I like to hang out in Central Park.  Its pretty much my big city “backyard”.  I love going on adventures in the park with my family and friends.  We go on play-dates, picnics, bird watching and to the zoo (my favorite).  In the summer you can even go to an amusement park right on top of the rink where you ice skate in the winter.

Just this past Sunday I asked my dad why there were no bears in Central Park.  Since Gus the Polar bear passed away (he used to live in the zoo), I have been wondering why bears don’t live in the park.  It’s big and the North Woods would be perfect camouflage for a bear.  My Dad said that we are lucky that bears don’t hang out in the park because we wouldn’t want to become “grizzly brunch.”

Imagine my surprise in school today when I heard that a bear cub was found dead in the park! Reports are that someone was probably being mean and dumped him there. I’m not buying it!  I always hear about all the bears that live across the river in New Jersey.  There are tons of bears upstate as well.  I can imagine the adorable cub sneaking out of his den upstate and frolicking carefree towards NYC.  I’d like to think the little guy decided that Central Park was a perfectly beautiful, fantastic place to be!

The tiny cub who came to visit our little zoo in the big city probably had big dreams like everyone who migrates to NYC!  I’ll always think of him living quietly behind the scenes in the forest within the greatest city there is.

I happen to know that the Central Park Zoo is re-doing Gus’ exhibit.  Two grizzly bears named Betty & Veronica will be moving in sometime in November.  I miss Gus and I always will.  He was my buddy but I am still excited to meet the “new girls.”