Maybe he couldn’t resist the smell of the food at Shady Rest Fish & Chips? A black bear swam into Mill Creek Friday afternoon, washing up along Sutherland Avenue, right next to the restaurant. Brody Esovoloff spotted the hit and took a video. “I thought it was a dog swimming in the creek,” Brody said. “I went to the creek and saw the head and thought, oh, there’s a dog in here. Wait, it’s not a dog.” Brody says the bear came out of the water, walked up the river bank and then crossed the road right at the corner of Sutherland and Lindahl Sts. Continue down the alley behind Chandler St. and went to one of the back yards. Brody went home and knocked on the door to tell the homeowners about the bear, but no one was home. He hopes the bear is okay and that no one had a closer encounter than him. “I’ve never seen a bear down here before,” he adds. There have been several bear sightings in Kelowna this spring and summer, some quite close to busy areas, including one crossing Kane Road right in front of Glen Park Mall in late May. Another was reported in the Dilworth Mountain area around the same time.
