One day a young 9 year old boy named Austin Roehl decided to take a walk into the forest to look for unusual animals. He was a boy who cared for animals, especially little animals. He didn't like it much when he saw baby animals left to die with no parents.

While taking his weekly walk he saw the same old animals over and over again. One day though he saw a baby animal that he had never seen before. He had heard stories from people about what bears looked like but he had never seen one. This little baby had the same description as a bear cub: heavy, short when walking on his hind legs and front legs, tall when he stands up to get something. Austin was very amused to finally see how a baby bear really looked. But something also looked wrong about this bear. He didn't look exactly like a bear at all. This little bear was looking for food and crying very loud like he was looking for his mother. Austin really wanted to go up to the bear cub and pet it, but he remembered what his father used to tell him about not going up to a bear cub just in case his mother might be lurking around the corner. So Austin and the bear cub just looked at each other in suspense, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.

All of a sudden the cub talked to him. He said, "Why are you so scared of me?" Austin replied, "I ain't, but ain't your mom around the corner waiting to kill me so you guys can eat me for dinner?" When Austin asked that question the cub started to cry. "My mother was killed a day ago by a man just playing around trying to look big and all for his girlfriend! So you don't say bad things about my mother!" he said.

"So you're an orphan. Do you want to be my pet? If you will be my pet I will give you a name, a good place to stay and all the food you want to eat." All the cub could do was nod his head up and down. "Well, okay, your name will be, hey wait a minute, are you a boy cub or a girl cub?"

The cub answered, "I am a boy cub, of course!"

"Okay then, you didn't have to get mad at all! Your name will be Sterling, if that's okay with you? It's okay with me."

That day Sterling and Austin got to know each other very well. They talked, played games and all the other things that friends do to get to know each other. Finally, when it was getting late Austin remembered his mother told him to be home in time for dinner, and he and Sterling started walking towards home!

When they got there Austin told Sterling to wait outside while he went in and got his parents to tell them the great news. When he got inside the house his mother asked him what new animals he had seen. He didn't want to answer that question so he asked her where his dad was? His mother said in the living room watching T.V. When Austin went to get his dad, he said, "Come on dad, I have something to show you and mom outside, hurry up, this can't wait forever."

His parents didn't really want to see what he brought home, so they walked out very sluggishly. And when his father, Jeff, saw what Austin had brought home he told his wife to get back into the house. He then ran over to his son and grabbed him by the arm. Austin started screaming, and Sterling got very mad at his dad's reaction and he started to charge Jeff. Jeff got really scared and left his son alone. Austin then ran up to Sterling and gave him a really big hug to try to calm him down. He said, "My dad was only trying to protect me from you. He thinks that bears are mean and like to eat people." Sterling understood and licked Austin's face and started playing around. When Jeff saw what was going on, he started to laugh. Then he got enough courage up to go outside and have fun with his son and the bear cub.

As the years passed, Austin and Sterling became very close, telling each other everything they had done and everything they heard from other people. Austin fell in love with a girl named Melinda and got married, and Sterling continued to be their pet. Soon though the day would come for Sterling also to fall in love with another bear just like himself. But until that day came they all would live happily together.

By LaVerne Manumik