This true story was told by my father during one hospital visiting hour to my Mother on one of her many sojourns ther for treatment for her cancers. She , it has to be admitted , was not very pleased as her stitches and wound hurt !!
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A long, long time ago a rumour reached the Bear Keepers at London Zoo that in the depths of the forests of Siberia were some rather rare bears - they were pink !!
Now the Zoo had brown bears - but they were rather common and black bears and they were really very common so they decided that they would have to get a breeding pair of the Siberian Pink Bears.
Investigations were carried out and they discovered that the bears favourite snacks were Fruit cake - oh not your ordinary common or garden fruit cake that every one made - but the very superior variety that at that time was only available from Joe E Lyons Corner Houses in London and was supplied in tins.
So the brave volunteers who were to bring back the Pink Bears , went and got a couple of tins of fruit cake and hopped on a train and went down to the Channel. There they crossed and got the train to Paris, and transferred trains again and eventually after several days finally got on the trans Siberian Train and went to the end of the Line.
There they got off and got a bus , as far as it would go, and then a taxi as far as it would go, and then a Troika as far as it would go and then it was shanks�s pony and eventually their own two feet.
But finally they did get to the part of the woods where the Pink Bears lived.
They set up camp and organised the Bear traps.
And they waited and waited and waited and eventually one evening caught a glimpse of the Bear they had been looking for . It was indeed pink - a beautiful shade of Strawberry pink, most unusual and they realised they really had to be careful and get one to bring back to London Zoo.
So they thought about it and made a large bear pit , covered it with leaves and put some fruitcake in the middle of the cover and they sat back and waited in joyful anticipation.
But oh dear - that evening the Bear came and sniffed and sniffed and turned his nose up in disgust and went away.
As you can imagine the keepers were not very pleased , but realised that they would have to get a better fruit cake as they really had to get this bear.
So back to London they went , Shanks� pony , troika, taxi, bus, various trains and finally got back to London. The head keeper at the Zoo then went to Harrods Food Hall and asked them to get him a most superior cake - and in due time this arrived. So off went the Keepers - trains , bus, taxi, Troika, and shank�s pony and they got back to the clearing in the woods where they had found this bear.
Once more they baited the trap and once more the bear arrived and very carefully he managed to get the cake and ate it !! Well at least they knew it was a good cake.
So once more they returned to London and this time they got 2 cakes from Fortnum and Mason - they smelt fantastic - no bear would be able to resist them - but this time they were very clever and had got a cable embedded in the cake so as the bear nibbled at it they would be able to draw the cake nearer to them and then drop a net over the bear.
so off they went back again - all the trains, buses , troikas , shanks� pony business as before and once more got to the clearing in the forest.
This time they laid out the bait and ran the cable under some leaves , across the pit. They heard some wonderful sniffing noises and realised that he was coming again - and the sniffs got louder and louder and they could see this beautiful strawberry pink bear obviously enjoying the wonderful alcoholic aroma coming from this very expensive cake . He sniffed and sniffed and licked his lips and eventually put one paw on the cake and then licked his paw ! �Ah �thought the keepers - �this will work this time�, so they pulled the cake a bit nearer to the pit. Well the bear was a wee bittie annoyed by this and put his paw on the cake again - and then licked it. so the cake was moved a bit nearer.
By this time the bear was not very pleased so he tried a wee nibble and a big smile spread over his face. I kid you not - he smiled !
So they carried on in this way and the bear came nearer and nearer.
But he was also getting a leetle irritated by this time - so they opened the second tin and put it�s cake out as well. Hmm the bear looked and drooled and went for it - so they swiftly pulled the cable to them ready to drop the net over him.
The bear was NOT pleased - he roared and got really cross and obviously did not care who knew it - he wanted that cake and it kept moving.
They moved it one more time and the bear was thoroughly mad by now - he was in a TERRIBLE RAGE and he roared and roared and in his annoyance he turned black with rage.
And Black bears are really far too common.
