For my final column of 2023, I decided to go light on informative educational content about the natural world and heavy on matters of the heart. 

Very few of us have time during the holiday season to delve into anything deeply and in my last column, I had already used the green and red lichen pictures that would have been a perfect fit for a column set to come out just before Christmas. So I offer the following instead, while beseeching readers to bear with me in considering two seemingly unrelated things—visits from a backyard bruin and a Labrador retriever-rottie mixed breed named Swizzle. 

The Swizz, as we like to call him, belongs to two beloved friends who came to visit while bear season was underway in Pennsylvania. One look at his big burly body covered in shiny black fur made it clear he should not go cavorting through the wilds of the Upper Delaware River region until the hunt was over. 

Not that the Swizz ever cavorts much, anyway. He’s too busy being basically and essentially and simply happy—soaking up rubbies and giving back doggie doses of joy and love.

He’s also irresistibly huggable. It’s pretty impossible not to feel better after spending a little time with the Swizz, stroking his velvety ears, wrapping your arms around his warm barrel-body, gazing into his soulful eyes as he smiles (he really does smile!). 

This is why I’m advocating for the Swizz to be officially recognized as the embodiment of the Oxford Word of the Year 2023. In case you haven’t heard, that word is “rizz,” short for charisma, or “someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm or attractiveness.” 

Without a doubt—the Swizz has rizz.

Happily, the Swizz survived bear season and will continue to brighten the lives of everyone who experiences his Swizzie rizz. During this season of gift-giving, please remember your favorite animal shelters, where loveable beings like the Swizz are waiting to be taken home for good—yours and theirs. 

As for the bears, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, last year during the 2022 seasons, hunters harvested 3,170 bears, down from 3,621 in 2021, but still ranking the harvest as the 14th largest. The highest ever bear season came in 2019, when hunters harvested 4,653. 

Results of the 2023 bear season in our region will soon be available. Visit www.pgc.pa.gov or dec.ny.gov to learn more.

I’ll admit I wasn’t certain where this column was headed when I started into it. Sometimes you just have to let the wander take you where it will. (More on that when I draft my first column in 2024.) For now, it bears repeating how grateful I remain to our devoted readers and subscribers. Thank you for helping to keep community newspapers alive. (Subscriptions make great year-long gifts!). Happy Holidays!