The story of the snake and the bears

I was working on a story about looking for my father's art, an obsession of mine since February 2008, when an essay about my mother's last summer inserted itself into the manuscript. Eventually, I rewrote the essay as a piece that could stand alone. Today it was published in a new literary pub called "The Leopard Seal." [Note, the new literary pub is now a defunct one. I've posted the story here.]
'The story of the snake and the bears' is the name of the piece; here are some of the photos I took that summer.... With grateful thanks to the kind men from the Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries.

This cute little guy broke into Mom's cabin. That night a very large bear tore the door off the house. I had to call the wildlife police....

...who came to the house, inspected the situation and brought a bear trap. On the left, biologist John Rohm; right, senior officer Mark DiLuigi, both from the Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries. Center: a bear trap.

Mark DiLuigi and John Rohm calibrating the peaches-and-lever end of the bear trap. Your bear, it lumbers into the back of the trap, grabs a bag of peaches and BAM! down comes the door.

The inside of the door bears witness to beasties' clawings and scrabblings.

The baby bear managed to trip the trap, but escaped only bruised and aggrieved. No other harm came to any bears at the cabin that summer.