TRAVERSE CITY -- Hide the picnic baskets.
A small black bear briefly plodded through Traverse City's Slabtown neighborhood west of Division Street on Sunday evening before disappearing into a brushy area. The sighting thrilled residents.
"I've lived in this neighborhood for 15 years, and I've never dreamed of seeing a bear," said Cherie Bostwick, 41, who lives on Cherokee Street. "The first thing I thought was it got loose from a zoo; I just didn't think there would be a bear in town here."
Bostwick returned home from dinner with her young daughter at about 6 p.m. when she saw a black shape in the brush of a neighbor's yard.
"I kind of looked to the north down Cherokee through the trees and stuff, and I saw something dark walking this way," she said. "I said, 'Evelyn, it almost looks like a bear.'"
The bear appeared to be young, Bostwick said. It wandered through yards up and down Cherokee before eventually disappearing in an overgrown area behind a home. Residents gathered and snapped pictures.
"It just walked around kind of clumsy like a puppy would," Bostwick said. "It was just going on with its day."
Bostwick remains puzzled by the bear's visit.
"I don't know where the darn thing came from," she said.
Mike Kreft, a resident of Cherokee for 22 years, took several pictures. His children moved away from Traverse City, but he briefed them on the situation.
"It was great fun," he said. "I was able to e-mail the pictures to the kids and say 'See what you left?'"
Cherokee Street is a stone's throw from densely wooded Hickory Hills, and Kreft believes it's possible the bear emerged from there.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials couldn't be reached for comment late Monday.
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