,  furry butts skyward into the nearest tree.

Momma bear was in a real quandary. So was I. As a matter of fact, I'm  pretty sure we were sharing some of the same emotions at that particular moment. She was worried about her babies, I was worried about mine.  But I'm sure I had the better view from my vantage point. And HOLY  CRAP, what a sight. The dog run is well lit from a very bright yard  light mounted on the house. I watched as momma would turn to chase one  circling yard shark only to have the other two charge her from behind.  She'd turn to face that threat and the single dog would immediately  revert into "that big bear isn't chasing me any longer so I'm gonna kick it's a..!" mode. It was actually kind of amusing looking back...since  no one got hurt. Mom was growling, crying and snorting all at once.  And momma was really PO'd.

As brave as the yard sharks are, I think they realized there was a  slight chance the crazed momma bear might be a little too much to take  on. I was in full Terrier-retrieval mode, yelling at them from the  safety of the top of the stairs. But I faced a host of problems getting them to pay attention to me...not the least of which was they were  chasing a bear around the yard. Kind of like WWF meets Wild Kingdom.  It was loud, they were quite "into the moment" and in full ignore  mode...and one of them, Jack, is completely deaf. Fortunately, Woody is a little shy around loud voices. As he made a circuit around the yard  with momma bear attached to his butt he heard me yelling at him. He  made a hard right and dashed up the stairs to safety.

That's when I realized that maybe calling the dog that was actually  being chased by the bear was a tactical error. Apparently, the bear  didn't know I was at the top of the stairs because she came bounding up  after the dog. (Insert best Scooby Doo voice here) "Rah-row"! Of  course, as she made the landing...about 7 stairs away from me...she  realized that now I was in front of her, two yard sharks were behind  her, and her cubs were still down below. It's kinda funny watching two  JRTs in hot pursuit actually run right up a suddenly-stopping-bear's  behind! Momma saw me, reversed course and we had a big bear vs Terrier  rodeo right on the stairs.

Fortunately, the Terriers are a little more nimble than the bear and  were able to get down the stairs before momma got completely turned  around. The chase was on again but the dogs, I think, had maybe decided that Woody had the right idea. Even the deaf one responded to my  yelling and they eventually gave up the idea of bear-wrangling and came  upstairs and into the safety of the house...where they, of course,  regained their courage and began barking at the bear as if to say,  "You're lucky we had to come inside".

We were all content to watch as momma walked beneath the trees crying  for her babies. The little ones eventually backed down the tree where  momma gave them the once-over to ensure they were OK. The cubs looked  to be only 20-25 pounds...not much bigger than our largest Terrier,  Lola. They disappeared into the darkness towards the East side of the  dog run.

I couldn't see or hear anything. I waited about 10 minutes then crept  outside with a flashlight. The dog run was bear free. They must've  easily made it over the 5' chainlink fence and went wherever it is bears go after wrasslin' with Terriers.

.