A middle-aged to older adult female interacts with two adult black bears in a wooded area, likely during spring or summer.

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The day her dog brought home two bear cubs

Name: The day her dog brought home two bear cubs
Uploaded: 2016-11-18T00:00:00Z
Duration: 4 min 37 s
Description: Bonnie Hart was on her porch with her morning coffee when her black dog trotted past the pond with two little black shapes behind him. She took them for dogs, right up until they got close.

Bonnie Hart was on her porch with her morning coffee when her black dog trotted past the pond with two little black shapes behind him. She took them for dogs, right up until they got close. more

"Holy moly," she remembers thinking. "They're bears." She took the cubs in. Today Pebbles and Bam Bam are grown black bears with a combined weight of over 600 pounds, and Bonnie is a 62-year-old truck driver in Texas with a very unusual back yard.

Next door lives Anushka, a six-year-old white Bengal tiger who came to Bonnie as a gift when she was a cub. "I'm mama and she's baby," Bonnie says. She can hand-feed her and pet her. Anushka puts away 14 to 20 pounds of beef, pork and chicken a day.

A middle-aged to older adult female interacts with two adult black bears in a wooded area, likely during spring or summer. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Bonnie Hart was on her porch with her morning coffee when her black dog trotted past the pond with two little black shapes behind him.

Feeding everyone costs up to $1,500 a month. The bears are the picky ones. She has tried fish, even salmon, and they turn it down. They want berries, watermelon, cantaloupe, cookies, marshmallows and candy. "They will almost mug you for honey," she says.

They don't know tricks. They won't sit, lie down or stand up on a box on cue. But they have been around a lot of people, and Bonnie says you can get in there and love on them. Pebbles has a temper some days. She has slapped Bonnie with her claws and bitten at her a couple of times, "but nothing like attacked me."

Bonnie knows what she is living with. The pens are secure, there are tranquilizer guns on hand, and she carries a Taser when she is out there alone. "Nobody's going to get hurt," she says, "not unless you just climb into the pen and be stupid."

Bonnie lets her grandkids spend time with the animals too. One of them admits it is "a little bit crazy that she likes having tigers and bears," and also really cool. Bears are that grandchild's favorite animal. The tiger is a different matter. "I don't go in the tiger pen because, you know, it's a tiger."

Neighbors bring their families over to see the animals. Trying to take one away is another story. Tigers, bears, horses or dogs, Bonnie says, if you come on her property for her animals, "somebody's going to get shot." On a place with two bears and a tiger, the one to worry about might be Bonnie.

An older woman with short white hair and glasses holds a small black dog near a wire fence outdoors. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Bonnie, with a small black dog in her arms, makes it clear that every animal here stays.

She has cared for animals since she was a little girl, and she says it has changed her. "It makes you have responsibility," she says. "It makes you realize that life is precious and you should enjoy every moment of it."