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by Patricia Anne Toth-Smith (Author)
***USA BEST BOOK AWARD, E-LIT BRONZE MEDAL AWARD & LIVING NOW GOLD MEDAL WINNER.
"Have you ever been stalked by a bear? Pat Toth-Smith has and lives to tell her story. Her exploits, combined with the award-winning photography, create an experience to behold; reading that is not just for the passing of time." Suzanne Gattis, Pacific Book Review "Wild Among Us" is full of the hazardous encounters Pat, a young female photographer has faced in the field. Experiences of being cornered by two large bull moose, growled at by a grizzly mom protecting her cub, and a prolonged stare down by an over 1.000-pound grizzly bear on a remote trail in Alaska. Her encounters not only include the perils associated with stalking wildlife but also the sometimes-dangerous situations she navigates as she travels the highways alone with human predators. In the end it all seems worth it when we see the results of her labors, the stunning wildlife photos, the vivid observations of the animals' behavior and the hard-earned knowledge gleaned of the job.
Black Bear Chapter excerpt: "In this instance, the person following me was starting to scare me. He looked deranged. One advantage a woman has when she's driving a car on a major highway is access to the women's bathroom. I decided to avail myself of this advantage, and I quickly developed a plan to extricate myself from the danger I was facing. I stopped at a gas station with a large store and a fast food restaurant attached. Fortunately, it was a crowded station. I parked close to the entrance so I could make it to the bathroom without incident. But sure enough, the stalker pulled up next to me with his car door open. His eyes were wild, and he was yelling loudly, "Get into the car." I yelled, "Sure, I'm going to jump in the car with you! You're crazier than I thought."
Everything seemed to be a blur-I was as afraid as when I encountered my first bear. I then ran into the market and made a beeline to the bathroom. The time in the bathroom seemed to last forever. Ten minutes went by. I kept asking people coming in about "nutty guy" and if he was still out there. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes." I waited.
