Snow was falling in Kuterevo for close to two months and although it’s disappearing faster and faster by now, the volunteers are fast asleep in hibernation, which leaves the all-day work to our bears.

While the lazy humans can be heard snoring in their smelly dens, at eight in morning our fellow bear wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock (which plays “Bear, you can count on me!“ – enjoy live version at minute 2.10 of the movie Kuterevo Spirit!). The day seems to be a nice one; the sun is up, no clouds in sight. A trip to the balcony for the obligatory morning stretch helps to get the body going despite the hour.

The volunteers, sleeping and not wasting a thought on their physical appearance and their smell, leave the shower to only one guest, who uses it singing (“Bear, you can count on me!”) and dancing. Soon, nature calls and the fluffy companion grabs the latest version of a horrifying novel about hunting, killing, selling and even eating bears. The reader, noticeably shocked, but now surely awake, is almost forgetting what he went for the compost toilet for.

Inspired by these terrifying pictures and thoughts in his head, the king of the forest tries to get creative, takes the guitar and starts composing something, that – in his opinion – has never been there before (to me it sounds like a very bad version of “Bear, you can count on me!”). Apart from his ridiculously huge hands and his inability to actually look at his instrument, animals from the species Ursus arctos are notorious for a French, that is said to be able to get fresh milk bad in seconds. For that (and angry shouts of complaints from neighbours, chickens, roosters, cats and ducks alike), our musician gives up his efforts for now.

Instead, nature calls another time. In the opposite direction, however, so the artist becomes a cook for a short time.

If you take a closer look to the pot, you will notice that something is wrong with it… That’s right, the pot is empty. This and the terrible results of the Kuterevian picking up the guitar, has left renowned scientists in brain research at large carnivores reconsidering the broadly as “highly developed” accepted intelligence of the European brown bear.

No one, however, can neglect his physical strength, which is always needed in the refuge. The snow has to be cleaned away between the buildings of the metropolis-like location “Utočište”, and that appears to be a job just right for an animal mainly consisting of protecting fur and giant muscles. The task of painting timber for the inner fence of the new enclosure requires the help of one volunteer, who is not happy of being woken up in the middle of his well-deserved hibernation.

The work leaves the bear in such a way exhausted, that he tries to get himself something between his teeth on the traditional way: hunting. This, unfortunately, is as successful as playing instruments or cooking, so he has to find other options to find food.

While thinking about that topic, his friends arrived. Three of them, if you want exact numbers. With the same enormously large hands, but at least able to see a bit better. Together, they conspire an assault on the inhabitants of the place. One bear plans to act nice, speak human language and drink with the people. After getting their victims drunk, the animals want to take over their houses and live in prosperity until the end of their lives. The plan failed, but at least the bears managed to behave so funny that the house-owners offered them food for their home “Volonterska Postaja”.

Very happy and well-fed with local specialties, the bear falls into his bed, still wondering, where his friends went and if he should pick up the guitar again tomorrow. While sleeping, confusing dreams sneak into his head (probably produced by his immense happiness). Pictures of him, being deeply in love with a volunteer and the volunteer with him. Waking up, quite thirsty, he realizes that he was dreaming of reality.

Lukas