Corbin girl spots bear in backyard

Ten-year-old Lyndsie Johnson said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing as a black bear attempted to take her pet dog out of her family’s backyard in Corbin Monday.
Johnson, who lives on Gordon Hill Pike just across from Dantley Drive, said she saw the bear a little before 1:00 p.m. near a shed behind an above ground pool. Sampson, her Boston Terrier dog, was clenched in its teeth.
“I was crying because I love that dog,” she said. “It just had it and it was walking … just walking with it in its mouth. It never saw me, but I saw it. I ran into the house and I was screaming.”
Johnson said she was on her grandmother’s front porch before deciding to investigate why the dogs were barking. The bear apparently dropped the dog unharmed after the family’s other dog, a more-powerful Boxer named Bubba, gave chase and scared it back into thick nearby woods.
Johnson told her grandmother, who then informed the girl’s parents. They called 911 dispatchers who in turn sent workers from the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to investigate.
Chris Johnson, Lyndsie’s father, said authorities planned to return with a trap in order to capture the bear and relocate it.
“They went down in the woods and went through it,” he said. “They said they could see where something had been there. We see a lot of wildlife here. I’ve seen grey foxes and raccoons and deer and stuff like that in our backyard, but never a bear. That’s a new one.”
Chris Johnson said his daughter was “really freaked out” by the incident, but didn’t likely mistake it for some other animal. She said it was a little taller than waist-high on all four legs and had brown and black hair.
“I’ve seen them before. I know what they look it. It was definitely a bear.”
Whitley County Sheriff Lawrence Hodge, who responded to the call along with Corbin Police Officer Steve Douglas and Kentucky State Police Trooper Mike Witt, said bears aren’t often spotted in Whitley County, but their presence isn’t surprising. He said as a Williamsburg Police Officer he saw a bear near a dumpster at the old B.J’s Restaurant.
“I just kind of followed it down the highway and it went over to Riverside Church of God and went straight up the bank,” Hodge said. “It stood up in front of my headlights from me aggravating it.”
In recent weeks, people have spotted black bears in London, Lily and last week in the Keavy community of Whitley County.
Chris Johnson said the woods behind his home connect with the Daniel Boone National Forest.
“Why not a bear?” he said. “We’ve had everything else. In a way, we are kind of fortunate to see that kind of stuff here.”