On the road, I noticed a bear tangled in a net, unable to free itself: I stopped and helped the bear, but then something unexpected happened 

Early this morning I was driving along an international highway, the one that runs beside the dark forest. Wolves and bears live in these places, so when I noticed a brown shape by the roadside, I wasn’t surprised at first.

My foot pressed the gas instinctively, but on a second glance I realized: the bear wasn’t just sitting there — it was caught in a large net. The ropes pulled tightly around its shoulders and paws, its fur was matted, and the animal was breathing heavily, growling as if asking for help.

Cars rushed past: some honked, some filmed with their phones, but no one stopped. My conscience pricked me so sharply that I turned on my hazard lights, set up a warning triangle, and took gloves and an emergency belt cutter from the trunk.

I approached slowly, repeating out loud the same words: “Easy… I’m here, buddy.” The bear jerked, growled, but didn’t attack. In its amber eyes I saw not anger, but desperate exhaustion.

The net cage was brutal: the knots were pulled impossibly tight. I cut through them one by one, careful not to nick the hide. Every second stretched: my car’s engine crackled, cool damp air drifted from the forest.

First I freed the right paw, then the shoulder. The bear growled softer, listening to the knife’s scrape, and endured. At last, the final cord gave way, and the net slipped off like a heavy cloak.

I froze. We stared at each other; he could have lunged — I knew it. But at that moment the bear did something that left me in shock  To be continued in the first comment 

But the animal only lifted its head slightly, as if memorizing my face, and, without breaking eye contact, backed into the forest. I exhaled, picked up the coiled net, and had just reached for my car door when the bushes rustled again.

The bear returned. My heart dropped, but then I saw: in its jaws it carried a tiny cub. The mother carefully placed the baby on the grass and stepped back.

The cub squeaked, pressed its nose against my boot, while the mother stood nearby, never taking her eyes off me. I knelt and ran my hand gently over the warm, soft back — the animal allowed it. It felt as if she was saying: “Look, this is who you saved me for.”

A minute later, the bear picked up her cub and melted into the shadow of the fir trees. I called the forestry service, reported the poacher’s trap, and only then drove on — with lightness in my chest and the sense that the forest itself had nodded to me in gratitude.