Public Relations and Advertising
Department
Windsor Station Montreal Que. H3C 3E4
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Volume
7 Number 14
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Nov. 2,
1977
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Cat Gives Bears a Tough
Time
By Nicholas Morant
Folks - meet
the Rogers Camp Bearcat!
Now before we go any further into this feline phenomenon, editors of CP Rail News
questioned me sternly and demanded to know how much more of this wild stuff readers
could be expected to stomach? There have been ghost trains, mysterious bodies pulling
communication cords, not to mention one about a little old lady who smokes cigars and
chases bears with a broom.
So I have Dave Williams, of Revelstoke, to thank not only for this story and the
photo of "Rags" but for a list of nearly a dozen witnesses to the madcap
antics of this aggressive pussycat.
Sometime ago, CP Rail News published a short feature on Rogers (B.C.) Pusher Camp
where nine or ten pusher diesels are maintained, with resident crews living in
portable homes with restaurant facilities provided. These crews assist the heavy
freights up the steep grade leading to the Connaught Tunnel.
"Rags", sometimes known as "Mommy" for obvious reasons, joined the
Rogers Camp two years ago and her progeny now populate other camps along the line,
handling considerable traffic themselves as they swiftly dispatch pilfering rodents.
Mommy, when she is caring for a new litter of kittens, tends to get somewhat skittish
if bears start nosing around camp and that's putting it mildly.
Williams has an eye witness account of what usually happens if Mommy decides to move
one of these black intruders on his way. It is a terrifying affair. "At sight of
the bear she bristles out her fur to twice normal size. She snarls a number of
warnings and then takes a running leap upon the back of the bear, just forward of his
shoulders, rodeo rides him, literally, off the property and back into the remote
areas of the surrounding forest". (There's more, you may wish to give your kids
parental guidance here because what follows is violence for cat's sakes.)
Let Williams continue: "She clamps her sharp teeth into the bear's scalp,
spurring his neck, with her rear claws spinning like buzz saws. She stabs at his ears
with her front claws, cowboy style as it were, steering the panicked bruin among
pusher engines, parked vehicles, and sectionmen running for their lives.
"Whilst all this is going on, she rotates her tail like a helicopter, apparently
developing aerodynamic thrust. The resulting uproar can be compared to a set of
bagpipes going through a clothes dryer"!
Fooling aside, the cat does indeed attack bears and has done so on a number of
occasions in just the manner described here.
Witnesses did you say? Camp Manager Keith Parson, Cooks, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Adam,
Section Foreman Steve Redly and one of his men, Randy Murphy. Then there's pusher
engineman Rex Jones, Bob Wilford, and Bob Bruce, east end hogger Kip Holloway, and
Pearse Gilmour, signal maintainer, and his helper Derrik Lane.
And then, of course, there's a couple of disgruntled bears!
This CP Rail News article is
copyright 1977 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their
permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company.
©
2005 William C. Slim
http://www.okthepk.ca
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