I chuckle when asked if I raised him since he was a cub. It’s their little way of convincing themselves, under the right circumstances, they too could domesticate a damn bear. I ran Indian Gauntlets. Survived their lashing switches, clubs and tomahawk gouges, escaped captivity, conquered the wilderness, trained hardened frontiersman, and fought back vicious Shawnee raids. Those were never under ‘convenient circumstances.’ The pain I endured and the failures I suffered gave natural birth to my unflinching will. My grit. My purpose.