It doesn’t seem possible that barely a week ago I was so close to these magnificent creatures — these Kodiak Brown Bears. This sleepy sow showed us that she was not to be feared as she napped, her eyes heavy when she did open them. She stretched and yawned and rolled around. When she turned to face us directly, then slumped down again and dropped her head to rest on her paws, I couldn’t help but think, “she’s adorable.” My first memory of a Kodiak Bear is from the Saddle and Sirloin Restaurant in Montgomery Village in Santa Rosa, California where I grew up. The owner was a big game hunter and his restaurant was filled with the mounted treasures he had taken over the years. I remember being very wary of the huge Kodiak Bear that was standing on its two hind legs, forearms stretched out menacingly. I was about five or six when I first saw that bear and it made quite an impression on me. So much so that a few years later, at about age 9, when we were camping in the Sierras, my mother woke me up to tell me she thought there was a bear outside our tent. Of course the only bear I’d ever seen was the massive Kodiak Bear at the Saddle and Sirloin and they are definitely not in California but that is what I thought I saw in every shadow as I peered through the screened window covering of the tent. As it turned out, she heard deer outside our tent, not bears. When I first visited Kodiak to photograph these bears three years ago, I was glad to discover that they are not the menace that my old memories had conjured. I discovered that these bears are more like grazing cattle, teddy bears, and lazy dogs. The hour we spent with this bear were definitely in the lazy dog category.