LIVERMORE — Jessica Tessier suspects nobody in the neighborhood near Pike Road got much sleep Sunday night. A bear visited her property.

Her guard donkey, Rosie, serves as the watch “dog” of the area. She made high-pitched noises that got Tessier’s five horses riled up. They were “talking” back and forth, she said.

Rosie, 8, and one horse were in one pasture. Four other horses were in a pasture across the road.

Tessier went outside to see what was getting Rosie worked up. The donkey was running all over the pasture, she said.

“I was looking for whatever spooked her,” she said, but couldn’t find anything.

She has gone after coyotes and dogs in the pasture in the past.

Tessier found some of her pumpkin plants on Monday morning moved away from the garden, located between the barn and house. Some pumpkins were ripped open, she said.

She also found some bear droppings in the garden.

“I could see where it went through the tall grass and my neighbor’s backyard,” she said.

She has seen bears in the area before, but not recently.

“Me, personally, I wasn’t worried,” Tessier said. “They are around. People seem to forget” there are bears in the area.

Bear-hunting season opened Monday.

Tessier got Rosie from a rescue service. The late veterinarian Dr. “Doc” Everard Cooper treated a tumor on her stomach, Tessier said.

Rosie does her job and does it well, she said.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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